Night Gallery with Anne Serling

ANNE SERLING is author of the memoir As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling. She is director of Rod Serling Books. A recent book from the University Press of Mississippi is Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination, by Nicholas Parisi. SCOTT SKELTON is a resident of Eugene, Oregon, and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in journalism from the University of Oregon, has written freelance articles for the Eugene Register-Guard and other local publications. Now focused on completing a fiction novel, his first book was Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: A Retrospective. He is also currently working on a coffee-table book reproducing the artwork used on Night Gallery and chronicling its history.In addition, Scott and coauthor Jim Benson have recorded commentaries and provided special feature material for Universal Home Entertainment’s second and third season DVD releases of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. They have, in addition, provided commentaries for Image Entertainment’s high-definition blu-ray releases for The Twilight Zone, seasons two through five. 

Jonathan Lowe)  How did your books come about with Anne Serling in 2013, with Carol and Jodi sharing copyright, and what is it about these stories which resonates with you both today?

Scott Skelton)  Anne got in touch with us when she was writing her memoir, and wanted to reproduce some of our commentary on her father’s work from our companion guide, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour. We established more of a friendship when she was working on creating the Rod Serling Books imprint and reprinting his old Bantam paperbacks Night Gallery and Night Gallery 2, for which she asked us to write the forewords.As for Serling’s stories, his writing attracted me from the first because of his innate storytelling skill—he spins a damned good yarn—but it has always resonated with me long past the point where I turn the final page or when the film fades to black because of his sympathetic, penetrating humanist viewpoint and his gift for language—in his dramas expressed as dialogue—that is both pithy and lyrical. It’s just a pleasure to listen to.

Anne Serling) We started Rod Serling Books with two goals in mind. To foster my father’s legacy by publishing the eight books he wrote that were then out of print, and to provide writers a platform to publish and gain recognition in a difficult market, something my father would have enthusiastically endorsed. Unfortunately the latter hit a rights issue that we are currently working to resolve as publishing anthologies of promising writers is something that we continue to support wholeheartedly.

JL) Love how you talk about the opening narration in reference to the script as introduction. Was particularly taken by Serling’s writing the story versions prior to the scripts. In Serling’s “The Season to be Wary” collection there’s my favorite of his, “Escape Route,” which has a hellish kind of “Pamela’s Voice” ending, but without the touch of dark humor. Starred Richard Kiley as a Nazi war criminal on the run in South America, who hopes for peace and finds the ultimate twist instead. Of course “Eyes” was the pilot, directed by newcomer Steven Spielberg. What is your favorite episode, outside of these, and why?

SS) Of the stories Serling recast from a script into prose, my favorite would have to be “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar,” simply because it was obviously such a personal statement and reveals so much of the man he was. But I also love “Clean Kills and Other Trophies,” “Does the Name Grimsby Do Anything to You,” “The Messiah on Mott Street,” and “Lindemann’s Catch”—all prime Serling.

AS) They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar. Like my dad, I am drawn to nostalgic pieces and also, like him, the propensity to want to return to the past. 

JL) The ocean survivor twist, hunting themes, the “first man” on the moon, the themes of ego overwhelming cultures like ours and others, the subtle asides and allusions to other literary works. It’s all applied in the stories with a touch of genius few who haven’t read these books, or the others story books related to The Twilight Zone, may not realize, true?

AS) True. My father was quoted as saying he saw television as a means of bringing theater to everyone and I believe he saw juxtaposing the human condition against everyday events as the ultimate theater drama.

SS) Yes, that’s true. In drama, a writer depends a great deal on the actor to reflect something of the inner life of the character, especially since it’s not possible to tell the whole story, every facet, with dialogue or off-screen narration. But in his prose pieces, Serling reveals an extra dimension that he alone provides about the emotional depth of his characters’ psyches, and that may surprise those who are only used to his dramatic works.

JL) Talk about the Peekaboo Gallery show, as Anne was unable to attend. What has been visitor reaction? 

SS) The show was a great success from what I’ve seen and from what Taylor White has told me. The response has been very positive, and we’ve met a lot of people who came a long way to see the gallery paintings and sculptures up close, to absorb in more intimate surroundings the craft of the painters and sculptors who worked on the series. Tom Wright had a great time seeing his paintings again, rubbing elbows with fans, answering questions, and even bringing some folks he works with now in his current role as a TV director to see what he did in a previous life. 

JL) Surprise guests?

SS) Actor Mark Harmon, who works with Tom on NCIS, and his wife, actress Pam Dawber, visited to check out the paintings on display, and Tom’s daughters, both artists themselves now, showed up, too!