Twilight Zone Companion

by Marc Scott Zicree

  During the shooting of The New Exhibit, Sohl visited the set. Here I am standing with Chuck Beaumont, he recalls, and John Brahm, the director, comes up, puts his arm around him with the script that / did and says, Chuck, youve done it again! And here I am, standing right next to Chuck, unable to say a word!

  ON THURSDAY WE LEAVE FOR HOME (5/2/63)

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Bert Granet

  Director: Buzz Kulik

  Director of Photography:George T. Clemens

  Music: stock

  Cast: William Benteen: James Whitmore Col. Sloane: Tim OConner Al: James Broderick George: Paul Langton Julie: Jo Helton Joan: Mercedes Shirley Jo Jo: Daniel Kulick Lt. Engle: Lew Gallo Hank: Russ Bender Colonist: Madge Kennedy Colonist: John Ward Colonist: Shirley OHara Colonist: Anthony Benson

  This is William Benteen, who officiates on a disintegrating outpost in space. The people are a remnant society who left the Earth looking for a Millennium, a place without war, without jeopardy, without fear and what they found was a lonely, barren place whose only industry was survival. And this is what theyve done for three decades: survive; until the memory of the Earth they came from has become an indistinct and shadowed recollection of another time and another place. One month ago a signal from Earth announced that a ship would be coming to pick them up and take them home. In just a moment well hear more of that ship, more of that home, and what it takes out of mind and body to reach it. This is the Twilight Zone.

  The planet is a nightmare place of two suns, unending day and terrible meteor storms. Despair prevails among the 187 survivors of the original colony and suicide is not uncommon. Their thirty-year survival is attributable to one source: the iron leadership of Benteen, their self-appointed Captain. He has maintained order, told them tales of the wonders and beauties of Earth, and convinced them that rescue is imminent. Problems arise, however, when a rescue ship finally does arrive; Benteen has become so accustomed to absolute power over his people that he cannot relinquish command. When the survivors disobey his orders by pressing the crew of the rescue ship for stories of the Earth and then playing a baseball game with them, he begins to feel his power slipping.

  He is determined that they all stay together on Earth, with him as their leader, but when he tells them of this they rebel. He becomes desperate; he tells them that Earth is not the paradise hed told of it is a hell and they will all die if they go there. They must stay here on the planet with him. Colonel Sloane, commander of the rescue ship, tells Benteen to let his people put it to a vote. Unanimously, they vote against Benteen. Raging, Benteen attacks the ship with a length of pipe. When he is pulled away, he angrily states that he intends to remain the rest of them can go or stay. As the ship prepares to depart, the crewmen search for Benteen but he hides from them, ignoring them when they say that if he doesnt leave now he will be stranded permanently. Deep in a cave, Benteen pretends that he is still surrounded by his people and recites again the litany of the glories of Earth. Suddenly, the meaning comes clear to him; for the first time, he actually remembers his home world. Frantically, he rushes outside, pleading not to be left behind. But it is too late: the ship is gone. Condemned by his own rigidity, Benteen is alone.

  William Benteen, who had prerogatives: he could lead, he could direct, dictate, judge, legislate. It became a habit, then a pattern and finally a necessity. William Benteen, once a godnow a population of one.”

  Serlings best effort on the hour-long shows came with On Thursday We Leave for Home, a science-fictional examination of the positive and negative uses of power.

  Directed by Buzz Kulik, On Thursday We Leave for Home is a marvelous, engrossing story. As Benteen, James Whitmore is intelligent, gentle, commanding, andultimatelythoroughly blind and self-centered. His is an intense, riveting performance. In the beginning, before the arrival of the rescue ship, we see that Benteen actually is responsible for keeping the others alive, that were it not for him they would have given up long ago. Serlings writing is elegant and precise, and it is clear that he knows his character very well.

