Our favorite writer would have turned 101 today! Rod Serling was born December 25, 1924. As he so famously quipped, “I was a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped.” As Lois Nettleton ("The Midnight Sun") said, he was "a lovely gift to the world." Merry Christmas, all!

"There's a broadcast of Handel's Messiah on the radio at 5:00, and I'd very much like to hear it. Lovely thing. Very yule-like." #S3E37 Wishing everyone a nice Christmas Eve! I know I've been quiet lately—it's been a busy time. But you'll hear plenty from me come New Year's! 😄

"Henry Corwin, normally unemployed, who once a year takes the lead role in the uniquely popular American institution, that of a department store Santa Claus, in a road-company version of The Night Before Christmas." #S2E11 Twilight Zone's "Night of the Meek" stars Art Carney.

"Now look at the picture. What am I doing wearing a fur coat? I wasn't wearing a fur coat when you took that picture." #S2E10 Twilight Zone's "A Most Unusual Camera" by Rod Serling stars Jean Carson and Fred Clark.

"Look, there's Santa Claus. Come on in!"' "Nah, nah. Go on, get lost! Get out of here! Santa's a lush." #Season2Eepisode11 Twilight Zone's "Night of the Meek" by Rod Serling stars Art Carney.

December 11, 1959: Twilight Zone's "And When The Sky Was Opened" airs. Three astronauts return to Earth after testing an experimental rocket. Wait—two astronauts. No, one. Er, none? Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman & Jim Hutton star in Serling's adaptation of a Richard Matheson story.

December 9, 1960: Twilight Zone's "The Trouble with Templeton" airs. An aging actor gets an unexpected trip to his past — and experiences a surprising reunion with his dead wife. Stars Brian Aherne, Pippa Scott, and future movie director Sydney Pollack.

"I feel as if I'm in a nightmare. It's so strange." December 4, 1959: Twilight Zone's "Judgment Night" airs. A man (Nehemiah Persoff) finds himself on a ship in the Atlantic in 1942 with no idea who he is or how he got there. U-boats prowl. Why his strange premonition of doom?

December 2, 1960: Twilight Zone's "The Lateness of the Hour" airs. An inventor's daughter, tired of the constant presence of robot maids and servants, urges her father to destroy them. Stars Inger Stevens (in her 2nd TZ) and John Hoyt (in his 1st). One of TZ's 6 videotaped eps.

"Do you remember what the old shaman said long ago when the men started drilling? He said we were wounding the land, hurting it, making it bleed. He said that land would make us pay." Twilight Zone's "The Jungle" debuted on Dec. 1, 1961. It stars John Dehner in his 2nd TZ role.

"I don't know when I fell asleep, but all of a sudden I wasn't at home anymore. I was at an amusement park." #S1E9 Twilight Zone's "Perchance to Dream" by Charles Beaumont debuted on November 27, 1959. It stars Richard Conte, Suzanne Lloyd, and John Larch.

"An unforgiving sea usually buries its secrets beneath itself. War ships and ocean liners, treasure galleons and submarines turn into rusting relics inside a watery locker. But occasionally there comes a floating unbidden reminder of disaster — like this lifeboat." — Night Gallery's "Lone Survivor"

"My name's Teague. I'm a witchman, like my pappy 'fore me. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, and I was HIS seventh son. I know conjure stuff forward and backward and up and down. It's my living." #S3E11 Twilight Zone's "Still Valley" stars Gary Merrill & Vaughn Taylor.

"It's that same feeling. But I'm awake. This isn't a dream. This couldn't be a dream." #S2E17 Twilight Zone's "Twenty Two" by Rod Serling stars Barbara Nichols.

November 20, 1959: Twilight Zone's "Time Enough at Last" debuts. Burgess Meredith, a pair of thick glasses, a nuclear bomb ... and piles upon piles of books. Need I say more? "It's the one that haunts people," Meredith later said: thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/t... I'll say!

November 18, 1960: Twilight Zone's "Nick of Time" airs. A couple in a diner finds a fortune-telling machine whose answers seem eerily accurate. One penny per question! The 1st of @WilliamShatner's two iconic TZ roles—both written by Richard Matheson. Also stars Patricia Breslin.

