The Twilight Zone’sRod Serling Would Turn 100 This Christmas: Remembering the Icon and His Legacy

Mar. 15, 2025

Rod Serling.Photo:CBS/Getty

CBS/Getty

Anne Serling.Doug Sutton

Doug Sutton

“He was funny,” she adds. “He would do things like disappear and then come back with a lampshade on his head. He did the most amazing gorilla impersonation you could imagine. In almost every home movie, you’ll see him pretending to be a gorilla. He had an incredible singing voice. He lovedThe Flintstones. Every off-colored limerick I know I learned from my dad.”

Serling’s impact extended beyond his home as well. Today, filmmakers likeJordan Peele,M. Night Shyamalanand more have creditedThe Twilight Zoneas impacting their own work. Rod also inspired Zicree, a screenwriter who wrote for theThe Twilight Zone’s1985 revival.

Marc Scott Zicree.Marc Zicree

Marc Zicree

Zicree, a longtime science fiction fan, recalls watchingThe Twilight Zoneevery day after school as a child. While writing his own book,The Twilight Zone Companion, Zicree conducted over 100 interviews with professionals who worked on the show — as well as Anne and her family — and was allowed access to Rod’s home and archives for research.“The house was exactly as Rod left it,” Zicree says. “It was only two years after his death that I started writing the book. All the awards were there, all six Emmys. His scripts were there, his dog was still there, the Irish Setter. And upstairs in the attic, there were these bound volumes of every clipping onTwilight Zone… it was like the encyclopedia.”

Rod’s prolific writing career began long beforeThe Twilight Zonefirst aired, however. He earned his first scriptwriting award while attending Antioch College in Ohio, and later found success as a freelance writer, with his first nationally broadcast piece, “To Live a Dream,” airing in 1949. He would later write for Cincinnati’s WLW radio station and the dramaKraft Television Theatre.

Anne and Rod Serling.Carol Serling

Carol Serling

“He practiced what he preached, and he was passionate about prejudice and said it just really made him angry,” Anne says. She notes that schools in Binghamton, N.Y. — her father’s hometown — now have a program where fifth graders watchTwilight Zoneepisodes to learn more about the show’s symbolism.

“He was observing the world and taking it in,” Zicree says. “He very much could feel his enormous empathy for regular people, bank tellers, secretaries.”

Rod Serling.CBS/Getty

Anne and Zicree also note how much Rod has impacted the generations that came after him.“I’ve heard from so many people who say they became writers because of my dad, or people who had tumultuous childhoods who said that they thought of my dad as their own father,” Anne says. “And this just stunned him.”And ahead of his 100th birthday, both Anne and Zicree agree on the lasting effect Rod has had on their own lives too.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“I’m so grateful for him showing the way,” Zicree says. “He was the one who showed me the way to create television that would be lasting and meaningful. And I am so glad that I’ve been able to do that.”“My dad was a kind and generous and bright person who I miss every single day,” Anne says. “And after 50 years to have that still so present, that loss, I know how lucky, how incredibly lucky I was.”

source: people.com