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Quote by Rod Serling

“The major difference frequently is in time. The motion picture, for example, gives you considerably more freedom of expression than does the confined thirty-minute television show. But in essence, they're not that dissimilar.”

Quote by Rod Serling

Author

Rod Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, producer, and television pioneer best known for creating the iconic anthology series The Twilight Zone. Born in Syracuse, New York, he served in the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division during World War II, an experience that deeply influenced his writing. After the war, he studied at Antioch College and began his career in television. Serling's work often explored social issues, human nature, and morality through science fiction and fantasy. He won six Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. His legacy includes The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and numerous teleplays. He died of a heart attack in 1975, but his influence on television storytelling remains profound. more

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“Infinitely more taboos, on television.”

Television Taboo

Author:Rod Serling

“You could do much more in movies than you could on TV, and even movies were heavily censored. But in television, the areas of timorousness were fairly laid out. Race relations. Sex. Politics. There was a whole conglomeration of taboo themes. And even to date, though television has become a much freer medium, it's still far less free, far less creatively untrammeled than are the movies. They're infinitely more adult in that respect.”

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“I have compromised down the line. I've disliked it intensely in the old days when you were trying to talk race relations and they would not allow you to talk about the legitimacies of race relations. In the old days, you didn't talk about black, you talked about Eskimo or American Indian, and the American Indian was assumed not to be a problem area.”

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“I find it very difficult to live through the censorship of profanity on television.”

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Author:Rod Serling

“I'm an affluent screenwriter and all that - I'm a known screenwriter, but I'm not in the fraternity of the very, very major people. I would say a guy like Ernie Lehman, William Goldman, and a few others are quite a cut above.”

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“There's a marvelous and unique man named Frank Gilroy. He's the only writer I know who absolutely, pointedly refuses to do any changes that he doesn't feel are absolutely essential and totally in keeping with his own view and perspective. But not too many writers are that independent and that strong-willed.”

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Author:Rod Serling

“I'd love to be able to write an in-depth piece of what causes men like [Richard] Nixon and [H.R.]Haldeman and [John] Ehrlichman and all the rest of them not only to run, but what causes us to vote for them.”

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“I would guess that Ray Bradbury would be equally resentful of what they did with Illustrated Man, which, you know, took a central idea thesis of his and pissed all over it - made it into one of the worst movies ever made.”

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Author:Rod Serling

“I'm frequently surprised, sometimes bugged off, and sometimes happy, depending on the actor. It's a fact of life that just as often as not an actor can breathe life into a line as he can destroy it by misinterpretation, and I've been blessed frequently by having good actors.”

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Author:Rod Serling

“Over the long haul I'd say that most directors I've worked with have been pretty sensitive to the quality of the interpreted scenes.”

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Author:Rod Serling