October Second, Twice

Quick answer: Were Charles Schulz and Rod Serling World War II veterans?

Yes. Charles Schulz was a staff sergeant who led a machine-gun squad with the 20th Armored Division, which crossed France and fought in Germany in 1945. Rod Serling was a paratrooper with the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Philippines, wounded in the wrist and knee, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Two rooms, two young veterans, and other men deciding what their work could say. In Minnesota, a barber's son from St. Paul signs a syndicate contract for his cartoon children, even though they've renamed the strip and he hates the new name. During the war he'd led a machine-gun squad across Germany; the one time he aimed at a German soldier, he'd forgotten to load the gun. In New York, a former paratrooper wounded in the Philippines watches sponsors gut his scripts about the murder of Emmett Till. Neither man let it stand. Charles Schulz drew Peanuts alone for almost fifty years, carrying loneliness, faith, and failure onto the funny pages. Rod Serling pitched a show of spaceships and stopped clocks, then wrote or co-wrote 92 of The Twilight Zone's 156 episodes, bringing prejudice and the bomb into living rooms dressed as make-believe. Each found a form small enough to slip past the people who were afraid of it, then filled it with everything he had.

Why it matters for leaders: When the front door is closed to the truth, good leaders find a smaller door and walk through it with everything they've got.

Q: Why did Rod Serling create The Twilight Zone?

A: Sponsors kept scrubbing his serious scripts, including two about the murder of Emmett Till, so he pitched a show of strange stories where prejudice, conformity, and the bomb could appear as make-believe.

Q: How much of Peanuts did Schulz draw himself?

A: Every panel, word balloon, and letter, by hand, for almost fifty years, without an assistant.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/october-second-twice

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation