THE TWILIGHT ZONE: SEASON 2
See Videography 7 for an explanation of the rating system for Serling’s Twilight Zone episodes.
“King Nine Will Not Return”
*
Air Date: September 30, 1960
Directed by Buzz Kulick
Cast: Bob Cummings: Captain James Embry; Paul Lambert: Doctor; Gene Lyons: Psychiatrist; Jenna McMahon: Nurse
The One Where: A World War II pilot, Captain James Embry, awakens in an African desert next to his wrecked plane, with no idea of what has happened to his crew and little memory of how his plane crashed.
It Turns Out: Embry is actually lying in a hospital bed, having suffered a breakdown after seeing a newspaper headline claiming that a World War II–era fighter plane—his plane, the King Nine—was found virtually intact in the desert. Captain Embry was not aboard when it crashed and he has subsequently lived with the guilt of not having been there for his crew. Lying in the hospital bed, he has likely been dreaming of visiting his crashed plane. But if he’s only been dreaming, how did his shoes become filled with sand?
Notes: Serling frequently transplanted elements from one script into another or even reused earlier scripts in their entirety. In most cases, he had sensible reasons for doing so. Scripts written for The Storm had been performed live and seen only in the Cincinnati area, meaning that Serling could resell these scripts to national series as basically new material. Early live performances on national shows could occasionally be modified slightly and resold to different programs many years later, after the original performance had likely been forgotten (especially when no recording had been retained). And in some cases, Serling revisited an earlier story specifically to explore its theme from a different angle or through a different character’s viewpoint.
In some instances, however, Serling essentially rewrote earlier scripts for no discernable reason. “King Nine Will Not Return” is for all practical purposes a retelling of The Twilight Zone’s pilot episode, “Where Is Everybody?,” transplanted from an abandoned town into a desert. The only meritorious aspect of revisiting that script is that Serling was able to use the ending from the short story adaptation of “Where Is Everybody?”: the character finds physical evidence that his “delusion” was somehow real. Such an unexplainable twist was deemed too risky for a pilot, but after a year of developing the show’s reputation and acclimating its audience, Serling could take the gamble.
“The Man in the Bottle”
**
Air Date: October 7, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited
Directed by Don Medford
Cast: Luther Adler: Arthur Castle; Vivi Janiss: Edna Castle; Joseph Ruskin: Genie; Lisa Golm: Mrs. Gumley; Olan Soule: IRS Man
The One Where: A financially struggling couple who run an antiques shop discover a magic lamp that releases a wish-fulfilling genie. They use the first of their four wishes to fix a broken pane of glass, merely to test the genie’s power. They next wish for a million dollars, a large chunk of which they give away to people who come into the shop asking for help and the rest of which is gobbled up by the IRS. Believing the genie is tricking them into wishing for things that will backfire, the husband thinks long and hard before coming up with what he thinks is a foolproof wish: power. Specifically, he wishes to be the ruler of a contemporary foreign country who cannot be voted out of office.
It Turns Out: He finds himself transformed into Adolf Hitler, besieged in his bunker at the end of World War II while his deputies encourage him to commit suicide. Horrified, he begs to be returned to his simple life before he’d discovered the genie. This final wish fulfilled, the couple realizes that their worries are not so consequential after all.
Trivia: Joseph Ruskin, who plays the genie, provided the voice of the Kanamits in the third season’s “To Serve Man.”
“Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room”
**
Air Date: October 14, 1960
Directed by Douglas Heyes
Cast: Joe Mantell: Jackie Rhoades; William D. Gordon: George
The One Where: When his boss orders him to commit a murder, a small-time crook looks for the courage to refuse and finds it in the mirror. Talking to his reflection, he discovers the strong, independent, confident side of himself that he has always ignored.
It Turns Out: Given the chance, the reflection changes places with him. He rebels against his boss and leaves the nervous, spineless version of himself behind, trapped in the mirror.
Notes: As executive producer and co-owner of The Twilight Zone, Serling was intimately involved in all aspects of the series’s production, including its budget. Budgetary concerns dictated that at times he needed to write scripts that involved minimal characters and sets. “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room” is a particularly successful example of one of those scripts, thanks to a very strong performance by Joe Mantell in a dual role.
“A Thing about Machines”
**
Air Date: October 28, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
2. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Haining, Dead of Night
Directed by David Orrick McDearmon
Cast: Richard Haydn: Bartlett Finchley; Barney Phillips: TV Repairman; Barbara Stuart: Edith; Henry Beckman: Policeman; Margarita Cordova: Girl on TV; Jay Overholts: Intern
The One Where: A man who has an irrational loathing of modern machinery believes that his mechanical appliances have a vendetta against him. After he puts his foot through his television screen and smashes an antique clock, the machines fight back. His electric razor attacks him, his typewriter types threatening notes to him, and a dancer on his television screen speaks directly to him, ordering him to leave. When he runs outside, his car’s headlights turn on. And when he runs, the car chases him.
