In some ways, As I Knew Him, released April 30 by Kensington Books, is Anne Serling's answer to previous biographies that painted a troubled soul 'so remotely unfamiliar to me and distant from the dad that I knew.' Her book begins with his final days at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., where he had been taken after a heart attack at the family's cottage on Cayuga Lake.

'When people saw this black-and-white image walking across the MGM soundstage with a cigarette and the tight lips and that serious expression, you wouldn't have known that he was very self-deprecating and extremely hilarious.' 'He was literally the funniest person I ever met, and he would do anything for a practical joke,' she said during a recent interview at her Cayuga Heights, N.Y., home. She tells of her famous father addressing loving notes to her as 'Miss Grumple' and signing them 'Roddy Rabbit,' recalls him acting out impromptu scenes from Gone With the Wind (playing all the roles himself and using whatever props were on hand) and notes his fondness for pranks. That somewhat ominous image made Serling an American icon, and the many skirmishes with network executives and sponsors who tried to censor his work led to his reputation as 'the Angry Young Man of Television.'īut in her new memoir, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, daughter Anne Serling offers a behind-the-scenes view from her childhood with stories of his humor and his devotion to his family. He seems omniscient as he makes his closing argument about human nature to the millions of viewers across the nation, offering one final thought before the credits roll. A cigarette is often wedged between his fingers, the smoke curling around him as he delivers the story's epilogue with deep-voiced staccato precision. His hair is jet-black, his eyes piercing. Those of us who knew Rod Serling only through 50 years of Twilight Zone reruns have a definite picture of the man in our minds.Īs an episode ends and the last twist of the tale is revealed, the camera pans over to where the show's creator has waited just off-screen.

Watch Video: Anne Serling on her father, 'Twilight Zone' creator Rod Serling

As i knew him anne serling