Rodman Serling

Not many famous people have their names on the Binghamton Walk of Fame -I'm pretty sure it's called something like that. Anyway, Serling has his name there since he's the most famous person to ever come out of Binghamton onto the national stage. Serling is a beloved institution in Binghamton, he has his own film festival for high school kids and a million things that have to do with him. He was born in Syracuse in the 1920's and died in Rochester (once claimed to be the worst place in Upstate) in the mid 70's. But, he spent his childhood and pubescent-adolescent years in Binghamton where he graduated from high school.

Serling won the Purple Heart and Bronze Star in the Pacific when he served with the 11th Airborne as a paratrooper/demo specialist. Apparently Serling suffered Post-traumatic Stress Disorder from his experiences there and had intense nightmares throughout his life, and people talk about how some Twilight Zone episodes are just these nightmares being played out. Upstate is the setting for many a Twilight Zone episode, however having watched most of these episodes there is nothing really Upstate about them besides the inclement weather.

Serling Went to Antioch College in Ohio where he received a degree in Literature and worked as a writer for a radio station. His fantastic writing skills were soon made apparent when he was able to sell TV-play after TV-play, winning television awards before his famous stint in the Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone was cancelled after a bunch of seasons and he went on to do a similar show called Night Gallery, which was pretty killer in its own right, and wrote horror and sci-fi short stories. He Co-wrote Planet of the Apes, Jesse tells me, but I'm more excited with the news he taught at Ithaca College and was a Unitarian Universalist.

By Joe