Patterns: Four Television Plays with the Author’s Personal Commentaries

by Rod Serling, Mark Dawidziak (Foreword)

REQUIRED READING for any aspiring or established television screenwriter -

Rod Serling was the television industry's original show runner. His screenplay, "Patterns," aired on January 12, 1955, launched his career. Within hours, Jack Gould of the New York Times wrote, "Nothing in months has excited the television industry as much as the Kraft Television Theatre's production of Patterns, an original play by Rod Serling. The enthusiasm is justified. In writing, acting and direction, Patterns will stand as one of the high points in the TV medium's evolution." An overnight success, Serling immediately found himself in the company of the Golden Age of Television's elite writers including Paddy Chayefsky, Reginald Rose, and Gore Vidal; and the recipient of his first of six Emmy awards. Serling would later write a semi-autobiographical screenplay, "The Velvet Alley," describing such a meteoric rise to fame and success.

"Patterns," the book, was Serling's first foray into the world of publishing. What is invaluable is not merely the actual screenplays, but Serling's comments on each and his twenty five plus page dissertation on writing for television during its' Golden Age. What is different about this new edition is Mark Dawidziak's insightful forward explaining the relevance of "Patterns" to Serling's prolific body of work. Given Serling's dissertation and Dawidziak's analysis, it is worth repeating that this is, without question, REQUIRED READING for anyone involved in the creation of intelligent television.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Drama, Plays

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling (December 25, 1924–June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone.

Reviews

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man must discover if his job is worth his integrity.

An army captain is tried for treason.

An aged player strives to get back in the ball game.

A boxer must choose whether or not to hang up his gloves.

Rod Serling's writing is often stilted, but his messages are on point and the supplementary articles are worth the cost of the book alone. Serling's ability to call himself out on sloppy ot overwrought writing is encouraging to any aspiring writer.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic, interesting, and gripping read. I thoroughly enjoyed the content and format of this book, as well as Mr. Serling's detailed reflections.
Great to read the script along with the film.
Definitely will remain in use for reference and browsing in the future.
An historical collection read for pleasure and personal interest. Overall, a great book for the researcher and enthusiast.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding story of corporate America and human relationships. A must-read, or at least a look at the movie version.

This is a plot that keeps one ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the twist, and an ending that surprises.

💥 Recommended.
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📺

[Christopher Crumley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into Rod Serling as a writer outside of sci-fi. Particularly enjoyed “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” Would love to locate footage of these teleplays.

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading screenplays and teleplays can be pretty boring, but that's not why I was interested in this book, which was published before Serling created THE TWILIGHT ZONE. What I was really interested in was his commentary and his essay on writing for television. He's a fascinating guy, which doesn't come through when he does his TZ and NIGHT GALLERY introductions. It's hard to look beyond the terse man with the clipped speech, but this book perfectly showcases the man behind the scripts. Serling was truly a writer's writer. He takes a no BS approach. It's great to get his opinion on the evils of advertising (despite the fact that without ads, none of the shows would survive). He also takes himself to task if he sees a flaw in his own writing. There's an odd moment when he's discussing how the advertisers screwed with one of his teleplays, and he figured that he'd have had better luck getting it by them if he'd done it as an SF piece. Clearly, the TZ was already germinating in the back of his head when he wrote this. If you like looking for the man behind the curtain, this book is your perfect chance.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the title says, priceless insight into the early days of Television

[Chris Brimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

the irony of humanity, this is great stuff

[Norman Felchle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book full of insights into writing, television, and Serling himself.