Rod Serling "Walking Distance" Plaque

Binghamton, New York

For a brief period of Mid-Century glory, the city of Binghamton pumped out mid-level celebrities. They were the not-quite-giants of their day: Richard Deacon, who played the boss on the Dick Van Dyke Show and Lumpy's dad on Leave it to Beaver; Jim Hutton, who starred in Period of Adjustment and The Green Berets (and fathered Timothy Hutton); Johnny Hart, the cartoonist who created B.C. and The Wizard of Id.

However, Binghamton's most famous hometown hero is Rod "Twilight Zone" Serling. In Recreation Park, the indoor carousel is painted with scenes from Twilight Zone episodes, and a plaque in the floor of the outdoor bandstand honors "Walking Distance," a Twilight Zone episode set in a very similar park with very similar bandstand in which Gig Young plays a 36-year-old burned-out executive. Rod was 36 at the time he wrote it, and he died young at 51.

Binghamton visitors might also recognize Boscov's Department Store and the Binghamton Bus Terminal as inspirations for other fan-favorite episodes.