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Binghamton is a city in New York's Southern Tier where the Chenango River joins the Susquehanna, and it has an unlikely dual identity: the birthplace of Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, and the self-proclaimed Carousel Capital of the World. The six antique wooden merry-go-rounds scattered across the city's parks were donated by shoe manufacturer George F. Johnson in the early 20th century with the stipulation that they always be free to ride, and they still are. Walking up to a working 1925 carousel with hand-carved wooden horses in a neighbourhood park and being waved on without paying is a small, genuine delight.

Rod Serling grew up in Binghamton and graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1943.

The carousel in Recreation Park, with its gazebo, was the direct inspiration for his 1959 Twilight Zone episode 'Walking Distance,' about a man who goes home again and finds himself in his own childhood. A statue of Serling and a plaque quoting the episode now stand beside the carousel, and a self-guided walking tour connects the places in the city that shaped his imagination. Binghamton was also significant in early computing history as the home of IBM operations that contributed to the development of the first commercial computers in the 1950s.