It Turns Out: His car chases him into a swimming pool, where he drowns. Neighbors claim to have heard Finchley screaming before his death. Was the whole experience in his mind? Maybe. But if it was, why was his body at the bottom of the pool, as if pinned there by something heavy, instead of floating at the top?
Notes: According to Serling, this story had its genesis when he was
trying to shave with a banged-up razor … when three appliances in my house gave out—a washer, a dryer, and a television set. It occurred to me how absolutely vulnerable we are to gadgets.… Then the progression took the form of a story involving a man whose appliances become entities and instead of just stopping on him, they went the full route and actually remonstrated against him. Unfortunately, the show did not live up to its potential.1
If “A Thing about Machines” was not as effective as it could have been, one reason may be that Serling’s original ending was not used. In Serling’s original draft, Finchley’s car chases him not into his swimming pool but back into his garage, pinning him against a wall. The following morning, his body is discovered slumped over the hood of the car. A doctor examines the body and suspects that he died of a heart attack. Neighbors report hearing Finchley screaming late that night, and a policeman says that he found Finchley with his eyes wide open, looking “as if he had seen a ghost … or as if a ghost were chasing him!”
It is not clear why the ending was changed. Serling was at his summer cottage in Interlaken, New York, at the time of production, and he and the episode’s director, David McDearmon, collaborated over the phone on a new ending, which McDearmon then wrote. While Serling’s original ending was easily understandable yet maintained the series’s customary ambiguity, the revised ending is needlessly obtuse. Making the ending more confusing, Serling’s closing narration referencing Finchley’s heart attack had already been recorded, so the rewritten ending couldn’t have Finchley simply drown but needed to imply that he might have had a heart attack as well.
Not surprisingly, this ending confused many viewers, leading Serling to write, “Mr. Finchley drowned in his swimming pool. Upon reflecting, I wish I had before I wrote the bloody thing.”2
“Eye of the Beholder”
***
Air Date: November 11, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Also known as “The Private World of Darkness”
2. Remake produced on The Twilight Zone, premiered April 30, 2003
Directed by Douglas Heyes
Cast: Maxine Stuart: Janet Tyler (under bandages); Donna Douglas: Janet Tyler (revealed); William D. Gordon: Dr. Bernardi; Jennifer Howard: Nurse; Joanna Heyes: Nurse #2; George Keymas: Leader; Edson Stroll: Walter Smith
The One Where: A hospitalized woman whose face is completely covered in bandages waits to discover the results of recent surgery performed to “cure” her of extreme ugliness.
It Turns Out: The woman is what we would consider beautiful, while everyone else in this world is hideously deformed. The surgery was part of the totalitarian government’s insistence on complete conformity. Declared incurable, the woman is shipped out to live with others of “her kind,” segregated from the “normal” majority.
Notes: If there is a quintessential Twilight Zone episode, “Eye of the Beholder” is likely it. This single episode combines several elements that became trademarks of the series: a memorable twist ending, unforgettable visuals (in the form of William Tuttle’s makeup work as well as George T. Clemens’s stark cinematography), and a sharply written morality lesson.
This is one of those wild ones that I came up with while lying in bed and staring into the darkness. Nothing precipitated it but the writer’s instinct as to what constitutes an interesting story. Also, as is so often the case on The Twilight Zone, I would like to make a thematic point. “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” was a parable having to do with prejudice. “Eye of the Beholder” on the other hand made a comment on conformity. No audience likes a writer’s opinion thrust down their gullet as simply a tract. It has to be dramatized and made acceptably palatable within a dramatic form. This is how we designed “Eye of the Beholder” and I think we were successful.3
On another occasion, he mused,
There are times when film seems to fulfill its function—that of an eye, a story teller, and a probing machine into the innards of people. EYE OF THE BEHOLDER seems to us to eminently handle all these assignments and it does so with taste, excitement and meaning. I think it’s one of the most unique shows we’ve ever done on The Twilight Zone and conceivably is one of the most unusual ever to appear on television.4
Trivia: “Eye of the Beholder” was Serling’s original title for this episode as well as the title when it was first broadcast. When it was first repeated in June 1962, however, the title had been changed to “The Private World of Darkness.” Just four days prior to its initial broadcast, Stuart Reynolds Productions wrote to inform Serling that “Eye of the Beholder” was the title of a 1954 episode of G.E. Theater. Although the similarities between the two productions ended there, Stuart Reynolds insisted that Serling “cease and desist from using such title on Twilight Zone.” Stuart Reynolds had leased its film (which explores how two people can have differing perceptions of the same situation) for educational purposes to schools and businesses, and company executives argued that “to have a film bearing the same title appear on such a popular program as ‘Twilight Zone’ on CBS at this time would tend to create confusion and possible injury and loss of revenue to us.”5 Stuart Reynolds’s protest arrived too late for Serling to change the title before the initial broadcast, but although Serling argued that the title was “as eminently public domain as it is eminently well-known,” he agreed to make a change before the episode was repeated.6 The episode has aired in syndication under both titles, and both versions have been included in Twilight Zone DVD collections.