  A marvelous example of Serlings writing comes following a meteor storm, as the colonists huddle in an enormous cavern. They are a wretched lot, hopeless and despairing. Then, gently, quietly, Benteen begins to tell them of the Earth, something he has done many, many times before. The one he is supposedly telling the story to is a little boy named Jo Jo (Daniel Kulick), but in reality hes speaking to them all:

  benteen: … I was just a boy when we arrived here, I was fifteen years old, but I remember the Earth. I remember it as …a place of color. I remember, Jo Jo, that in the autumn … the leaves changed, turned different colors red, orange, gold. I remember streams of water that flowed down hillsides, and the water was sparkling and clear. I remember clouds in the sky, white, billowy things, floated like ships, like sails … And I remember night skies.

  Night skies. Like endless black velvet, with stars, sometimes a moon hung as if suspended by wires, lit from inside.

  jo jo: Whats night, Captain?

  benteen: Night. Night is a quiet time, Jo Jo, when the Earth went to sleep. Kind of like a cover that it pulled over itself. Not like here, where we have the two suns always shining, always burning. It was darkness, Jo Jo, darkness that felt like a cool hand just brushed past tired eyes. And there was snow on winter nights. Gossamer stuff. It floated down and covered the Earth, made it all white, cool. And in the mornings we could go out and build a snowman, see our breath in the air, and it was good then, it was right.

  jo jo: Captain, why did you leave there?

  benteen: Well, we thought we could find another place like Earth, but with different beauties, Jo Jo, and we found this place. We thought we could escape war, we thought we couldwell, we thought that we could build an even better place. And it took us thirty years to find out that we left our home a billion miles away to be only visitors here, transients, cause you cant put down roots in this ground.

  The most poignant moments in the episode comes at the end. As the rescue ship is taking off, Benteen is alone in the cavern. He pretends to be speaking to the colonists one by one, reciting again the old litany, assuming the roles of leader, guide, father confessor. As he reaches Jo Jo (pretends to reach Jo Jo, that is) he begins to rhapsodize about the Earth. At first, it is like before. Benteen has been so busy telling fairy stories and (when he didnt want them to leave) horror stories about the Earth, that he hadnt bothered to listen, hadnt really remembered. But suddenly, the reality of Earth, its beauty, its variety, hits home, and Benteen realizes the awful consequences of his decision to remain. Too late, he rushes out of the cave. Dont leave me here! he shouts. Dont leave me herel Suddenly, all the fury leaves him. All along, Benteen has been a man powered by rage; rage against the terrain and, when they turned against him, rage against the colonists. But now, his anger has run out. With a crushing softness, Benteen pleads, Please … I want to go home. The camera pulls up and back, revealing Benteen for what he is: a tiny and solitary figure in an uncaring landscape.

  It was a shot that almost didnt come off. The set consisted of planetary terrain and a number of metal shacks in which the colonists live. Director of photography George T. Clemens recalls, Buzz said, Tomorrow well start with a really high camera. I said, Wait a minute. Lets get a ladder in here and see how this looks. When they did, they got a shocknone of the shacks had roofs! Sets normally dont have roofs, explains Clemens, because you have to put lights in there. So there was a hurry-up job at night to put tack and canvas over the tops of these shacks. We really had to do this overnight.

  SEASONS END

  In the spring of 1963, CBS renewed Twilight Zone for a fifth season, shortening it back to a half hour. The networks experiment had failed: Twilight Zone’s expanded size had not made for an expanded audience.

  Our shows this season were too padded, Serling concluded at the end of the run. The bulk of our stories lacked the excitement and punch of the shorter dramas we intended when we sta
rted five years ago and kept to for a while. If you ask me, I think we had only one really effective show this season, On Thursday We Leave for Home. … Yes, I wrote it myself, but I overwrote it. I think the story was good despite what I did to it.

  Objectively, Serlings assessment was too hard. There had been a number of fine hour-long episodes, among them On Thursday We Leave for Home, The Bard, Death Ship, In His Image, Jess-Belle, Miniature and The Incredible World of Horace Ford. The series had not disgraced itself.

  But, clearly, by the end of the fourth season, the show was winding down. Increasingly over the next season, it would find itself trapped within its own cliches. After four years and 120 episodes, Twilight Zone was showing its age.

