Twilight Zone - The 50th Anniversary

If you live anywhere near Binghamton, chances are that you already know about the TZ at 50 celebration that's taking place this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of The Twilight Zone.

There will be plenty of events going on in Binghamton this weekend, and there will be Rod Serling Conferences at Ithaca College and Antioch College. On Saturday evening, WSKG, our local PBS affiliate, will air live performances of two Twilight Zone scripts, along with a short documentary produced by WSKG's Emmy award-winning Brian Frey.

Others have decided to get in on the Serling celebration, too. The Chamber of Commerce has created a special pamphlet, complete with a map of Serling-specific sites to visit in Binghamton. We've got a Rod Serling postage stamp now, and a BC Transit bus with a larger-than-life image of Mr. Serling.

It's appropriate that we should have such an over-the-top celebration because Rod Serling was proud of his Binghamton heritage. In an interview, he's quoted as saying,

"Everyone has to have a hometown. Binghamton's mine. In the strangely
brittle terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is need for a place to
hang a hat, or a kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a
place that's familiar because that's where you grew up.

"When I dig back through memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling and that's one of warmth, comfort, and well-being. For whatever else I may have had or lost or will find, I've still got a hometown. This, nobody's gonna take away from me."

And, of course, if you're interested in delving more into The Twilight Zone or into Rod Serling's past, the library has a wealth of resources.

We have:
- books about Rod Serling
- Twilight Zone Radio Dramas on audiocassette and CD
- episodes of The Twilight Zone on videocassette
- graphic novel adaptations of Twilight Zone scripts
- and more!

Also, if you want to read articles about Serling and about past Twilight Zone-related local events, Local History has LOTS of information.

Vote for the Rod Serling Bus!

Have you seen the Rod Serling bus around town yet? Did you know that it's part of a competition sponsored by BUSRide Magazine and Oracal USA to find the "most attractive, compelling buswraps in the business"?

The Southern Tier succeeded in voting Owego as America's Coolest Small Town, so we can surely make sure that the bus picturing Rod Serling is at the top of the heap, too!

Here's how to vote:
- Visit BUSRide Magazine's website.
- Click on the box that says "2009 BUSRide/Oracal US MotorVision Competition." (It's a blue box with a bright green bus.)
- Under the heading "Transit Wrap Category," click the "VOTE NOW" button.
- Vote for the Rod Serling BC Transit bus. (The site will ask you for a little bit of information the first time you vote.)
- Vote as many times as you want!

Rod Serling Stamp

As you may have heard, the US Postal Service has unveiled its new "Early TV Memories" stamp sheet, and Binghamton native son Rod Serling is included!

This is especially appropriate, considering the 50th anniversary of the first Twilight Zone episode is coming up this October. Binghamton has many events planned to celebrate the occasion, so if you're a fan, be sure to keep your eyes open for those!

The library has LOTS of materials related to Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone. To find them, visit our catalog and search for "Rod Serling" or "Twilight Zone."