Abstract
Rod Serling achieved critical acclaim in the First Golden Age of Television writing realist teleplays that express a strong moral sense and social consciousness. With the decline of anthology drama at the close of the 1950s, Serling created The Twilight Zone, which would become a forum for telling relevant stories while circumventing commercial and bureaucratic interference. As a means of exploring Serling’s use of drama as a tool for social justice, this paper compares themes from The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery with charter and constitutional statements of human rights. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the moral template applied in this discussion. Serling saw drama as a political act and his commitment to social justice often extended to his activities off the page. The content and consequences of his 1968 speech at Moorpark College are cited as an important example of his real world political behavior.
Recommended Citation
Spencer, Hugh A. D.
(2018)
"Social Justice from the Twilight Zone: Rod Serling as Human Rights Activist,"
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: Vol. 5:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/vol5/iss1/1
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Social Justice Commons, Television Commons