The Twilight Rounds: Rod Serling Explores The Dark Side Of Boxing

Award-winning writer Rod Serling revolutionized television. His celebrated career, including bruising bouts with executives over censorship, is rooted in the boxing ring. Serling scholar and boxing expert Christopher Benedict ventures between the ring lights and the shadow of the screenplay to offer a deftly guided tour through Serling's personal and literary history with the controversial sport.

Benedict pulls back the curtain on Serling's time in the ring as a prizefighter and how that influenced his groundbreaking writing. From Serling’s first ever published piece of work, a boxing story featured in The Antiochian, to the Peabody Award winning Requiem for a Heavyweight, to The Twilight Zone and beyond. Noted for finding humanity, poignancy, and pathos deep within the violent spectacle of boxing, Rod Serling’s powerful influence on the genre still reverberates through modern big budget blockbuster fight films like Rocky, Raging Bull, and Million Dollar Baby.

Through these ten incredible rounds you'll meet a cast of pugnacious pugilists and discover the unforgettable stories they inspired Rod Serling to create. The result is a knockout exploration of Serling's literary art and "the sweet science" which we call The Twilight Rounds.

"Demonstrates my dad's affection for boxing and for the human being behind the glove" -Anne Serling, author of As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling.

"This is a knockout piece of work." -Nicholas Parisi, author of Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination.

"A brilliant ten-round biography of Serling's life through the extraordinary pathos of boxing" -Malissa Smith, author of A History of Women's Boxing.

"A fascinating look at how Rod Serling's time in the boxing world left a lasting mark on his writing" -Emi O'Sullivan, co-Host of The After-Hours Podcast.

© 2026 Jobber House Press (Lydbog): 9798988609261

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Lydbog: 1. juli 2026