  THE FIFTH SEASON:

  WILLIAM FROUG

  In its transformation from half hour to hour to half hour again, Twilight Zone had lost a great deal of its vitality. Several fine episodes still lay ahead, but the thoughtfulness and innovation of the first three seasons was, for the most part, sadly lacking. Gone too were some of the shows best directors: Douglas Heyes, Buzz Kulik, Montgomery Pittman, Lamont Johnson and Don Medford. Worst of all, the quality of writing always the shows strongest asset slipped badly. As Serling himself said, Toward the end I was writing so much that I felt I had begun to lose my perspective on what was good or bad.

  Nevertheless, Bert Granet still had a show to get out. Youre at the mercy of the fates, of what is available to you, he notes. Youre always looking for something better than what is waiting on your desk, but frequently the source is not there. It might be someplace in the world, but youre not fortunate enough to get your hands on it at that moment when you need it. For all its faults, however, Twilight Zone was still vastly more interesting and entertaining than the majority of television programs. If it had faded, it had faded only in comparison with itself.

  In Praise of Pip

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Bert Granet

  Director: Joseph M. Newman

  Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

  Music: composed by Rene Garriguenc; conducted by Lud Gluskin

  Cast: Max Phillips: Jack Klugman Pip: Billy Mumy Pvt. Pip: Bob Diamond Mrs. Feeny:

  Connie Gilchrist Moran: John Launer Doctor: Ross Elliott Surgeon: Stuart Nisbet George Reynold: Russell Horton Lieutenant: Gerald Gordon Gunman: Kreg Martin

  Submitted for your approval, one Max Phillips, a slightly -the-worse-for-wear maker of book, whose life has been as drab and undistinguished as a bundle of dirty clothes. And, though ifs very late in his day, he has an errant wish that the rest of his life might be sent out to a laundry to come back shiny and clean, this to be a gift of love to a son named Pip. Mr. Max Phillips, Homo sapiens, who is soon to discover that man is not as wise as he thinkssaid lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone

  After learning that his beloved son Pip, now a soldier, has been critically wounded in South Vietnam, alcoholic bookie Max Phillips feels a tremendous remorse for not having been a better father. Out of kindness, he returns three hundred dollars to a luckless bettoran action that earns him a bullet from one of his bosss gunmen. Stumbling to an amusement park he used to visit with his sonnow closed for the nightMax is amazed to see Pip appear before him, magically transformed into a boy again. The park comes alive and the two relive past pleasures. Suddenly, Pip grows solemn and runs away. When Max catches him, Pip explains hes dying and disappears. Sobbing, Max offers God a trade: himself for the boy. He dies. But his sacrifice is not in vainPip survives.

  Very little comment here, save for this small aside: that the ties of flesh are deep and strong, that the capacity to love is a vital, rich and all-consuming function of the human animal, and that you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out; down the block, in the heart, or in the Twilight Zone

  Pip is dying. My kid is dying. In a place called South Vietnam. There isnt even supposed to be a war going on there, but my son is dying. Its to laugh. I swear its to laugh.

  So says Max Phillips in Serlings sentimental and gripping In Praise of Pip, the premiere show of the fifth season. Very possibly, this marks the first mention of an American casualty in Vietnam in any dramatic TV show, and it seems remarkable for its perceptiveness. But curiously, Serling originally placed the action in Laos. This was changed when de Forrest Research went over the script for inaccuracies and reported:

  The Geneva Treaty on the neutrality of Laos stipulated that all foreign troops be removed. At present the only U.S. military in Laos is a small mission with the Embassy. There are officially no combat or special forces in Laos. The implication that the U.S. has troops fighting in Laos (even in The Twilight Zone) could be an embarrassment and might cause repercussions. U.S. Special Forces are fighting (in an advisory capacity) in South Vietnam. Suggest South Vietnam.

  Also, Serling originally had Phillips say There isnt even a war there. De Forrest Research:

  In South Vietnam it is common knowledge that there is a Civil War, but U.S. troops are not supposed to be fighting there. Suggest There isnt even supposed to be a war there.

