CBS Television-CBS Portrait by photographer Gabor Rona-mark is faint in spots. · Public domain

Rod Serling created and wrote much of The Twilight Zone, using science fiction and fantasy as cover to tackle censorship, racism, and war on network television at a time when sponsors and executives resisted direct treatment of those subjects. He won six Primetime Emmy Awards from nine nominations and helped establish standards for writers' creative control that the television industry still uses.