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GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 25 Twilight Zone, if not the Zone itself — that is, if the Zone could be said to have a single, geographic location. SERLING AS ANTIOCH STUDENT From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 23, 1949: “ ANTIOCH WINNER . Rod Serling, student at Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, O., who just won a nation-wide radio script con- test, writes an original radio play every week on the kitchen table of a campus trailer, while his wife and fellow Antioch College student, Carol, hits the textbooks or keeps the household running. Each week, too, he casts his play, directs it, plans music and sound effects for it and produces it over a Springfield radio station. In between times he studies, too. His wife looks over his script.” Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day, 1924 and raised in upstate New York. After graduating from high school, he joined the Army; he served as a paratrooper in New Guinea and the Philip - pines from 1944 until 1946. He’d been accepted to Antioch College during high school; he applied because his brother had gone there. “I just wanted a good school to get practical experience. I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do,” he said in a 1963 WYSO interview. Serline entered Antioch in the fall of 1946. He’d written a bit before, but had no thoughts of doing it for a living. Instead, he started out as a physical education major, because he liked working with kids. “But as is so often the case, I found that little hole, that little sense of hunger, that all is not right, something is left out,” he said. “And then came writing.” He got interested in creative writing and radio, eventually changing his major to litera - ture. He was manager of the Antioch Broadcasting System’s radio workshop, and wrote, directed, produced and scored weekly shows for a Springfield station. He won a prize for a regional original radio script contest and then won second prize (and $500) in a national radio contest. He sold several radio scripts and one for televi- sion before graduating. SERLING IN THE “REAL”, NON-ANTIOCH WORLD After graduating in 1950, Serling and his wife moved to Cincinnati, where he worked for a radio station and wrote freelance. This proved too taxing, so he decided to “drop my regular job for 12 months. Then if I couldn’t make enough to exist, I’d give up [writing].” Well, make it he did. Serling made a living writing scripts for television, mostly dramas for live anthology shows. Throughout his life-long career as a writer and then producer, Serling’s Antiochian ideals were unwavering and unabashed. He felt strongly that writers should “menace the public conscience” and that radio, television and film ought to be “vehicles of social criti - cism.” He said, “The singular evil of our time is prejudice,” and that he tried to address this in all of his work. Politically conscious as he was, his scripts dealt frankly with social issues and were often censored by corporate sponsors, who didn’t want to be associated with anything that might be offensive — water - ing down plots, even changing a character’s race or religion. Corporate sponsorship and censorship became a thorn in Serling’s side. “I think it is criminal that we are not permitted to make dra - matic note of social evils that exist, of controversial themes as they are inherent in our society,” he said. Like any good critical think - ing Antiochian, though, he found a creative way around the problem. He found that in writing science fiction and fantasy, he could be more parabolic, more metaphoric, and that his scripts were approved more readily. In the words of his wife, “sponsors basically just didn’t understand what he was doing.” And so, in 1959, “The Twilight Zone” was born. This show was a half-hour anthol- ogy drama taking place in various supernatural, futuristic, or dystopian worlds. It allowed Serling and other writers to tackle social issues in well- concealed but nonetheless effective parable form. It was a massive, seminal success. Despite this victory-of- sorts, after a few years Serling needed a break from show business. He was over-worked, disillusioned and weary from working within the system he found so flawed. “I’m no longer an angry man,” he told the Dayton Journal Herald. “Now I’m only a petulant aging man. I’m not exactly a meek conformist. I’m just a tired non-conformist.” So where’s a “petulant aging man” to go to recharge? Why, back to Antioch, of course! His decision to return was fueled by his “tremendous feeling for Antioch and for what it does, and I’ve always wanted to be more a part of it,” he told the Dayton Daily News. SERLING AS ANTIOCH PROFESSOR Serling accepted a position as writer-in-residence and part-time teacher at Antioch College. He lived, taught, wrote and hung out with his family here in Yellow Springs for five months in 1962–63. “It will be a respite, but that’s not to say it’ll be sack-time. I’ve been here before, remember, and I know there’s not much sack-time around Antioch,” he said. He taught classes in writing and drama, and an adult class on the “social and historical implications of the media.” A Distinctive Country Inn Hotel “ A Visual Masterpiece” – Cincinnati Enquirer Recommended by OHIO Magazine and Fodor’s Travel Guide • Deluxe Continental Breakfast • Completely Smoke-Free Facility • Deluxe Jacuzzi Suites • Custom Crafted Amish Mattresses • Historical Displays Just 10 minutes from Yellow Springs! 10 S. Main Street (Rt. 72) Cedarville, Ohio 937-766-3000 www.hearthstoneinn.com