  In Praise of Pip doesnt have much to do with politics, though; in reality, its simply a touching drama about a mans love for his son. Jack Klugmans absolutely dead-on portrayal of Phillips keeps the episode from sinking into bathos. Particularly moving is his death scene, in which he offers to make a trade with God: his life for his sons. Sobbing, he falls to the ground and dies. The amusement park is empty and dark. A wind comes up, scattering papers over the body. It is a moment of eerie beauty, solemn and sad.

  Skillfully directed by Joseph M. Newman (whose movie credits include This Island Earth), In Praise of Pip was filmed at Pacific Ocean Park

  during two consecutive nights when the park was vacant. It was real spooky, says Billy Mumy. Particularly disconcerting to him was a scene in which he had to run through a house of mirrors while being chased by Klugman. Although some of the closeups were shot in-studio, most was done in the amusement parks actual house of mirrors. They had the floor taped with markers that would lead you to the right turns, Mumy recalls, but they had to get it the way they wanted to get it, in the sense that I had to run through the house of mirrors, and I remember that was pretty scary.

  UNCLE SIMON (11/15/63)

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Bert Granet

  Director: Don Siegel

  Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack

  Music: stock

  Cast: Uncle Simon Polk: Cedric Hardwicke Barbara Polk: Constance Ford Schwimmer: Ian Wolfe Police Officer: John McLiam Constance Ford and Cedric Hardwicke Robot: Dion Hansen

  Dramatis personae: Mr Simon Polk, a gentleman who has lived out his life in a gleeful rage; and the young lady who’s just beat the hasty retreat is Mr. Polk’s niece, Barbara. She’s lived her life as if during each ensuing hour she had a dentist appointment. There’s yet a third member of the company soon to be seen. He now resides in the laboratory and he is the kind of character to be found only in the Twilight Zone.”

  Barbara and her Uncle Simon, an inventor, thoroughly detest each other, but she has cared for him for twenty-five years because he is rich and she is the only heir. When he tries to strike her with his cane, she grabs it from him and he falls down the basement stairs to his death. Barbara thinks she is free of her uncle at last, but she is mistaken. His will provides that she will inherit his estate only if she agrees to look after his latest invention: a robot. As the days go by, the robot takes on the mannerisms of Uncle Simon, including a desire for closed drapes and a craving for hot chocolate. When the robot assumes Uncle Simons voice, Barbara pushes it down the basement stairswhich only succeeds in giving it a limp identical with that of her late uncle. It is crushingly clear to Barbara now that she will never escape Uncle Simon.

  Dramatis personae: a metal man, who will go by the name of Simon, whose life as well as his body has been stamped out for him; and the woman who tends to him, the lady Barbar
a, who’s discovered belatedly that all bad things don’t come to an end, and that once a bed is made it’s quite necessary that you sleep in it. Tonight’s uncomfortable little exercise in avarice and automatons from the Twilight Zone.”

  Although directed by Don Siegel (whose movies include the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry and Escape From Alcatraz), Uncle Simon remains talky, badly acted, and badly staged. Its a sordid story about two sordid people, both of whom make it a point to say everything thats on their minds, to the point of simple-minded absurdity. Neither character is terribly likeable; consequently, the fact that Barbara never escapes the clutches of her uncle doesnt seem very important.

  A KIND OF A STOPWATCH (10/18/63)

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Bert Granet

  Director: John Rich

  Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack

  Music: Van Cleave

  Cast: McNulty: Richard Erdman Potts: Leon Belasco Mr. Cooper: Roy Roberts Joe the Bartender: Herbie Faye Secretary: Doris Singleton Attendant: Ray Kellogg TV Announcer: Sam Balter Charlie: Richard Wessel Man: Ken Drake

  Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: one Patrick Thomas McNulty, who at age forty-one is the biggest bore on Earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it’s very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have, except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence and ours. Now you think about that now, because this is the Twilight Zone