A closer look
Rod Serling wrote an astonishing ninety-two of the one hundred and fifty-six episodes of the original Twilight Zone series, mostly by dictating them into a tape recorder while lounging next to his swimming pool; while modern screenwriters require silent retreats, aesthetic coffee shops, and three years to produce a single mediocre script about a depressed detective, Serling managed to redefine the entire landscape of science fiction television wearing swim trunks and shouting at a plastic box, and his intense productivity proves that the secret to generating timeless allegories about human paranoia and existential dread is not tortured artistic brooding, but simply getting a really good tan while casually talking to yourself in the backyard
