July 20, 2024: The Twilight Zone rewatch continues with Episodes 25-28!

Episode 25, “People Are Alike All Over”

This episode was first broadcast March 25, 1960.

The living room set is a redress of a set built for The Time Machine (1960) and was last glimpsed in “Third from the Sun”. The fence in the opening scene was also used in “Third from the Sun”. The ship’s interior is another re-use from Forbidden Planet (1956). The martian backdrop is also a re-use from the same movie.

This episode is based on the short story “Brothers Beyond the Void” by Paul W. Fairman. The television rights were acquired for a (at the time) lofty $2500. In the original story, the heroic Marcusson makes a solo trip to Mars while Conrad is only on hand to see him off. In adapting the story for television, Serling instead made the reluctant Conrad the protagonist – which, I think, was a wise choice.

When Serling first pitched this story to the network, the martians were described as shorter than humans and Conrad communicated with them via mathematics. In the end, it was decided that regular-sized individuals and mind-reading were more production-friendly.

The episode was named “Brothers Beyond the Void” up until the completion of production.

Actor Roddy McDowall, who plays Sam Conrad, started as a child actor and amassed over 150 films to his credit over the course of his illustrious career. A mistake by 20th Century Fox cost him a likely Emmy nomination for his performance in Cleopatra (1963) when he was listed as a lead rather than supporting role. He was lifelong friends with Elizabeth Taylor and built solid friendship with many of his former co-stars. Known for his portrayal of Cornelius in the Planet of the Ape movies, he also appeared in three different Batman series – Batman (1960) as the Bookworm, Batman: The Animated Series (1992) as the Mad Hatter, and the New Batman Adventures (1997) again as the Mad Hatter. Among the roles McDowall missed out on: the role of Nick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the role of Pennywise in the 1990 It miniseries, and the role of Arthur Carlson on WKRP in Cincinnati.

Susan Oliver who plays the regretful martian Teenya, was a licensed pilot, a Buddhist, and a baseball expert. Her attempt to become the first woman to fly a single engine plane solo from New York to Moscow was thwarted by Soviet officials who refused to let her enter their airspace. After surviving a commercial air crash, she sought hypnosis therapy to gain the courage to fly again. She is glimpsed in the end credits of the classic Star Trek (1966) series as the green-skinned Orion slave girl.

Vic Perrin who plays one of the duplicitous martians was the “control voice” on The Outer Limits (1963), a series he had, admittedly, never watched.

Oft imitated, never duplicated, “People Are Alike All Over” is another solid episode with a great twist that, while not unexpected given the martians’ unnerving benevolence, still lands after all these years. All the same, given the condition of their crashed ship and the unlikelihood that Earth was going to mount a rescue mission, I can’t help but feel it could have been a lot worse for Conrad. Hell, if the t.v. in his living room prison actually worked, he’d have even less to complain about.

Episode 26, “Execution“

This episode was first broadcast April 1, 1960.

Most of the equipment in Professor Manion’s lab was previously used in Forbidden Planet (1956), Satellite in the Sky (1956), and World Without End (1956). The noises of the time machine were used in previous episodes of the show and would later be used on Star Trek.

The part of Joe Caswell had originally gone to actor Neville Rand who actually went to the rehearsals for the episode but then fell sick on the first day of principal photography.

Author George Clayton Johnson on actor Albert Salmi who ended up stepping into the role of Joe Caswell: “He was very quiet, but I think that was because he was bottling up all his emotions for the role.  He was a method actor.  After seeing what he could do on the set when they filmed, I knew he was a wonderful actor.”

Albert Salmi’s first film role was in The Brothers Karamazov (1968) for which he turned down an Oscar nomination. On the other hand, he did accept the Western Heritage (Wrangler) Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his role in an episode of Gunsmoke, an award he purportedly cherished. Salmi and his wife died as a result of what police suspect was a murder-suicide in 1990.