November 17, 1961: Twilight Zone's "The Midnight Sun" airs. Earth slips its orbit, putting it on a collision course with the Sun — and subjecting everyone to unbearable heat. One of TZ's biggest fan favorites! Written by Rod Serling. Stars Lois Nettleton and Betty Garde.

"Month of November, hot chocolate, and a small cameo of a child's face, imperfect only in its solemnity. And these are the improbable ingredients to a human emotion. An emotion, say, like — fear." #S1E29 Twilight Zone's "Nightmare as a Child" stars Janice Rule & Terry Burnham.

"They can't think of everything. A man's life is made up of a million details." #S3E23 Twilight Zone’s "Person or Persons Unknown" by Charles Beaumont stars Richard Long (later to star in TZ's "Number 12 Looks Just Like You") and Frank Silvera.

November 11, 1960: 65 years ago, Twilight Zone's "Eye of the Beholder" debuts. Serling's iconic take on the dangers of being "ugly" in a totalitarian society is my No. 1 TZ: thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/c... Two actresses played Janet: thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/e...

November 10, 1961: Twilight Zone's "Deaths-Head Revisited" airs. A former Nazi officer returns to Dachau to reminisce — and finds that his victims are ready to put him on trial. Written by Rod Serling. Stars Oscar Beregi and Joseph Schildkraut.

"We submit for your approval this and other frozen moments of nightmare placed on canvas." November 8, 1969: the Night Gallery pilot movie debuts. Includes Steven Spielberg's directorial debut, "Eyes." The series followed a year later. Happy 56th birthday, NG!

November 8, 1963: Twilight Zone's "The Old Man in the Cave" airs. A town living in the aftermath of a nuclear war relies on an unseen "old man" to survive—until some outsiders question their loyalty. Stars John Anderson & James Coburn. Serling adapted: thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2021/04/09/s...

"All your life, you will remember this night. And you’ll know whom you have turned loose upon the world." #S2E5 Twilight Zone’s "The Howling Man" (November 4, 1960) by Charles Beaumont stars John Carradine, Robin Hughes, and H.M. Wynant -- who's still with us at age 98!

November 3, 1961: Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life" airs. Anthony Fremont may be a little boy, but to the residents of Peaksville, Ohio, he's a big problem — a tiny tyrant with god-like powers. Perhaps you've seen this little-known episode. 😜 (Yes, that's a joke.)

"I told you you'd be sorry." #S5E6 Twilight Zone's "Living Doll," by Charles Beaumont and Jerry Sohl, first aired on November 1, 1963.

October 30, 1959: Twilight Zone's "Walking Distance," airs. A harried executive visits his hometown years later and finds it unchanged — and ends up meeting himself as a boy, along with his late parents. Stars Gig Young and Frank Overton, with a lovely score by Bernard Herrmann.

October 29, 1972: Night Gallery's "Spectre in Tap-Shoes" airs. A woman's twin sister is dead and buried ... so why does she keep popping up? Stars Sandra Dee.

"This one I got trying to shave with a razor when three appliances in my house gave out. It occurred to me how how absolutely vulnerable we are to gadgets and electronic jim-crackery." — Serling on what led him to write Twilight Zone's "A Thing About Machines" (October 28, 1960)

The October 27, 1971 episode of Night Gallery features: — "A Question of Fear" (a man accepts a $15,000 bet that he won't spend a night in a haunted house) — "The Devil is Not Mocked" (a short "vampires vs. Nazis" story) On disc: amzn.to/3pNaHtg

October 27, 1961: Twilight Zone's "The Grave" airs. A gunslinger is challenged to plant a knife in the grave of a dead rival to prove he's not scared. Easy, right? 😵💫😱 What a cast! Lee Marvin, James Best, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, Stafford Repp, and Elen Willard.

"Why are you scared? You've got to wake up sometime, even if you're electrocuted. So why don't you just sit back and enjoy it?" #S2E26 Twilight Zone's "Shadow Play" by Charles Beaumont stars Dennis Weaver and Harry Townes.

