You may have read that, but I don't believe that that was the reason why. I read a biography of Serling and, according to many of his friends and coworkers, he literally was not without a cigarette from the moment he awoke to the moment he went to sleep. He came home from WW II chain smoking and continued to do so up until his death at 50.

I remember reading somewhere that at first, the reason Serling was holding a cigarette while doing his intros was to hide is nervousness in front of the camera.
I read this as well. He was very nervous about appearing on camera and felt the cigarette calmed him down.

Yes, he always looked older than he was. The smoking and the tanning did that.

He was only aged 35 when The Twilight Zone first started, yet to me he looks more like 55! I guess that's what chainsmoking does to your skin, and the arteries throughout your body I suppose fair no better.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain . Time to die

It was because of marketing, A lighter company sponsor had them change "Do you have a match?" to lighter

I remember reading somewhere that at first, the reason Serling was holding a cigarette while doing his intros was to hide is nervousness in front of the camera.

There is NO DOUBT that smoking killed Serling.
It utterly destroyed his circulatory system.
He also was a tanning addict; if the smoking hadn't gotten him, he probably would have developed melanoma.

"If drinkers were constantly walking up to nondrinkers and pouring some of their drink on them, you'd see some changes in the law concerning that, too."
You must not party in the same cirles as me. These drunks around here spill their drinks like crazy.

I have seen several random threads where people are amazed by people smoking on screen. Where do you people live? Do you never see someone smoking? I don't smoke, never have but grew up with both parents smoking. It never bothered me then but now I am very sensitive to cigarette smoke.
If people want to smoke, that's their problem, I don't object. Just please be considerate of people who don't.
The thing I can't believe is how smoking seems to be so popular and why do kids start in the first place? I have seen so many lives hurt by smoking. I personally would love to see tobacco companies go bankrupt due to lack of sales.

Plus, sitting one table over in a restaurant from someone that's drinking won't make me drunk, and sitting next to a homosexual won't make me catch "gayness", but sitting next to a smoker is a different story. It's not a matter of your rights; it's a matter of everyone else's. If drinkers were constantly walking up to nondrinkers and pouring some of their drink on them, you'd see some changes in the law concerning that, too.

" Hollywood acts1354 as if smoking is the worst thing in the world, but then they try to convince us that abominations like homosexuality, cheating on your spouse, abortion, taking illegal drugs and alcoholism aren't so bad and are a person's right to do so if they wish. It's completely insane. Well, I'm no longer a smoker, but I believe it's a person's right to smoke a cigarette if they wish without having to go hide in a cave somewhere. "
and it IS also a person's right to do all those other things you seem to think are abominations. Whether or not you agree with them is not the point. IT IS THEIR RIGHT.
As to Serling smoking on camera, those were the times. Sadly, it is probably that habit that caused his untimely death.

This message has been deleted.

Is not an abomination as is not a blessing. It's just a sexual preference.

"Hollywood acts as if smoking is the worst thing in the world, but then they try to convince us that abominations like homosexuality"
I pity you if you believe homosexuality is an abomination.
http://www.youtube.com/UofLCardFan
"You just ain't zany enough to rock with Shady"

Smoking is a bad habit. But like another poster said. Kids see much worse on television today. Hollywood acts as if smoking is the worst thing in the world, but then they try to convince us that abominations like homosexuality, cheating on your spouse, abortion, taking illegal drugs and alcoholism aren't so bad and are a person's right to do so if they wish. It's completely insane. Well, I'm no longer a smoker, but I believe it's a person's right to smoke a cigarette if they wish without having to go hide in a cave somewhere.

Yeah, so let's not reduce the cancers and emphysema from smoking
The "X" is killing more than "Y" argument is stupid, something has to be number one, it doesn't make everything else unimportant.

I remember the Fourth Season episode, "He's Alive", with Dennis Hopper. The dissolve to Serling sitting in his chair chain-smoking as he delivered his monologue was just plain creepy. He looked like Mephistopheles just risen up from Hell with all those curlicues of infernal smoke swirling around his head!

lol! You sound like you're in jr high!
suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008

plain and simple are you all that dumb to even think that when rod serling made the twilight zone and smoked cigarettes that this would have a nagative impact on society today? wow crawl back inside your uneducated caves, and try taking the little course called history all over again. you make me sick.

A couple of years ago, I went through all of the TZ narrations to transcribe them as accurately as possible. (Marc Scott Zicree's book has tons of errors in the narrations, and even the late, lamented Fifth Dimension website had quite a few.) While I was doing that, I kept track of all the TZs that showed Serling holding a lit cigarette. There were a lot less than I expectedonly 28, less than one-quarter of the 121 episodes that show Serling on camera. I guess holding the cigarette makes a bigger visual impression than not holding the cigarette, so that's what we tend to remember.
On the theory that at least one person here wants to see the complete list, here it is:
Episodes where we see Rod holding a lit cigarette (all intros except for "A World of His Own"): 28
36. "A World of His Own"
43. "Nick of Time"
46. "A Most Unusual Camera"
51. "The Invaders"
55. "Mr. Dingle, the Strong"
64. "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"
65. "The Obsolete Man"
66. "Two"
67. "The Arrival"
70. "A Game of Pool"
82. "One More Pallbearer"
85. "Showdown with Rance McGrew"
88. "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank"
93. "The Little People"
94. "Four O'Clock"
95. "Hocus Pocus and Frisby"
98. "The Dummy"
99. "Young Man's Fancy"
100. "I Sing the Body Electric"
116. "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
121. "In Praise of Pip"
124. "A Kind of a Stopwatch"
127. "The Old Man in the Cave"
128. "Uncle Simon"
130. "The 7th Is Made up of Phantoms"
131. "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain"
143. "Queen of the Nile"
150. "Stopover in a Quiet Town"
Honorable mention:
84. "The Hunt"it looks like Rod is rolling a cigarette, or at least pretending to be. (Compare his hand motions with those in the cigarette-rolling scene in "Showdown with Rance McGrew.") A little backwoods humor, I suppose.
I don't think I missed any, but if I did, let me know.

The fact is both kill. Period.

I was recently in a car accident and the seat belt absolutely saved my life. Many other drivers have similar stories. You can't blame "politicians" for your ailment, everyone should wear a seatbelt whenever they ride in a car.
To be kind of on topic, I've been watching the Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi and I have yet to see an introduction where Rod isn't smoking.

Also for the record, my father died before his time from complications of emphysema brought on by years of heavy smoking. I also grew up in the era of the majority of people smoking, and had no problem noticing that wonderful cigarette&coffee breath that most of them had. <<
You wrote this post on my father's 76th birthday, who also suffers and lives with emphysema as well.

I know! Rare is the episode where he
doesn't
have one.
Formerly rose-lisa
President of the new imdb Danny Phantom fanclub