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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 20 March 2020
Twilight Time: Long-lost Rod Serling baseball comedy on deck

By BEN WALKER to play "Take Me Out to the
AP Baseball Writer Ball Game," other stadium
Years before he journeyed background and even a
to "The Twilight Zone," Rod little Russian folk music. But
Serling made a brief detour none of those eerie echoes
to the strike zone. from "The Twilight Zone"
To many, he's the forebod- theme.
ing figure in black and Kiesewetter also went to a
white who gave the world local gym where a couple
the heebie-jeebies with guys hit with wood bats,
those bizarre, mind-bend- recording the loud cracks
ing tales of cannibal aliens, with his phone to set the
talking dolls and phone scene.
calls from the grave. "The ball sounds like it's ex-
Smoldering cigarette in ploding," he said. "Great
hand, he unleashed ma- sound effect."
cabre mayhem in a clas- For Anne Serling, such
sic TV show that resonates sounds bring back fond
decades later in endless memories of driving around
reruns. the Los Angeles freeways
"That's how a lot of people with her dad, listening to a
pictured Dad," daughter ballgame.
Anne Serling said. "He loved the Dodgers,
But, there was another di- hearing Vin Scully on the
mension to Rod Serling: His radio. I can recall him be-
love of baseball. ing quite enraged, slap-
And Serling aficionados ping his palm against the
and sports fans will soon get wheel when things didn't
a chance to experience it. go right for them."
Think there's no baseball on Carl Erskine pitched for the
the radio? Think again. Dodgers back then, start-
"O'Toole From Moscow," a ing in 1948 with Brooklyn.
long-lost comedy Serling Now 93, the All-Star is prom-
wrote about the national inently mentioned in this
pastime, is on deck. version of Serling's comedy.
It's a screwball romp, with "Now that's a real script.
a side of whimsy: At the That's amazing," Erskine
height of the Cold War This 1973 family photo provided by Anne Serling shows her father, television writer Rod Serling toss- said from his home in An-
in the 1950s, a Soviet Em- ing a softball at a school his daughter attended, in Massachusetts. derson, Indiana. "I liked 'The
bassy worker fritters away Associated Press Twilight Zone' and I remem-
time rooting for the Brook- ber the music that played
lyn Dodgers at Ebbets he used all the time," she during the days of the Red current Media Beat blog- behind it.
Field, then skips town with said. "There's so much of my Scare. ger for WXVU first heard Nice to hear I'm in this
a comrade who suddenly dad in this. I can envision Famed big league manag- about the show in 1989 and one."q
becomes the greatest slug- his words throughout this." er Leo Durocher and John was intrigued. He eventual-
ger ever for the Cincinnati Hers, too. Anne is the narra- Banner, best known as Ser- ly tracked down the script
Reds. tor and introduces the pro- geant Schultz in "Hogan's and oversaw a project to
Serling's 1955 script, which gram, as the stage direc- Heroes," appeared in the adapt it for radio.
was performed only once, tions called for, "in clipped show that featured Chuck "Not many people can say
is being brought to life in Rod Serling style." Connors, the former major they spent a summer rewrit-
Cincinnati. A public ra- The hour-long show is pep- leaguer who later starred ing Rod Serling," he kidded.
dio station there will air it pered with references to in the TV Western, "The Rifle- Kiesewetter lined up the
March 25, which originally brawny Reds slugger Ted man." University of Cincinnati Col-
was the eve of the open- Kluszewski, Stan Musial, Wil- There are no known tapes lege-Conservatory of Music
ing day matchup between lie Mays, Duke Snider and or recordings of that show, to provide actors, guided
the host Reds and the St. other stars of the day and which aired four years be- by CCM professor of acting
Louis Cardinals, before the begins at 8 p.m. Wednes- fore Serling created "The and directing Richard Hess,
coronavirus prompted MLB day on WVXU-FM 91.7, with Twilight Zone." and recorded the show in
postponements. live streaming at wvxu.org. That's where John Kiesewet- November.
"Kind of a gift from my dad A twi-nighter, of sorts. OK, ter got involved. The Serling Reds organist John Schutte
back in time," Anne said. but why Cincinnati? fan, longtime Cincinnati En- was brought over from
"There is a magical quality From 1950-54, Serling quirer newspaperman and Great American Ball Park
to it, isn't there?" worked there for WLW, typ-
"It's his voice," she said ing out promos, ads and
from her home in Ithaca, other fixtures. At night,
New York. "I could so much though, he wrote freelance
imagine my dad writing scripts for local and nation-
this." al TV shows.
Easily, in fact. "O'Toole From Moscow"
"There's a line in there: 'Give was televised live by "NBC
me a stick and I'll beat it to Matinee Theater" on the
death.' That's an expression afternoon of Dec. 12, 1955,