**
Air Date: December 2, 1960
Directed by Jack Smight
Cast: Inger Stevens: Jana; John Hoyt: Dr. Loren; Irene Tedrow: Mrs. Loren; Mary Gregory: Nelda; Jason Johnson: Jensen; Doris Karnes: Gretchen; Valley Keene: Suzanne; Tom Palmer: Robert
The One Where: A wealthy scientist has created a group of android servants to cater to his family’s every whim. The scientist’s daughter finds that she can no longer accept her parents’ dependence on these machines and demands that they deactivate them.
It Turns Out: The daughter is also an android. Once she has discovered the truth about herself, her father fears that she will never be able to stifle her rebellious impulses and resume her role as a loving, dutiful daughter. Regretfully, he reprograms her as a household servant.
Notes: “The Lateness of the Hour” was the first of six episodes (along with “The Whole Truth,” “The Night of the Meek,” “Static,” “What’s in the Box?” and “Twenty-Two”) shot on videotape rather than film to save money, a decision against which Serling later rebelled. These episodes are visually quite different from the rest of the series. Videotape limits directorial options, meaning that most of these episodes feature a dull, unimaginative style. The aspects of film noir so integral to most of the filmed episodes are absent, and the videotaped episodes appear cheap and bland in comparison.
“A Most Unusual Camera”
**
Air Date: December 16, 1960
Directed by John Rich
Cast: Fred Clark: Chester Dietrich; Jean Carson: Paula Dietrich; Adam Williams: Woodward; Marcel Hillaire: Waiter (Pierre)
The One Where: A trio of dimwitted crooks—Chester; Paula; and Paula’s brother, Woodward—discover that a stolen camera takes pictures of future events. After using the camera to win a bundle of money at the track (by photographing the winners’ board before the race starts and thus seeing the list of winners), they discover that the camera has only a few pictures left. Arguing over how to use the remaining pictures, Chester threatens Woodward with a knife. In the ensuing struggle, the two tumble out of their hotel window, plunging to their deaths. Certain that she has enough money to last a lifetime, Paula uses the camera’s last piece of film to take a picture of their bodies, lying dead in the courtyard below.
It Turns Out: Once the two men are out of the way, a waiter at the hotel enters the room intending to abscond with the money. He looks at the final picture and tells Paula that it shows more than two bodies lying dead outside. Rushing to the window for a look, she trips and plunges out the window. Looking again at the picture, the waiter counts the bodies: “One, two, three … four?” With a gasp, he somehow follows the other three out the window.
Notes: Serling’s original script featured a somewhat more plausible ending. After Chester and Woodward fall out of the window, Paula, who has heart “palpitations,” accidentally snaps a picture of a mirror that shows her dead body lying on the floor. She then immediately fulfills the camera’s prophecy by dropping dead of a heart attack. In a particularly inane case of meddling, CBS’s Standards and Practices Department decreed that this ending would be too upsetting to anyone in the audience who had a heart condition and asked Serling to “restrain from the coronary histrionics.”7 He complied. For the same reason that episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents often ended with Hitchcock reassuring the audience that a character had ultimately been punished even though he appeared to have gotten away with a crime, CBS also insisted that the waiter in “A Most Unusual Camera” could not take Paula’s money without facing consequences. So Serling’s ending degenerated to the point of having the waiter inexplicably fall out the window as well.
“The Night of the Meek”
***
Air Date: December 23, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, New Stories
2. Remake produced on The Twilight Zone, premiered December 20, 1985
Directed by Jack Smight
Cast: Art Carney: Henry Corwin; John Fiedler: Mr. Dundee; Val Avery: Bartender; Robert P. Lieb: Flaherty; Burt Mustin: Old Man; Meg Wyllie: Sister Florence
The One Where: A department store Santa Claus in a depressed, inner-city neighborhood finds a sack that produces any Christmas gift he chooses to pull from it.
It Turns Out: He derives such joy from giving these gifts that he gets the chance to repeat the act every Christmas. A sleigh pulled by flying reindeer takes him to his new home at the North Pole.
