Two men in an attic, locked in mortal embrace. Their common bond and their common enemy: guilt. A disease all too prevalent among men, both in and out of the Twilight Zone.
Pleased with Whats in the Box, William Froug again contacted Martin Goldsmith. He asked me to do another one, and I had an idea but it wasnt really a Twilight Zone idea, says Goldsmith. I had been playing with the idea of two people confronting each other over an issue thats long dead and really has nothing to do with either one of them. In this
particular thing theres this aging Marine and this young Japanese gardener. I didnt know quite what I was going to do with this whole idea until Froug mentioned Twilight Zone and I said, Well, why not?
Cast in The Encounter were Neville Brand, the fourth-most- decorated U.S. Army soldier of World War II, and George Takei, later to play Lt. Sulu in Star Trek.
Goldsmith recalls that troubles began when the director read the script. He was a young guy and he was quite unhappy about the whole thing. He didnt like it, he didnt understand it. He told Froug that he would have great difficulty directing it. So I said to Froug, Look, youre going to need a director. Til direct it. He said, No, no, we have to pay this guy whether he does the job or not. Serling wouldnt hear of it.
Goldsmith was out of the country when The Encounter aired, so he never saw it. But he notes, I started getting strange letters from people who had seen it. They saw a lot of existentialism in it and things of that nature.
Like Miniature, A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain and Sounds and Silences, The Encounter is not in syndication. The reasons for this are not clear. Very possibly, CBS received a number of protests from Japanese-Americans. The ex-Marine mouths a number of tirades against the Japanese and Japanese-Americans, filled with a variety of racial epithets. Also, theres the matter of the private guilts the characters carry. The Marine killed a Japanese officer who had already surrendered. But the young gardeners guilt stems, not from an action of his, but from one of his father: I grew up in Honolulu… . My father and mother lived in Hawaii all their lives. My father worked for the Navy as a civilian. … He helped build the docks at Pearl. He was foreman of a construction gang. … He signalled the planes. He showed them where to drop the bombs! … My old man was a traitor!
In reality, there was no Japanese-American traitor at Pearl Harbor guiding the enemy planes. In fact, there is no case of sabotage by a Japanese-American during all of World War II. The suggestion of such an action even in a fictional context could easily have brought down an avalanche of protest.
Come Wander With Me,
Written by Anthony Wilson
Producer: William Froug
Director: Richard Donner
Director of Photography: Fred Mandi
Music: Jeff Alexander
Cast: Floyd Burney: Gary Crosby Mary Rachel: Bonnie Beecher Billy Rayford: John Bolt Old Man: Hank Patterson
Mr. Floyd Burney, a gentleman songster in search of song, is about to answer the age-old question of whether a man can be in two places at the same time. As far as his folk song is concerned, we can assure Mr. Burney hell find everything hes looking for, although the lyrics may not be all to his liking. But thats sometimes the case when the words and music are recorded in the Twilight Zone.
Floyd Burney, the Rockabilly Boy, journeys to the backwoods in search of authentic folk songs to appropriate. Questioning an old man in a store filled with musical instruments, he hears someone humming a haunting ballad. Searching outside, he fails to notice a tombstone with his name on it, but he does notice the singer: shy but lovely Mary Rachel. Although she is betrothed to Billy Rayford, Floyd romances her in order to convince her to sing her song into his tape recorder. Suddenly, Billy appears, carrying a rifle and telling Floyd that he and his brothers know what to do with him. But when Billy is momentarily distracted, Floyd hits him with a guitar, killing him. The tape recorder begins to play back Mary Rachels song but now theres a lyric about Floyds murder of Billy! Mary Rachel pleads with Floyd not to run, that the Rayford Brothers will catch him again, as they always have before. Floyd doesnt know what shes talking about, and hes horrified to see that she is now inexplicably dressed in mourning garb. Hysterical, he rushes back to the music store. There, the old man refuses to help him; Floyd strikes him down. But by then the Rayford Brothers have arrived and they do know what to do with him.
In retrospect, it may be said of Mr. Floyd Burney that he achieved that final dream of the performer: eternal top-name billing, not on the fleeting billboards of the entertainment world, but forever recorded among the folk songs of the Twilight Zone.
Come Wander With Me, by Anthony Wilson (creator of Land of the Giants and The Invaders, and the man who developed Planet of the Apes for television), has various twists and turns that render it virtually incoherent. At the beginning, Burney walks past a grave reading Floyd Burney/The Wandering Man we see it again at the end of the show. There are two Mary Rachels seen throughout: one dressed in everyday clothes, the other in black mourning garb. The song she sings to Burney predicts events to come. Repeatedly, when events occur, Mary Rachel explains that they happen in that way because they always happen that way. And when Burney contemplates flight in order to avoid the Rayfords vengeance, she pleads, If you run theyll catch you. You know that… . Maybe if you didnt run this time, if I hid you, maybe it could be different. Naturally, Burney disregards this, and flees to his death.
