Rod Serling’s World War II Nightmares
The prophetic writer saw brutal combat in the Philippines
One of Rod Serling’s more tortured characters is Lieutenant Fitzgerald, a US Army soldier fighting in the Philippines during World War II (Twilight Zone Season 1, Episode 19 , The Purple Testament).
Fitz, as he’s called, knows when his fellow soldiers will die by looking at their faces and seeing an eerie, ominous glow about them.
The episode brilliantly captures the dread and terror soldiers face but with a twist only Serling could conjure: Fitz isn’t worried about his own demise but is horrified at the thought of knowing which of his buddies will soon die.
The episode rings painfully true on several levels, from the dialogue to the themes of camaraderie and war is hell and more because Serling lived it. He served in the Pacific theater during World War II, an experience that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
The Genius of Rod Serling
As a kid, I sat transfixed in front of the TV, watching Twilight Zone reruns. It was by far my favorite show and every episode blew my mind.
Serling had an amazing imagination and knew how to write for what was then (the early 1960s) a fairly new medium, television. Serling…