Notes: Art Carney’s performance in Playhouse 90’s“The Velvet Alley” forever endeared him to Serling, who said, “When you talk about beautiful people, Art Carney has got to be one of the [most] stunning men that I’ve ever met. Apart from his vast talent is the fact that he’s a dear guy.”8 According to Twilight Zone producer Buck Houghton, Serling wrote this part with Carney specifically in mind.
Sister Florence (Meg Wyllie) and Henry Corwin (Art Carney) get in the spirit in “The Night of the Meek.”
Serling was inspired to write the story when he was “watching a Santa Claus parade with my two kids … and noticed that on the Santa Claus float the worthy gentlemen chosen for the role must have been a last minute and at least third string replacement. He weighed just a few pounds more than Slim Summerville and his Santa Claus suit must have been dredged out of a canal someplace. It suddenly came to me that perhaps there’s a story lurking somewhere in the whole concept of these guys who play Santa Claus for a living.”9
Less than two weeks before the broadcast, Serling was pessimistic about how the show would turn out: “The Christmas show instead of being the sheer delight I had hoped it would be, turned out to be an inconsequential nothing.” A week later, his opinion had gone even lower: the episode was “an abomination [that] looks for all the world like a rough dress rehearsal that is a couple of days away from coming around.”10 Some if not all of Serling’s dissatisfaction seems to have stemmed from the fact that the episode was shot on videotape instead of film. He subsequently had a change of heart about this episode, and it became one of his favorites. For several years, he screened the show for his daughters and their friends on Christmas.11
“Dust”
**
Air Date: January 6, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
Directed by Douglas Heyes
Cast: Thomas Gomez: Peter Sykes; John Alonso: Luis Gallegos; Vladimir Sokoloff: Gallegos; John Larch: Sheriff Koch; Dorothy Adams: Mrs. Canfield; Paul Genge: John Canfield; Duane Grey: Rogers; Jon Lormer: Man; Andrea Margolis: Estrellita Gallegos
The One Where: In a dusty border town in the late 1800s, a young Mexican man, Gallegos, awaits execution as punishment for having trampled a young girl beneath his horse-drawn wagon while intoxicated. When his superstitious father pleads for his son’s life, a deceitful peddler sells the man a bag filled with “magic dust” that can transform hate into love and create sympathy for his son in anyone the dust is sprinkled upon. With a crowd gathered to watch the execution, the father stands before the gallows and tosses the dust on everyone there, tearfully begging them to “heed the magic.”
It Turns Out: Although the dust is ordinary dirt and the people merely laugh at the old man, something miraculous happens behind him: the brand-new rope wrapped around his son’s neck snaps, dropping him unharmed to the ground. Given the choice of attempting the hanging a second time, the parents of the young girl ask the sheriff to grant Gallegos mercy; there is indeed some magic at work here, and they heed its message.
Notes: In another example of the wisdom of a common piece of writing advice, “Never throw anything away,” “Dust” can be directly traced to one of Serling’s earliest radio scripts, “The Dust by Any Other Name,” a version of which was also produced as “The Sands of Tom” on The Storm. All three stories are based on the premise of a “magic dust” that can inspire goodwill among men.
“Back There”
**
Air Date: January 13, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone
Directed by David Orrick McDearmon
Cast: Russell Johnson: Peter Corrigan; John Lasell: Jonathan Wellington/John Wilkes Booth; Pat O’Malley: Attendant; Raymond Bailey: Millard; Lew Brown: Lieutenant; John Eldredge: Whittaker; James Gavin: Policeman; Raymond Greenleaf: Jackson; Paul Hartman: Police Sergeant; Jean Inness: Mrs. Landers; Bartlett Robinson: William
The One Where: Members of a prestigious country club debate whether time travel is possible and if so, whether history can be changed. After the debate, Peter Corrigan finds that he has traveled back in time to a few days before President Lincoln’s assassination.
It Turns Out: After unsuccessfully trying to prevent Lincoln’s death, he returns to the present, convinced that history cannot be changed. This conclusion is immediately challenged, however, when Corrigan learns that a man who had worked as an attendant at the club prior to his trip through time is now somehow one of the club’s wealthy members. The man reports that his family became wealthy because his grandfather was the only policeman who believed a deranged man’s warnings about a plot to kill Lincoln and tried to prevent the assassination. Corrigan reconsiders his position: maybe some aspects of history can be changed after all.
“The Whole Truth”
Air Date: January 20, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, New Stories
Directed by James Sheldon
Cast: Jack Carson: Harvey Hunnicut; George Chandler: Old Man; Jack Ging: Young Man; Arte Johnson: Irv; Nan Peterson: Young Woman; Lee Sabinson: Nikita Khrushchev; Loring Smith: Honest Luther Grimbley
The One Where: Harvey Hunnicut, a used car salesman who is dishonest even by the standards of his profession, comes into possession of an antique automobile that carries a curse: it forces anyone who owns it to tell nothing but the truth.
