Editing Rod Serling (section)

===During his lifetime===
In December 1966, the made-for-television movie ''[[The Doomsday Flight]]'' aired. The fictional plot concerned an airplane with a bomb aboard. If the plane landed without the ransom money being paid, the aircraft would explode. The bomb was set with an altitude trigger that would detonate it if the plane dropped below four thousand feet. The show was one of the highest-rated of the television season, but both Serling and his brother Robert, a technical advisor on the project (a specialist in aviation), regretted making the film. After the film was aired, a rash of copycats telephoned in ransom demands to most of the largest airlines. Serling was truly devastated by what his script had encouraged. He told reporters who flocked to interview him, "I wish to Christ that I had written a stagecoach drama starring John Wayne instead."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Douglas |first1=John |author-link1=John E. Douglas |first2=Mark |last2=Olshaker |year=2000 |title=The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals |page=[https://archive.org/details/anatomyofmotive00doug/page/101 101] |publisher=[[Pocket Books]] |isbn=978-0-671-02393-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofmotive00doug/page/101 }}</ref>

In the [[1962]] ''[[Perry Mason (1957 TV series)|Perry Mason]]'' episode "The Case of the Promoter's Pillbox", the titular promoter falsely claims that a teleplay for a TV pilot, "Mr. Nobody", is being rewritten by Serling as a personal favor to him. Later, Mason, who does know Serling, shows the original teleplay to him, saying that Serling wants to help the young man who wrote the teleplay to get a start in his writing career. The man's mother then expresses to Serling her desire to tell her stories from years of running a drug store.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0673364/ The Case of the Promoter's Pillbox]</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2024}}