Rod Serling: Where Do Ideas Come From? (1972)

in Literature, Television | January 18th, 2010 3 Comments

Rod Ser­ling, the Amer­i­can screen­writer & tele­vi­sion pro­duc­er best known for The Twi­light Zone, field­ed ques­tions from stu­dents about the whole art of writ­ing for tele­vi­sion. In the clip above, he gives a rather dra­mat­ic response to the ques­tion, “Where do ideas come from?” (They come from the Earth… They’re in the air. And, to put them on paper, you bleed!) If you keep watch­ing, the con­ver­sa­tion with Ser­ling con­tin­ues for a good while.

This con­tri­bu­tion was sent to us by Elan, who dates the clip to around 1972. You can always write us and sug­gest a link here.

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Comments (3)
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  • mike gibbowr says:
    January 18, 2010 at 9:12 am

    Ideas… are where all progress begins, and where the cre­ative process calls Home…

    The Amer­i­can Way…
    Copy­right 2009 Michael Gib­bowr

    Ideas and opin­ions are a dime a dozen
    Seems someone’s always got some­thing to say
    Pick the top­ic and you’ll hear a rant
    Seems thoughts are no longer held at bay
    Use to be there’d be some sub­stance
    In con­ver­sa­tion and dis­ser­ta­tion
    But now all too often what we hear
    Is hard­ly worth our con­tem­pla­tion

    So let’s say we kick it up a notch
    And con­verse on real Health­care Reform
    Not exchang­ing rhetoric
    But action­able ideas out­side the norm
    Let’s say we dis­cuss Nation­al Debt
    And prac­ti­cal mea­sures for Eco­nom­ic Sta­bil­i­ty
    Not get caught-up in anoth­er blame game
    But com­mon sense solu­tions that hold up to Con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty

    Let’s say we look at Immi­gra­tion
    With­out the bias of either side
    And get back to issues of Nation­al Secu­ri­ty
    While restor­ing Nation­al Pride
    Let’s say we exchange Ratio­nal Ideas
    That enable the “Work­ing Class”
    Start hold­ing Wash­ing­ton Account­able
    And make them Rep­re­sent what “The Peo­ple” want at last

    Yes, ideas and opin­ions when Expressed Intel­li­gi­bly
    Speak loud­er than Rhetoric’s’s Irra­tional­i­ty
    And sure, being Pas­sion­ate about our Views Is Good
    But let’s say we present “Opin­ions” as we should…
    Clear and Con­cise…
    Open to Rea­son­able and Ratio­nal Debate
    With­out the Par­ti­san Guile
    Dis­re­spect and Ide­o­log­i­cal Hate

    Let’s say we Say What We Mean
    And actu­al­ly Mean What We Say
    Doing it with Vig­or and Respect
    Focused on Solu­tions… The Amer­i­can Way…
    ~

    Reply
  • Elan' says:
    January 20, 2010 at 12:23 am

    You’re wel­come.

    Reply
  • Shardai Young says:
    December 3, 2022 at 6:42 am

    Lis­ten, When I Think Of Rod Ser­ling, He Will Break My Heart.

    Reply

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