Rod Serling Paid To Reshoot A Twilight Zone Episode When Its Original Star Died
When the star of a divisive Twilight Zone episode suddenly died, Rod Serling had no choice but to pay out of pocket to salvage it as best he could.
In 1959, the creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, faced a tragic situation when the original star of an episode, Paul Douglas, passed away unexpectedly. Douglas had played the manager in the baseball-themed episode, The Mighty Casey. Due to Douglas's poor health during filming, Serling believed the episode was unfunny and a failure.
Despite the network executives initially refusing to pay for reshoots, Serling chose to spend $27,000 of his own money to have a new actor replace Douglas. Jack Warden later took on the role in the reshot episode, which premiered on June 17, 1960. Although the post-reshoot version isn't considered the best Twilight Zone episode, it would have been far worse if Serling had used the original performance of an ill actor.
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