The man who created The Twilight Zone was Rod Serling. It has been said that the Twilight Zone is more closely associated with Serling than any other show in television history was associated with any writer. This is due in part to him being executive producer and already have established a great reputation before the show began. Also because of his memorable on-screen narrations at the beginning and end of each episode as the show’s host.
Directly after graduating high school in 1946, Rod Serling enlisted into the army and fought in the Philippines as a paratrooper during World War II. After he was hospitalized with severe shrapnel wounds, he was discharged from the Army. He was left with nightmares and flashbacks from his time in combat and used writing as a means of dealing with it, so his writings were directly influenced by his experiences.
After leaving the army, he decided to make use of his G.I. Bill. He attended Antioch College in Ohio where he studied theater, broadcasting and writing. During his academic career he wrote, directed and starred in several radio productions. After writing for radio for quite some time, he decided to move on to television. He worked at a television station, writing scripts for various shows, until he eventually moved to New York and became a full-time freelance script writer.
He caught his first big break in 1955 when Kraft Television Theater turned one of his scripts into a production. The script was for Patterns, which was a drama about a corporate employee who lost favor with his boss and is being squeezed out of his position by a young executive. Patterns won Serling six Emmy Awards and established his career.
Rod Serling had continued success as a writer in television and motion pictures, so it came as a shock and surprise to many when he decided to turn all of his attention to The Twilight Zone. At this time in television, science fiction wasn’t taken seriously. People thought of his move from writing for dramatic television to science fiction was a step down as well as a decision that just came out of nowhere.
Sterling was becoming tired of fighting executives decision makers who butchered his scripts for the purposes of censorship, cutting out any and every political and social statement he made. The only way for him to get around all of this and talk about whatever he wanted was to start his own show.
Because television wasn’t yet familiar with science-fiction, it was hard for people to realize that Serling hadn’t stopped commenting on the human condition with his move to The Twilight Zone. This also gave him the ability to develop on certain themes that he wouldn’t have been able to anywhere else such as racism, war, and government as they weren’t openly talked about on television at that time.