One of the most influential creatives in the history of the horror genre will soon be eternally memorialized in his New York hometown.
The Rod Serling Memorial Foundation recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a six-foot-tall statue of Emmy Award-winning writer Rod Serling, the mastermind behind the groundbreaking television series The Twilight Zone, an anthological sci-fi horror program whose impact is still quite palpable to this day, as if the presence of Jordan Peele’s 2019 reboot of the series (the third reboot of its kind since the original series ended in 1964) didn’t make that clear enough.
The statue will be erected in Binghamton, New York — the childhood home of Serling that he maintained a strong tie to over the course of his life. The funding goal came in at around $35,000 when the campaign was created; at the time of writing, backers have since eclipsed that with total donations reaching over $40,000.
Serling was an inspirationally contentious figure during his career, known for clashing with television executives and being loudly passionate about his political views, most prominently his anti-war stance and championing of racial equality, both of which are heavily reflected in his body of work.
Outside of The Twilight Zone, other notable credits from Serling include writing credits for anthology programs The U.S. Steel Hour and Playhouse 90 (namely the episodes “The Rack” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” respectively), “A Town Has Turned to Dust” (another Playhouse 90 piece), and co-writing credit with Michael Wilson (Lawrence of Arabia) for the screenplay of 1968’s Planet of the Apes.