David Bianculli

He also wrote a TV movie called Carol for Another Christmas for ABC in 1964, the same year The Twilight Zone ended.

That show was so bold and chilling, yet has been so largely forgotten, that many of you may never have heard of it, much less heard the excerpt I'll soon play.

Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day in 1924 and died at age 50 in 1975.

The Ohio historical marker at Antioch is one way of remembering Rod and his creative output.

Another way happened last month when the non-profit Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, with involvement from members of his surviving family, mounted its annual Serling Fest in Rod's hometown of Binghamton, New York.

The town's recreation park has long featured a carousel refurbished with images of Rod and from the Twilight Zone, tied to his nostalgic Zone episodes inspired by Binghamton.

Last year, the Memorial Foundation erected a statue there in Rod's honor as part of Serling Fest.

And this year, in September, the Foundation commemorated the 50th anniversary of Rod Serling's death and the centenary of his birth by inviting speakers to Binghamton to talk about his influence and legacy.

His daughter Anne, an author in her own right, was there.

So were Frank Spotnitz, who wrote for the X-Files, and Joseph Doherty, who wrote for 30-something and has a new book coming out about Rod Serling.

And so was I.

We all were there to celebrate Rod's accomplishments and his ideas, and to point out why they were as important and topical as ever.

Several speakers quoted from or referred to Rod's first season episode, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, from 1960.

Serling had launched the Twilight Zone because he sensed correctly he could say things in a fantasy setting that he was prevented from saying at the time in more traditional TV dramas.

Maple Street was about how aliens from outer space agitated people in small-town neighborhoods merely by provoking them to mistrust one another.

At the time, it was a parable about McCarthyism.

But played at Serlingfest, Serling's epilogue had an all-too-contemporary ring, especially if you imagine social media as a modern equivalent weapon of choice.

Here are the aliens observing their test subjects, followed by Serling's own observations.

I promised a taste of Carol for another Christmas, and here it comes.

Serling took the Charles Dickens story of Christmas Carol and adapted it to modern times.