Serling wrote his first draft of the story that would become Twilight Zone's pilot episode, "Where is Everybody?", in 1952, seven years before the series began. #S1E1

Ida Lupino was only 41 when she starred in Twilight Zone's "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine." I think Rod Serling, in this homage to "Sunset Boulevard," was (again) ahead of his time in showing how Hollywood has long marginalized and discarded many "old" female stars. #S1E4

October 25, 1963: Twilight Zone's "The Last Night of a Jockey" airs. Mickey Rooney plays a crooked horse jockey desperate to clear his name -- and in true Zone fashion, winds up getting exactly what he wished for.

October 20, 1971: Night Gallery includes "The Phantom Farmhouse," a tale of werewolves with David McCallum and David Carradine, and "Silent Snow, Secret Snow," a story about an autistic boy (narrated by Orson Welles).

October 20, 1961: Twilight Zone's "The Mirror" airs. Peter Falk plays a Castro-like leader who believes a unique mirror is exposing his assassins. Some critics dismiss it—and sure, it's not top-tier TZ—but I think it teaches a valuable lesson about the seductive nature of power.

"Up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting — waiting with the patience of eons. Forever waiting ... in the Twilight Zone." #S1E1 "Where is Everybody?" by Rod Serling

"I think I'll go in and get a shave. I wanna look proper on the day I die." #S1E3 Twilight Zone’s "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" by Rod Serling stars Dan Duryea, Jeanne Cooper and Martin Landau.

"Next week, we take you into this 8x8 hotel room and watch a penny-ante crook make a decision." — Serling's promo for Twilight Zone's "Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room"

October 13, 1961: Twilight Zone's "A Game of Pool" airs. An obsessive pool player gets his wish: to play the long-dead legend Fats Brown. The stakes? Life or death. Written by George Clayton Johnson. Stars Jack Klugman (in the second of four TZs) and Jonathan Winters.

October 11, 1956: Serling's Emmy-winning live teleplay "Requiem for a Heavyweight," about a washed-up boxer's quest for a future outside the ring, airs on Playhouse 90. Stars Jack Palance, Ed Wynn, and Keenan Wynn. Father and son would later have starring roles on The Twilight Zone.

"There's a man out there!" First heard on October 11, 1963. Celebrating 62 years of one of the most iconic Twilight Zone episodes ever aired: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." A toast to Richard Matheson and William Shatner for this piece of TV history!

October 9, 1959: Twilight Zone's "One for the Angels" airs. A kind-hearted sidewalk pitchman (Ed Wynn) battles Mr. Death (Murray Hamilton, 16 years before he was Amity's mayor in "Jaws") to save a little girl's life. A sweet tale with a nice touch of humor. 🥲

October 7, 1960: Twilight Zone's "The Man in the Bottle" airs. A pawnshop owner and his wife release a genie who grants them four wishes — and discover the downsides of getting what you really want. Joseph Ruskin, the genie, later did the voice of the Kanamit in "To Serve Man"!

Have "A Fear of Spiders"? So does the October 6, 1971 episode of Night Gallery. This Serling-scripted tale (one of four stories in this episode) stars Patrick O’Neal and Kim Stanley. Also includes Serling's "The Academy." On DVD ($12.79 US) and Blu-ray: www.amazon.com/Night-Galler...

October 6, 1961: Twilight Zone's "The Passersby" airs. A Confederate sergeant meets a grieving widow—and a long line of wounded, weary soldiers—on his way home. Stars Joanne Linville and James Gregory. One of two Civil War-themed TZs Serling wrote during the war's centennial.

"You're the eyes that pick our pockets. You're the lure, the bait... we lust for you, and for what those eyes hold out." Night Gallery's "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" (Season 3, Episode 2) stars Joanna Pettet, James Farentino and John Astin.

"We could have gone through some kind of a sound barrier ... but no kind of a sound barrier I've ever heard of." #S2E18 Twilight Zone's "The Odyssey of Flight 33" by Rod Serling stars John Anderson.

October 4, 1956: Playhouse 90 debuts with “Forbidden Area,” Rod Serling’s adaptation of a novel about a Russian sneak attack on the U.S. Stars Charlton Heston (born #OTD 1923), Vincent Price and Jason Wingreen (later the 1960 conductor in Twilight Zone’s “A Stop at Willoughby”).