It Turns Out: He breaks the curse by selling the car to someone who needs a truth serum even more than Hunnicut does: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
“Twenty-Two”
**
Based on an anecdote in Bennett Cerf, ed., Famous Ghost Stories
Air Date: February 10, 1961
Directed by Jack Smight
Cast: Barbara Nichols: Liz Powell; Arline Sax: Nurse in Morgue; Jonathan Harris: Doctor; Fredd Wayne: Barney Kamener; Mary Adams: Day Nurse; Norma Connolly: Night Nurse; Angus Dixon: Ticket Clerk; Wesley Lau: Airline Agent
The One Where: While hospitalized for exhaustion, a dancer has a recurring nightmare about a creepy nurse who leads the dancer to the hospital morgue, located in Room 22 in the hospital basement. Once there, the nurse beckons her inside with the ominous words “Room for one more, honey.”
It Turns Out: After being released from the hospital and about to board a plane for home, the dancer is disturbed to learn that she is on flight 22. She’s further troubled when she sees that a flight attendant resembles the nurse from her dream. When the flight attendant invites the dancer aboard with the same words, “Room for one more, honey,” she runs screaming from the plane, which takes off without her and then explodes shortly after takeoff.
Notes: Though “Twenty-Two” contains a memorable ending and “Room for one more, honey” is one of the series’s more haunting lines of dialogue, the use of videotape makes the episode resemble a cheap docudrama reenactment. The shrill, off-putting nature of the protagonist also works against the episode. “Twenty-Two” would likely have been much more effective if it had been done on film and if this character had been portrayed as more thoughtful and restrained.
“The Odyssey of Flight 33”
**
Air Date: February 24, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
2. Illustrated version by Mark Kneece (2008)
Directed by Justus Addiss
Cast: John Anderson: Captain Skipper Farver; Paul Comi: First Officer John Craig; Wayne Hefley: Second Officer Wyatt; Sandy Kenyon: Navigator Hatch; Beverly Brown: Janie; Nancy Rennick: Paula; Lester Fletcher: RAF Man; Harp McGuire: Flight Engineer Purcell
The One Where: An airplane breaks the sound barrier and accidentally travels back in time to the age of dinosaurs.
It Turns Out: The captain informs the passengers that the plane has only enough fuel to make one attempt to get back to the present. Flight 33 prepares to make the attempt, leaving viewers to wonder whether the plane made it home or remained stranded in prehistoric times.
Notes: Serling initially proposed the idea for this episode to his brother, Robert, an expert in aviation. He declared that the idea that a jet could break the sound barrier was preposterous. Nevertheless, Rod Serling followed through with the idea and asked his brother for help with the aviation terminology used by the cockpit crew. For having written much of this dialogue, Robert Serling received a “technical assistant” credit.
It was not uncommon for a Twilight Zone episode to end on a note of ambiguity, but no other episode ends with quite the same lack of resolution as “The Odyssey of Flight 33.” Although “And When the Sky Was Opened,” for example, does not explain why three astronauts have vanished, their disappearance is explicitly shown. In “Little Girl Lost,” the appearance of an interdimensional portal under Tina’s bed is not explained, but the episode ends with Tina back in her own dimension, safe and sound. Even “It’s a Good Life” ends with a strong suggestion that its characters are doomed to a lifetime of subjugation to a monstrous Anthony Fremont: although nothing is resolved, the audience can be confident about where the characters are headed.
“The Odyssey of Flight 33,” conversely, leaves viewers to guess whether those on board escape the Twilight Zone. Whether this ambiguity is detrimental to the episode’s effectiveness is debatable.
“Mr. Dingle, the Strong”
*
Air Date: March 3, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
Directed by John Brahm
Cast: Burgess Meredith: Luther Dingle; Edward Ryder: Joseph J. Callahan; Don Rickles: Bettor; James Westerfield: Anthony O’Toole; James Millhollin: Jason Abernathy; Douglas Spencer: First Martian; Michael Fox: Second Martian; Donald Losby: First Venusian; Greg Irwin: Second Venusian; Bob McCord: Bob Duggan
The One Where: An unimposing simpleton, Luther Dingle, is visited by aliens who perform an experiment on him, granting him superhuman strength. When Dingle flaunts his godlike powers and proves himself unworthy of their gift, the aliens return to take away his power.
It Turns Out: Two other aliens subsequently arrive and give Dingle superhuman intelligence, which will undoubtedly also prove short-lived.
