In 1975, Rod Serling died after going through open heart surgery. His daughter, Anne, still gets choked up thinking about him.
Her new book, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, was a cathartic experience for her as she tried to understand the business side of her father and put to rest theories about his depression.
“He was very positive and very much looking forward to the next part of his life,” says Anne Serling.
Rod Serling was the mastermind behind the groundbreaking television series The Twilight Zone. He was also part of Night Gallery and wrote the iconic ending to the original Planet of the Apes – the rest of the script was too expensive for the studio to do.
Anne Serling recently heard that her father tried to prank the late Richard Matheson, who wrote Nightmare at 20,000 Feet starring William Shatner. Rod Serling was able to get a window covering that looked like the gremlin from the episode and had the airline put it on outside of the window that Matheson would be seated next to. All of the curtains in the plane were closed.
Unfortunately, the double propped engine was to powerful and it blew the window covering off of the plane before takeoff.
See Anne Serling talk about her reasons for writing a book about her father.
