Rod Serling's Daughters Share Their FavoriteTwilight Zone Episodes — And The Creepy Prop They Loved (Exclusive)

• The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling would have turned 100 on December 25, 2024
• To mark the anniversary, Rod’s daughters, Jodi and Anne, look back at some of their most significant episodes from the show
• “It was important to him to entertain and motivate his audience, which created lasting thoughts and relevant lessons that we will all carry with us forever,” says Jodi.

Rod Serling was best known as the creator and narrator of the science fiction anthology series, The Twilight Zone. When he died of a heart attack in 1975 at the age of 50, he left behind a lasting legacy — for fans and future screenwriters, but also for his two daughters, Anne and Jodi. Now, on Rod’s 100th birthday, the sisters are looking back on the memory of their father – as well as The Twilight Zone the episodes that had the most impact on them. Both daughters say they didn’t watch The Twilight Zone regularly when they were kids, but they came to appreciate the series, which ran from 1959 to 1964 on CBS, after their father’s death. he used some dialogue that was a routine that my father and I had,” Anne, author of the memoir As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serlingspeak to PEOPLE. The season 5 episode follows a father who learns that his son has been wounded in the Vietnam War.

Jack Klugman in the Twilight Zone episode “In Praise of Pip”.

CBS via Getty

“‘Who is your best friend? Dad, you are.’ And that was exactly that incredible moment where I literally found my father The Twilight Zone“, she says.

The Twilight Zone‘with Rod Serling would have turned 100 this Christmas: Remembering an icon and his legacy

Another standout episode, notes Anne, is season three’s “The Dummy,” about a ventriloquist who believes his dummy is alive. Although the episode is the stuff of nightmares, Anne says her father brought the doll home – and the children fell in love with it.

Never miss a story — subscribe to PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date with the best PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to interesting human interest stories. “We’d sit it down at the dinner table and fight over who got to go to bed with it,” says Anne. “And then my dad had to take it back to the studio. Some time later, I watched the episode and it was terrifying.”

Cliff Robertson in ‘The Twilight Zone’ episode ‘The Dummy’.

CBS via Getty

One of the most beloved — and emotional — episodes of the show is season one’s “Walking Distance,” about a man who travels through time to his hometown, only to find himself stuck in the time period of his childhood. While offering a critique of the trappings of nostalgia, the man can also communicate with his dead parents — a plot point that Rod’s daughters say was crucial for him, as a World War II veteran. “When he was at war, he couldn’t make it home to his hometown of Binghamton [N.Y.]”, says Jodi. “His father died [while he was deployed] so he never saw his father again”.

“Walking distance it resembled the pain he had and the longing to see his father again,” she adds. “The story is so poignant and poignant and tearful, but a lot of his lyrics were cathartic for him and a way to deal with some of the losses in his life. These are the stories that really touched the family.” Anne and Jodi also recognize this The Twilight Zone was ahead of his time in many ways. Serling famously developed the series after a teledrama he wrote in response to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till was censored by the network. Many The Twilight Zone episodes, such as “Monsters Come to Maple Street,” touched on real-life issues.

Gig Young in the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode ‘Walking Distance’.

CBS via Getty

“It was important to him to entertain and motivate his audience, which created lasting thoughts and relevant lessons that we will all carry forever, [about] issues like racism and prejudice and hate and fear and bigotry,” says Jodi. She adds that her father’s “deep concern” for the younger generation also played a role in his work outside of television. “That’s why he started teaching, but all his stories were parts of him,” she says. “In every story he wrote there was something personal about him.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now! Both Anne and Jodi also want to pay tribute to the person their father was off-screen. “My dad was a kind, generous and bright person who I miss every day,” says Anne. “And after 50 years that it’s still so present, that loss, I know how incredibly happy I was.” “Time goes by so fast, but my father’s torch never goes out,” says Jodi. “I mean, his memory, his personality, his messages of society and his work just resonate today, and they just never go away.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education