Notes: Through no fault of Burgess Meredith’s, this is by far the weakest of his four starring appearances on the series and another example of The Twilight Zone’s difficulty in producing a successful comedy.
“A Hundred Yards over the Rim”
***
Air Date: April 7, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation, “Beyond the Rim,” in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited
Directed by Buzz Kulick
Cast: Cliff Robertson: Christian Horn; Miranda Jones: Martha Horn; John Astin: Charlie; Ed Platt: Doctor; Bob McCord: Sheriff; John Crawford: Joe; Evans Evans: Mary Lou
The One Where: American pioneers traveling from Ohio to California in 1847 are starving, running out of water, and trying to care for a very sick little boy. The boy’s father, Christian Horn, decides to head out alone to search for food and water. He’s only planning to venture a hundred yards or so, but he ends up traveling more than a hundred years into the future.
It Turns Out: While in the future, Horn discovers that his son grew up to become a pioneer in the field of childhood medicine. Carrying a bottle of penicillin that he was given to treat a minor wound, Horn escapes back into the past to save his son and thus ensure that this future will come to pass.
“The Rip Van Winkle Caper”
**
Air Date: April 21, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, New Stories
Directed by Justus Addiss
Cast: Oscar Beregi: Farwell; Lew Gallo: Brooks; John Mitchum: Erbie; Simon Oakland: De Cruz; Shirley O’Hara: George’s Wife; Wallace Rooney: George
The One Where: Four criminals steal a million dollars’ worth of gold from a train headed through the Nevada desert. They have set up cryogenic chambers in a cave in the desert and plan to place themselves in suspended animation for a hundred years, waking long after anyone would be hunting for them or the gold.
It Turns Out: They wake to find that their plan has worked—they are no longer wanted men. But their hoard of treasure is worthless because gold lost all its value when a way to mass-produce it was discovered decades earlier.
“The Silence”
***
Air Date: April 28, 1961
Directed by Boris Sagal
Cast: Franchot Tone: Colonel Archie Taylor; Liam Sullivan: Jamie Tennyson; Jonathan Harris: George Alfred; Cyril Delevanti: Franklin
The One Where: Colonel Archie Taylor bets a boastful (and broke) fellow country club member, Jamie Tennyson, half a million dollars that he cannot remain silent for one year. To ensure that he does not speak a word for the duration, Tennyson is placed in an enclosed area where he can be constantly observed and recorded. After going a year without uttering a sound, Tennyson emerges to collect his winnings.
It Turns Out: Colonel Taylor cannot pay the amount wagered—he is destitute and has been for many years. In response to this revelation, Tennyson scribbles a note and hands it to him: “I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my part of the bargain, so one year ago I had the nerves to my vocal chords severed.” He pulls down a cravat that he has been wearing to cover his neck, revealing a long surgical scar across the front of his throat.
Notes: After the initial broadcast of “The Silence,” at least one viewer wrote to Serling to point out its resemblance to “The Bet,” a short story by Anton Chekhov. Several years later, while teaching at Ithaca College, Serling acknowledged the similarity: “That’s a risk you run often. Even the best-read of us, not to be defensive about it, but you’ll come up with a plot line that you think is altogether unique and your own,” and it turns out not to be.12
“The Bet” significantly differs from “The Silence,” however, most obviously in the nature of the story’s instigating wager. In Chekhov’s story, a group of wealthy men debate the relative morality of capital punishment versus lifetime imprisonment. A banker argues that capital punishment is more humane because it offers a quick death rather than a long, torturous one. A young lawyer counters that life, even in prison, is always preferable to death. The banker then bets the lawyer an exorbitant sum that he cannot last five years in solitary confinement before surrendering to the need for human companionship. The lawyer, in a fit of misplaced pride, contends that for such an amount of money he could remain confined for fifteen years. He is subsequently locked in a lodge on the banker’s land, where he has an unlimited supply of books, a piano, and all the necessities except human contact. Over the next fifteen years, the banker loses all of his substantial fortune, and he begins to consider murdering the imprisoned man. Twenty-four hours before the banker will lose the wager, he sneaks into the lodge and finds the emaciated lawyer asleep at a table next to a sheet of paper on which he has written that his reading of the great works of literature and philosophy has inspired him to reject all aspects of the material world and to despise all of humankind, which would “exchange heaven for earth.” He has entirely lost interest in human companionship. To prove his sincerity, he is planning to leave his prison five hours before the fifteen years is up and forfeit the bet. The banker returns to his house, and the next day learns that the prisoner has vanished during the night. The banker is left to reassess all that he had valued and contemplate the frivolity of his life.
