Been watching some of my favorite
The Twilight Zone episodes lately, and it got me thinking about Rod Serling and all of his genius. I found this interesting Mike Wallace interview with Serling on censorship, content, and commercial vs. quality. Throughout, you can really tell this is a man with dignity, a man with passion, and a man who believes in the use of entertainment to teach, question, and progress. Quite fascinating how Wallace questions Serling about superficial intentions as a television writer, where Serling keeps having to remind him it's about quality.
"I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to have to battle sponsors and agencies, I don't want to have to push for something that I want and have to settle for second best. I don't want to have to compromise all the time. Which in essence is what the television writer does if he wants to put on controversial things... I stay in television because I think it's very possible to perform a function of providing adult, meaningful, exciting, challenging drama without dealing in controversy, necessarily."