Obviously, what all these obscure clues are meant to indicate is that this story is an eternal cycle. Whats more, Mary Rachel understands what is going on unlike Burney she remembers going through all of it before but she is unable to alter events.
What is not at all clear is why this is a cycle. What exactly are we witnessing? Indeed, is there any point to it?
Come Wander With Me was too soft, and Dick Donner and I knew it, says William Froug. It was a script that read good but, Jesus, it just didnt work. I wouldnt do it today.
Frougs choice of script wasnt the only curiosity to be found in the show. He recalls an incident during the casting of Mary Rachel: One of the people I interviewed was this nervous, frightened little girl whose hands shook and who was covered with sweat, and I said, Shell never make it. Her name was Liza Minnelli. And I chose Bonnie Beecher, and we all know what became of Bonnie Beecher!
Ill never forget Liza Minnelli sitting there and her agent saying, This girl can really sing. I said, Im sure she can, but I thought, Oh, she is so nervous! Shes scared out of her mind. To picture her as a hillbilly singer: no way. And I must tell youand this is the truthat the time, I sat there thinking, Well, Ill probably kick myself for this but I cant see this girl playing the partbut shell probably be a big star. I still dont regret it, but it was really classic stupidity.
AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE (2/28/64)
Written and Directed by Robert Enrico
Producer: Marcel Ichac
Director of Photography: Jean Boffety
Music: Henri Lanoe
Cast: Confederate Spy: Roger Jacquet with Anne Cornaly, Anker Larsen, Stephane Fey, Jean-Francois Zeller,Pierre Danny and Louis Adelin
Tonight a presentation so special and unique that, for the first time in the five years weve been presenting The Twilight Zone, were offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible, from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
It is the American Civil War. Union soldiers stand on a railroad bridge, preparing to execute a Confederate spy. They set a plank out from the bridge, stand the man upon it, make the noose tight around his neck. The plank is pulled out from under him, he falls through spacebut miraculously, the rope breaks! Dodging bullets, the man swims for his life. Reaching the shore, he manages to evade the enemy troops. He has one goal in mind: to get home. Struggling over the terrain, he eventually reaches his plantation. His wifebe
autifully dressed, every hair in place, seemingly untouched by warcomes running toward him. But as her hands go round his neck, he seizes up. In an instant, he is back at Owl Creek Bridge, hanging by his neckand very much dead.
An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgein two forms, as it was dreamed, and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination … the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.
With thirty-five episodes completed and one left to go, William Froug found Twilight Zone significantly over budget. The solution he came up with was unique.
Some time previously, he had seen An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a French film that had won first prize for short subjects at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. Based on the story by Ambrose Bierce, it told the story of a condemned Confederate spy who, during the instant that hes falling before the rope breaks his neck, imagines an involved and successful escape.
It was almost entirely silent, Froug recalls of the film. There were maybe a half-dozen lines in it, and there was one brief balladin English, of all things. CBS was very reluctant A French film on television? Who ever heard of such a thing? but I convinced them, because we bought all TV rights for $10,000. With that one airing, we immediately took care of the whole years overage. It brought us out at the end of the year under budget.
The film was shortened by several minutes and an introduction by Serling was added. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was aired February 28, 1964, and repeated September 11, 1964. (It was shown as a Twilight Zone episode only these two times and was not included in subsequent syndication packages.) A coup for the show, it was well-received. Variety’s reaction was typical: This French short film, which has been nominated for an Oscar, undoubtedly received more exposure than any such candidate in Oscar history when aired on Rod Serlings Twilight Zone Friday. A fascinating and eerie Ambrose Bierce tale … it fits perfectly into the Zone format.
Subsequently, the film won its Oscar another first for Twilight Zone.
At the end of January, 1964, CBS announced its fall schedule. Twilight Zone was not included.
For one reason or another, Jim Aubrey [then president of CBS] decided he was sick of the show, says William Froug. He claimed that it was too far over budget and that the ratings werent good enough. In truth, Twilight Zone was still rating well, although not in the top ten, and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge had put the show back under budget.
Nevertheless, on February 5, Daily Variety reported that Serling considered the odds of a sixth season unlikely. Serling: I decided to cancel the network.
Serlings agent, Ted Ashley, felt that since the shows ratings werent bad he might be able to sell it to a rival network. NBC passed, but Tom Moore, president of ABC, was interested. Since CBS had rights to the title Twilight Zone, Moore proposed a new name for the show: Witches, Warlocks, and Werewolves (taken from Rod Serlings Triple W: Witches, Warlocks, and Werewolves, a 1963 paperback anthology edited by Serling).
