Rod Serling on Censorship

Poor Lassie can have no more puppies because it made someone think of sex. Rod Serling talked to Mike Wallace about censorship on TV in 1959. Not much has changed -you can still lose sponsors if someone complains. A commenter pointed out how Serling was a genius at getting around such censorship, and how it contributed to the art of television.

The irony here is that the format of "The Twilight Zone" was created as a way to get around censorship. If social commentary was disguised as tales about aliens and monsters then it was easier to get past execs and sponsors; we might not have "The Twilight Zone" if not for Serling having to find a way to work around them.

(via Boing Boing)