“The Twilight Zone”’s“ ”Rod Serling Would Turn 100 This Christmas: Remembering the Icon and His Legacy

Rod's daughter, Anne Serling, and TV writer, Marc Scott Zicree, each published books about the screenwriter's lasting impact

• The Twilight Zone creator and screenwriter Rod Serling would celebrate his 100th birthday on Dec. 25, 2024
• Rod's daughter, Anne Serling, and TV writer, Marc Scott Zicree, each published books about the screenwriter's impact, titled As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone Companion respectively
• "I don't forget for a moment what an extraordinary dad I've had," Anne tells PEOPLE
  

For most people, the name Rod Serling brings to mind his classic science fiction show The Twilight Zone. The Emmy-winning screenwriter and producer, who died in 1975, headed the acclaimed TV series, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964, as well as its many memorable, and eerie, episodes.

But for those who knew him best, like his daughter, Anne, and those who admired his work, like TV writer Marc Scott Zicree, there was more to Rod than just being an on-screen personality. He was a doting father, who never turned away from a good practical joke. He was an activist, who cared deeply about the injustices of the world. He was a person beyond the series' iconic narrations.

Ahead of what would have been Rod’s 100th birthday on Dec. 25, Anne and Zicree are looking back on his celebrated life and legacy.

For Anne, the daughter of Rod and his widow, Carol Serling, her father's fame didn't hit her until she started school.

“I knew my dad was a writer, but I didn't really understand or know what he was writing about until some mean kid on the playground asked me, when I was about seven or eight, ‘Are you something out of The Twilight Zone?’” Anne tells PEOPLE. “And then I asked my father what that meant, and he explained that he wrote for a series. It was probably too old for me.”

Rod died from a heart attack at age 50, when Anne was 20 years old. She published her memoir, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, in 2013, and says that she wrote the book to show readers that her father was not as "solemn" and "dark" as he appeared on TV. For one thing, Rod always made time for his family, including Anne's sister Jodi, even at the height of his career.

“My dad would get a look when he was writing, and he'd disappear, and I knew what was happening in those moments,” Anne says. “But he was always at the dinner table, always present. We went on father-daughter trips together. I don't forget for a moment what an extraordinary dad I've had.”

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“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 loved The Flintstones. Every off-colored limerick I know I learned from my dad.”

Serling's impact extended beyond his home as well. Today, filmmakers like Jordan Peele, M. Night Shyamalan and more have credited The Twilight Zone as impacting their own work. Rod also inspired Zicree, a screenwriter who wrote for the The Twilight Zone's 1985 revival.

Zicree, a longtime science fiction fan, recalls watching The Twilight Zone every 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 on Twilight Zone … it was like the encyclopedia.”

Rod’s prolific writing career began long before The Twilight Zone first 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 drama Kraft Television Theatre.

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Rod's writing career came in the wake of his time fighting in World War II. Rod served as a U.S. paratrooper from 1943 to 1945, and Anne says that years later, her dad was still deeply affected by the war.

“I have memories of him having nightmares,” she says. “And when I would ask him in the morning what happened, he said he had dreamt that the enemy was coming at him … [Twilight Zone producer] Buck Houghton had said he'd seen so many horrible things, he turned to writing to regain his affection for humanity.”

Rod was ahead of his time in many ways too. His experience in the service made him a staunch advocate for anti-war efforts, particularly against the Vietnam War, and he often ran up against censorship while working in television. After finding himself deeply affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, Rod famously tried to pitch a teleplay critiquing racism, but had to rework it to fit the network's guidelines. That experience ultimately led to him creating The Twilight Zone, which would tackle issues like morality and mob-mentality thinking in iconic episodes like "People Are Alike All Over" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

“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 watch Twilight Zone episodes to learn more about the show’s symbolism.

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“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.”

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.

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“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.”