A show like The Twilight Zone will live on in the hearts and minds of sci-fi lovers everywhere. However, when pressed, Rod Serling revealed he was not particularly fond of his time spent in much of television. "When Tris Speaker goes back to baseball, I'll go back to a series," Serling said during a 1968 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

The series lasted for roughly half of a decade, and Serling didn't just captain the series; he also wrote for the program and served as the narrator for most of the episodes as well. Serling's workload on the series was intense and rigorous, and didn't allow him much free time. After The Twilight Zone, Serling didn't skip a beat and then worked on shows like The Night Gallery, which ran for three years. Looking back in hindsight, Serling was more than willing to dismiss any rose-colored glasses while taking a trip down memory lane.

"Doing the weekly series was the most physically exhausting and horrendous time of my life," said Serling. "It was a seven-day week and I ran out of speed and ingenuity."

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Not only was Serling forced to work nonstop on The Twilight Zone, but he was also under a tremendous amount of pressure. In his opinion, these factors caused him to lose any creativity regarding the series, along with any lust for storytelling.

"When you're involved with a series, you lose perspective," said Serling. "You forget what is good and bad. Your criteria is the Nielsen ratings rather than the New York Times review. You forget what the critics say and just worry about what's going to happen 13 weeks hence."