“The Silence” is one of the few Twilight Zone episodes that does not contain a supernatural element. It is also one of several episodes that can be said to end with a twist upon a twist, and that second twist is among the series’s most surprising.
Even more effective than its ending is the economy of language with which Serling characterizes his two protagonists and the way he manipulates the audience’s perception of these characters over the next twenty-four minutes. First he presents Tennyson, rattling on about a potential business deal. The viewer recognizes that he is shamelessly name-dropping despite the fact that the name in question is fictional. Tennyson is an intrusive bore, but he is not an obnoxious loudmouth on the level of McNulty of “A Kind of a Stopwatch” or Julius Moomer of “The Bard.” The rest of the country club members are annoyed by Tennyson but seem able to tolerate him. Only Taylor, who is seated well apart from Tennyson and the group, finds the man intolerable. Taylor’s annoyance seems justified, but the audience’s rooting interest is not yet established. When Taylor proposes the wager, he notes that his dislike for Tennyson is based not on social status but on the belief that Tennyson lacks simple courtesy: all Taylor wants is a little peace and quiet. Again, the viewer can sympathize with his motives. Tennyson’s desperation is then revealed. He explains that his wife has expensive tastes and that he loves her enough to try to satisfy those tastes. Sympathy starts to shift toward Tennyson. Once imprisoned, Taylor soon becomes the clear villain. Fearing that he will lose the bet, he visits Tennyson and torments him with invented rumors about his wife. Tennyson apparently shows great self-control in not taking the bait. Once he has won the bet and is released, he strides toward Taylor, a smug expression on his face, and thrusts out his hand, wordlessly demanding payment. Taylor is humiliated. He admits that he is a fraud and resigns his club membership. He says that he would have begged on the street to collect the five thousand dollars that he had offered as a compromise to end the wager early. He concedes that Tennyson is the better man, and his concession is sincere. Again sympathy shifts. And finally, when Tennyson reveals what he has done to win the bet, he embodies both interpretations: the price he has unnecessarily paid generates immediate sympathy, yet he admits that he knew he could not win the bet fairly. He cheated and did not deserve to win.
“The Silence” ends with one of the series’s most ingenious twists. And leading up to this twist is an ingeniously constructed character study.
*
Air Date: May 12, 1961
Directed by Buzz Kulick
Cast: Shelley Berman: Archibald Beechcroft; Jack Grinnage: Henry; Chester Stratton: Rogers
The One Where: A grumpy, misanthropic man, Archibald Beechcroft, wishes for his own vision of utopia: a world with no people. When he receives a book concerning the “mystical powers of concentration,” he gets the chance to make his vision a reality. Just by concentrating hard enough, he makes everyone else disappear. Alone, he soon finds himself bored, but he still can’t stand other people and refuses to bring them back. He thinks of the perfect solution: bring the people back but make everyone just like him.
It Turns Out: Surrounded by a race of Archibald Beechcrofts, he realizes that he is impossible to live with. The only solution is to put everything back to the way it was and to make a few personality adjustments of his own.
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
***
Air Date: May 26, 1961
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Working titles: “The Night of the Big Rain,” “The Missing Martian,” and “One of Our Martians Is Missing”
2. Illustrated version by Mark Kneece (2009)
Directed by Montgomery Pittman
Cast: John Hoyt: Ross; Jack Elam: Avery; Barney Phillips: Haley; Jean Willes: Ethel McConnell; John Archer: Trooper Bill Padgett; Jill Ellis: Connie Prince; Bill Erwin: Peter Kramer; Gertrude Flynn: Rose Kramer; Morgan Jones: Trooper Dan Perry; Bill Kendis: Olmstead; Ron Kipling: George Prince
The One Where: In the midst of a major snowstorm, two state troopers investigate an apparent UFO crash landing. Their investigation leads them to a nearby diner, where a bus driver and his passengers take shelter from the storm, waiting for a bridge to be declared safe to cross. When they realize that there is an extra person present, they face a question: Which one of them is actually an alien who sneaked into the diner along with them?
It Turns Out: Before the mystery can be solved, the bridge is declared safe and the bus leaves with all of its passengers—plus one—aboard. The bridge then collapses, plunging the bus into the river and drowning all but one passenger. The lone survivor returns to the diner and reveals that he is actually a three-armed alien from Mars, sent as an advance scout for an impending Martian invasion. But the diner’s cook has a surprise as well. He removes his cap to reveal a third eye in the middle of his forehead. The Martian ship won’t be coming, he says—it has been intercepted by a ship from Venus. Earth is going to be colonized, he agrees, but by Venusians, not by Martians.
