

By his senior year, he was doing weekly shows. Meanwhile, Serling found what seemed to be his calling: manning the microphone of the campus radio station, where he wrote scripts, directed, and acted. When he noticed that a local barbershop refused to cut the hair of African-Americans, he insisted that his friends stop patronizing it. He eventually registered as a phys-ed major at Antioch College and tried to fit in. “I didn’t really know what the hell I wanted to do with my life,” his daughter Anne quotes him as saying in her book, As I Knew Him. Serling left the island consumed by a hatred for war, and he brought back a souvenir: a piece of shrapnel in his knee that bled spontaneously for the rest of his life.Īt home, Serling struggled for direction. Stationed in the Philippines with a demolition platoon, he witnessed horror firsthand. Fighting in World War II only galvanized his mission. Growing up in Binghamton, New York, he was editor of the high school newspaper, injecting social commentary in between box scores. The question was whether he could get away with it.Įven as a teenager, Serling had been a social activist.
INBETWEENBOX SERIES
The series would be a double itself, a serious exploration of politics and ethics disguised as harmless sci-fi.
INBETWEENBOX TV
In 1959, he got the chance to do just that, using that strange airport experience as the kindling for his legendary science fiction TV series, The Twilight Zone. He thought TV should probe deeper, believing it could address big concerns: social injustice, bigotry, mortality.

Always looking to skirt controversy, they preferred to work within the confines of formulaic Westerns and bland sitcoms. But corporate sponsors didn’t find his work appealing. His 1956 teleplay, Requiem for a Heavyweight, had garnered numerous awards, an Emmy among them. But the experience was too uncanny to forget.Īs a writer, Serling made his name toying with unsettling concepts, which made him a critical darling. He was a decade younger and, Serling joked, far better looking. “I kept staring and staring,” Serling recalled, “with this funny, ice-cold feeling that, if he turns around and it’s me, what do I do?” Eventually, the gentleman did turn around. As the award-winning TV writer tried to catch a glimpse of his double’s face, a strange thought hit him: What if, through some glitch in the universe, he was watching another version of himself? Across the room stood his doppelgänger: a man who looked to be his same height, sporting the same coat and carrying the exact same cowhide briefcase. As he waited to board his flight, he spotted something eerie. In the late 1950s, Rod Serling found himself sitting in a London airport tired and ready to go home. For Rod Serling, TV was the perfect landscape to battle bigotry and corporate censorship. Subscribe to our print edition here, and our iPad edition here.

I get a fade so my sides are shaved leaving me with that "mushroom top" kinda fro.This story originally appeared in print in the November 2014 issue of mental_floss magazine. I've seen girls at my job wear headwraps with an opening atop to allow the fro to come out. I work in a restaurant where I have to look neat. I would want to wash my hair after taking out the braids (because of the build up) so I can't leave it like that after untwisting them. Thing is, what are some good hairstyles I can do afterwards. The braids don't look bad when I put them up but they are frizzy so it's about that time. This month was rough and there's some build up. It's getting to that point now where I have to take out the braids. Not only do they look good (get many compliments) but more importantly it allows me to go about my daily routines without much delay. I have a busy schedule and live in New York so the cold weather combined with lack of time to manage hairstyles has be getting braids/twists all the time. Deep condition and wash once a month.įor the past few months I've either gotten box braids or two strand twists. Condition often, shampoo once a week, and everyday I keep my scalp moisturize by adding either spray water, castor oil, or coconut oil. I'm still trying to get my healthy scalp routine down pack. Been growing my hair out for almost two years.
