Rod Serling Archives. Television scripts.

Introduction

Scope of this finding aid

This finding aid covers only a portion of the Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College. Due to scheduling requirements and general workloads, it was decided to describe and microfilm only the television scripts at this time. Some of the more recent television scripts have been omitted due to time constraints. The collection also includes movie scripts, scripts for stage plays, scripts for unproduced works, 16 mm films of productions, awards and other memorabilia, photographs and other manuscript materials. There are also published materials associated with the Archives including books, compact discs, laserdiscs and periodicals. These will be described in future finding aids.

Technical note

This finding aid has been largely extracted from a Filemaker Pro 3.1 database that is currently running on a Power Macintosh 8100/100AV. The extracts are subject to the limitations of both the software and the database designer. Future versions of the software may produce a better product and the database designer may gain additional skills as well. Live searching of the database should be available for the foreseeable future for the researchers using this collection.

Twilight Zone

The series Twilight Zone was broadcast on CBS from October 1959 through June 1964. There were no new shows in the fall of 1962. When The Twilight Zone replaced another show in January 1963, it appeared in a one hour format. Other than this half season, the rest of the Twilight Zone was in a half hour format.

The scripts in this collection are from the personal collection of Rod and Carol Serling. In addition to mimeographed "final revisions," there are typescripts, handwritten notes and some photocopies. The various revisions reflect the development of the scripts as they moved toward production.

Script descriptions for the Twilight Zone are available.

Night Gallery. World Premiere Theater

This production was a two hour, 3 episode production. It is generally considered to be a pilot for Rod Serling's Night Gallery. It aired on November 8, 1969 on NBC. The episodes are titled "The Cemetery," "Eyes," and "Escape Route."

Rod Serling's Night Gallery

Rod Serling's Night Gallery was broadcast on NBC from December 1970 until January 1973. It was an hour in length and normally consisted of three unrelated episodes or vignettes. Serling contributed thirty-three episodes over the 3 seasons of the show.

Script descriptions for: Season one | Season two | Season three

The Loner

The Loner was a western series broadcast on CBS from September 1965 through February 1966. It was a Greenway Productions product. There were fourteen titled shows broadcast over 15 time slots (the last show was in two parts). Of those fourteen shows, thirteen are represented in the collection.

Script descriptions: The Loner

Various televisions series.

Serling was a prolific writer for television. This part of the collection of television scripts represents his contributions to series beyond those under his control such as the Twilight Zone) or based on his ideas (such as Night Gallery). This collection spans the years 1952 to 1970 and includes some Serling's first works as a freelance writer (The Sergeant, I Lift My Lamp) as well as his Emmy award winning masterpieces such as a Requiem for a Heavyweight (written for Playhouse 90). Twenty-three series and 64 shows are represented here.

The series are:

The Rod Serling Archives are subject to use restrictions.

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Maintained by: B. Bower , Ithaca College Archives and Special Collections.
Last updated on October 29, 2003 2:27 PM