Only to have the rug pulled from under him by a three-eyed Venusian in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
***
Air Date: June 2, 1961
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Cast: Fritz Weaver: Chancellor; Burgess Meredith: Romney Wordsworth; Josip Elic: Subaltern
The One Where: A librarian, Romney Wordsworth, has been declared obsolete by a totalitarian state and sentenced to death. Given his choice regarding the method of execution, he requests two things that the method remain a secret between him and the executioner and that his death be televised. Visited by the chancellor of the state on the night of his execution, Wordsworth reveals that he has chosen to be executed by having a bomb explode inside his apartment. He then reveals that he has locked the chancellor inside with him. While Wordsworth faces his impending death with courage and dignity, the chancellor breaks down, weeping and begging for his life. Satisfied that the televised audience has witnessed the chancellor’s weakness, Wordsworth shows mercy and allows him to escape just before the room explodes.
It Turns Out: Though he has escaped with his life, his public display of cowardice has made the chancellor obsolete to the state. He is removed from office and torn limb from limb by his rabid former allies.
The Twilight Zone’s second season is marked by several impressive peaks and the unfortunate valley known as videotape. After The Twilight Zone’s first three months on the air, Serling estimated the show’s chances of renewal for a second season as “somewhat less than fifty-fifty.”13 To make the series more attractive to advertisers, he was forced to reduce its budget, and videotape was cheaper than film. Videotape required fewer camera set-ups, fewer sets (no on-location shooting), and less editing time. Colgate and General Foods agreed to sponsor the second season with the understanding that they would commit to an initial package of ten films and six videotapes; if the sponsors wished to renew the series for the remainder of the second season, it would include ten additional videotapes plus three reruns.
After completion of the sixth videotaped show, Serling had seen enough to declare the experiment a failure and foresaw disaster if the series followed through with its initial plan to shoot ten more episodes on tape. He insisted to CBS that if the series were renewed, “it must be done totally on film.”
If the show is renewed and the network insists on the tape commitment, … they must notify both the sponsors that the next ten shows will be sans Serling in the writing area. I’ve fulfilled my writing commitments and moreso for the current year and I’m afraid I’d have to use this threat as a club over their heads even at the risk of losing the show entirely. At the moment my feeling is that the network will not or cannot afford to put us back on film and that therefore The Twilight Zone will fade into obscurity. I must say with further candor that I’m not altogether sure that this isn’t what I’d prefer. It’s been a back breaking, torturous schedule, and both my health and my point of view have suffered irreparably as a result of it. I think perhaps I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns on this thing and I had best begin to worry about my sanity instead of concerning myself with capital gains.14
The series was renewed, and the remainder of the second season was shot on film. And Serling’s “torturous schedule” continued.
The most significant positive development in The Twilight Zone’s second season was the contribution made by the writing triumvirate of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and George Clayton Johnson. “The Howling Man,” in which a weary traveler encounters an order of religious fanatics who claim to have imprisoned the devil inside their monastery, and “Shadow Play,” the story of a man who believes he is in the midst of a recurring nightmare that perpetually ends with his execution in the electric chair, are perhaps the two strongest Beaumont-written episodes. “The Invaders,” Matheson’s almost wordless story starring Agnes Moorehead as a woman terrorized by what appear to be tiny aliens, is one of the series’s best-remembered episodes, and his “Nick of Time,” starring William Shatner as a superstitious man who becomes addicted to a tabletop fortune-telling machine, is another high point. And while the series had previously adapted Johnson’s stories and ideas, this season includes the writer’s first teleplay contribution, “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” which includes another of the series’s most memorable gimmicks: a flipped coin that lands on its edge and somehow gives a man the power of telepathy.
“The Howling Man” aired on November 6, 1960. The following week, Serling’s “Eye of the Beholder” debuted. And one week later came Matheson’s “Nick of Time.” This three-week period likely constituted the pinnacle of the series.
Second-Season Twilight Zone Episodes Not Written by Rod Serling
“The Howling Man,” written by Charles Beaumont based on his short story, November 6, 1960 ***
“Nick of Time,” written by Richard Matheson, November 18, 1960 ***
“The Trouble with Templeton,” written by E. Jack Neuman, December 9, 1960 ***
“The Invaders,” written by Richard Matheson, January 27, 1961 **
“A Penny for Your Thoughts,” written by George Clayton Johnson, February 3, 1961 ***
“Static,” written by Charles Beaumont based on OCee Ritch’s unpublished short story, March 10, 1961 **
“The Prime Mover,” by Charles Beaumont based on George Clayton Johnson’s idea, March 24, 1961 **
“Long Distance Call,” written by Charles Beaumont and William Idelson, March 31, 1961 **
“Shadow Play,” written by Charles Beaumont, May 5, 1961 ***
Second-Season Recap
*** 11
** 14
* 4