This did not sit well with Serling. On March 11, he submitted a proposal for a series more to his liking. It began:
ROD SERLINGS WAX MUSEUM
We would open the series in the following manner:
A helicopter shot of Heart Island with a series of slow dissolves to a closer angle of Boldt Castle. The latter is the haunted house of the world. It is a vast multispired stone mausoleum with hundreds of bare rooms (its construction was stopped three quarters of the way through completion and never recommenced). The camera moves closer to the Castle in a series of dissolves until finally were inside its gigantic echoey front hall. Lining the long stairway are a series of shrouded figures that extend into the darkness. Down the steps walks Serling past these figures and ultimately past the lens of the camera to a vantage point (now we are on a stet Metro set) where stands another shrouded figure. Serling removes the wrapping and we are looking at a wax figure of that particular episodes leading character.
serling: A hearty welcome to my wax museum. For your entertainment and edification we offer you stories of the weird, the wild and the wondrous; stories that are told to the accompaniment of distant banging shutters, an invisible creaking door, an errant wailing wind that comes from the dark outside. These are stories that involve the citizenry of the night.
In short, this museum is devoted to … goose flesh, bristled hair and dry mouths.
(He moves over to the wax figure now uncovered)
Now this gentleman is …
NOW SERLING LAUNCHES INTO A BRIEF BACKGROUND COMMENT ABOUT TONIGHTS EPISODE)
Moore, however, was still locked-in to his Triple W concept. On March 18, the two men met. Things apparently did not go well, for the next day Serling told Daily Variety that Moore seems to prefer weekly ghouls, and we have what appears to be a considerable difference of opinion. I dont mind my show being supernatural, but I dont want to be hooked into a graveyard every week. He added that he thought Moores conception of the series would result in walking dead and maggots … I dont think TV can sustain C-pictures every week.
The next day, Moore, after reading Serlings comments, told the papers (with apparently no pun intended), We have buried the project.
Twilight Zone had reached the end. After five years and 156 episodes ninety-two of them scripts by SerlingCayuga Productions closed its doors.
In 1962, when it looked like The Twilight Zone was about to be cancelled, Serling summed up his participation for a newspaper article. He said, We had some real turkeys, some fair ones, and some shows Im really proud to have been a part of. I can walk away from this series unbowed.
Two years later, his words were just as appropriate.
VIII / AFTER THE TWILIGHT ZONE
over the eleven years following the demise of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was a busy man.
Shortly after the series went off network, Serling sold his rights to CBS for a considerable lump sum. One reason that my husband ultimately sold out, notes Carol Serling, was that the show often went over budget and CBS said they would never recoup the costs. Needless to say, they have, many, many times.
Even more regrettable to Serling was having to watch what was done to
Props set up at Cayuga Productions farewell party, following the cancellation of Twilight Zone.Twilight Zone in syndication. Catching Walking Distance on a local station, he commented, You wouldnt recognize what series it was. Full scenes were deleted. It looked like a long, protracted commercial separated by fragmentary moments of indistinct drama.
Serling, however, didnt have time to dwell on Twilight Zone. In 1964 he won his sixth Emmy, for Its Mental Work, an episode of Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre starring Lee J. Cobb as the owner of a bar who has a heart attack, Harry Guardino as a bartender and Gena Rowlands as a cocktail waitress.
In 1965, Serling embarked on another series. The Loner; an extremely nonconformist Western, starring Lloyd Bridges as a former Union cavalry officer. With its emphasis on character and motivation rather than gunplay, the series was generally well-received by the critics, who particularly applauded Serlings unconventional scripts.
Not so pleased were the higher-ups at CBS, and Serling began to get pressure from above to tailor The Loner to the measure of Westerns that had gone before it. Serling went to the newspapers, charging that the CBS vice president in charge of programming had demanded he put in more violence. In response, the V.R countered that he had meant action chases, running gun battles, runaway stagecoaches, etc.
Serling was not happy with the end product. Some weekends I wish Friday would move into Sunday and skip Saturday so there wouldnt be any Loner he said. Halfway through the season, The Loner was cancelled.
In the years that followed, Serling was involved in an amazing variety of projects. He served a two-year term as President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, overseeing the 1965 and 1966 Emmy Awards. A popular celebrity, in 1969 he presided over the game show The Liars Club; in 1970 he served as host for Rod Serlings Wonderful World of … , a local Los Ang
eles program examining such human failings as prejudice, gluttony, snobbery and so forth; and in 1973 his mellifluous voice could be heard presenting Zero Hour; a syndicated dramatic radio show. In addition, he narrated the Jacques Cousteau specials, as well as a number of programs dealing with ancient astronauts, UFOs and similar speculative subjects. He acted as spokesman for dozens of products on television and radio.
Twilight Zone Companion Page 47