I thought this could be a fun question since some of the plots are so dark, but there are some good things people go through.
I guess maybe The Hunt, if we go with the theory that it implies Heaven is tailored to you rather than just being a Hillbilly Heaven, since I’m not much of a hillbilly.
I was tempted to say Four O’Clock just because Oliver Crangle looks absolutely ecstatic in that episode. He presumably is independently wealthy since he can just sit around all day and call people’s bosses claiming they are Communists. Plus, he has a parrot. On the downside he does end up getting shrunken down, but kinder characters have suffered worse fates.
Number 12 Looks Just Like You. Yeah, i know it's all about the dangers of conformity with a predetermined norm. Everyone had to be alike, look alike, think alike,etc.
But it would be fun to trade in my body for a gorgeous new young one!
Penny For Your Thoughts. I just wonder what people are thinking around me. To be able to see into that for a few hours would likely be a life altering experience even if you didn't use the ability for direct gain.
"Penny For Your Thoughts. I just wonder what people are thinking around me."
In hearing people's thoughts, you might feel as disappointed as Dick York's character did. For example, you might learn that people don't like you as much as you thought they did. Could be depressing.
That's the part that would be life altering. While Dick used his power to gain a girlfriend and a promotion it would be interesting just to see where you really stand with others. It might be a bit of a pain but the naked truth would be better than a smiling lie in the long run. I already know there are people who tolerate me just because I can make things happen for them, it wouldn't surprise me that it would be more people than I think.
Me too, but not so much for my childhood, but more for the places and people the way they were then (more polite, better dressed, etc., although civil rights were worse). Also, if I could be a teacher back then, I wouldn't have students on their cell phones all during class.
"Of Late I Think of Cliffordville". It would be interesting to be sent back to a point earlier in your life, with everything around you the way it was then, but with the knowledge of what would happen in the future regarding the stock market, inventions, etc. I would just make sure to be sent back with all of my internal organs as they were as a younger man. And dealing with Julie Newmar would make the deal even sweeter.
"A Stop At Willoughby's" would be my favorite. You could go back to live in a simpler time -- 1888 -- “where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure.”
"The Hunt" is good, since I'd like to lay down my troubles for good. You wouldn't mind a Hillbilly heaven if you consider the alternative. The Bible that tells us about heaven has other views of what the place is like. I especially wouldn't mind that.
"Penny For Your Thoughts" would be miserable. Do you have any idea how little respect you'd have for people once you got to see what's really in their minds?
I have seen him recently. He is still within acceptable age tolerances to be hot to me. And he hasn’t had plastic surgery to give him a mask-like visage. I’d take him. Mr. Portrait might give me one free pass!
I watched "Nothing in the Dark" recently, and was, of course, taken with a young Robert Redford. But the little old lady was obviously crippled and in pain by old age. She was right to wonder what was the other side of death, but she should have opened a Bible and found some peace. Instead we got Hollywood theology instead, where you're walked to a still-mysterious other side by a handsome hunk. I think Serling was an atheist. Or was this written when he'd lost control of the program and desperately wanted out? I can't remember.
Without getting too deeply mired in philosophies, Rod Serling's parents were Jewish. When he married, he took to Unitarianism as I understand it..
The specific Season you're thinking of is most likely Season 4, which only came about because the hour-long sitcom commissioned to replace and/or take up the former 30 minute timeslot occupied by The Twilight Zone during its first three seasons proved a complete turkey with somebody (be it viewers, sponsors or whomever) and so was given the hook.
After the post-Season 3 cancellation, Serling took a teaching job and was doing that when CBS inquired about what amounted to a specially-tailored order of 18 one-hour episodes. In essence though you're correct. By the time the show was cancelled for the final time - that being announced in early January, 1964, he was ready to be done for at least a little while.
Within 15 months of the date "The Bewitchin' Pool" aired, Rod Serling was back on television, this time with a 30 minute western-themed program called "The Loner," starring Lloyd Bridges.
"The Loner" was a hit with critics but not so much viewers, running only 26 episodes until its own demise. The show was referred to as "a thinking-man's western" and that's a pretty fair characterization for my own nickel. I own a copy of the dvd set and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Folks often ask how Serling might have approached issues commonly discussed in recent years. At least two of those (post-traumatic stress and items symbolic of the Confederacy) are nodded to in the premiere episode, titled "An Echo of Bugles."
I know an atheist Unitarian. The philosophy seems to be pretty all-inclusive, and therefore doesn't tale a stand for anything, dogmatically.
There was either an article or a special where they portrayed Serling as the first superstar writer. He could be seen endorsing liquors in magazines. After awhile, they said, he began to feel trapped by this celebrity he had created. His writing suffered. He was no longer the hungry guy who strove to put his controversial points of view before the public disguised as Science Fiction stories.
Rod Serling was very generous with his experience. He taught at Ithaca College and his wife gave his archives, including his Emmys to the school after he died: https://125.ithaca.edu/icon/rod-serling