Actor Russel Johnson who plays the part of Professor Marion is no doubt best known as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island. Prior to that casting, he was known for playing onscreen villains. Johnson was a decorated WWII bomber pilot and recipient of the Bronze Star, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Purple Heart. He auditioned for, and missed out on the role of Ben Casey in the beloved series of the same name. In addition to narrating Robotech (1985), he appeared in two time travel-themed episodes of The Twilight Zone.

This is an episode where I thought the idea was far better than the execution. It had its moments however. Robert Salmi delivers and outstanding performance as the way-in-over-his-head Caswell and his speech to Professor Marion baring his soul is Emmy-worthy. And I did love the moment when Caswell ends up trapped in the phone booth, like Mike Ferris in “Where Is Everybody?” and Rod Serling before him. I did find the conveniently late arrival of the crook who, ironically, strangles Caswell and then ends up sharing his fate via the hangman’s noose a little contrived, even by early 1960’s Twilight Zone standards. Still, Salmi’s performance saved the episode for me.

Episode 27, “The Big, Tall Wish”

This episode was first broadcast April 8, 1960.

“The Big, Tall Wish”, with its almost all-black cast, was groundbreaking television at the time and ended up earning the show a 1961 Unity Award for Outstanding Contributions to Better Race Relations.

Boxer Archie Moore was originally cast as Bolie Jackson, but the demands of production proved too great for him and he was replaced with actor Ivan Dixon.

Ivan Dixon starred as P.O.W. radio tech Kinchloe in four seasons of Hogan’s Heroes, ultimately leaving the show after feeling dissatisfied with the role. Prior to that, Dixon had earned critical acclaim playing Joseph Asagai in “Raisin in the Sun”, the first play written by a black woman produced on broadway. Sidney Poitier was the star and he and Dixon became life-long friends, working together on such productions as Something of Value (1957), Porgy and Bess (1959), and A Touch of Blue (1965). While working on Hogan’s Heroes, Dixon found time to star in “The Final War of Olly Winter”, a drama special for which he earned an Emmy nomination in 1967. In 1970, Ivan Dixon shifted focus to directing, helming a handful of films and countless television shows. He worked tirelessly to promote black actors and his efforts were recognized with four NAACP Image Awards, the National Black Theatre Award, and the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award from the Black American Cinema Society.

Kim Hamilton who plays Frances Temple in this episode was the only African-American actor to appear in Leave it to Beaver (1957). She was also the original Mrs. Willis on All in the Family, a role Roxie Roker would make famous on The Jeffersons. In 1997, Hamilton married Werner Kemplerer who played Colonel Klink alongside Ivan Dixon on Hogan’s Heroes.

Steven Perry who plays the young Henry Temple in this episode owns Stevie’s Creole Cafe in Los Angeles.

Very strong performances across the board buoy an episode weighed down by maudlin sentimentality and an all too slow-moving story. The boxing action also could have been better staged. Whereas past episodes have been pretty clear in their messaging, this one feels muddled. Bolie is, ultimately, denied his happy ending because of his refusal to believe in what is essentially fantasy, the imaginings of a young boy that surely can’t be a plausible option no matter how dire his reality. It feels like Bolie is punished for what amounts to not choosing to live in the Matrix.

Episode 28, “A Nice Place to Visit”

This episode was first broadcast April 15, 1960.

This episode, written by Charles Beaumont, was originally titled “The Other Place”.

CBS Standards and Practices was all over this episode, requesting several script changes. Among them, changing “broad” to “doll” or “chick”, replacing “stacked” with “built like…”, switching “You wanna come up and ball it up a little?” to “You wanna come up and party a little?”, and changing “scoring with a chick” to “being a big guy with a chick”. When the woman in Rocky’s bedroom asks “Anything else I can do for you?”, they noted: ““Please he certain that the girl’s third speech be delivered in a sweet manner, as described.”

Rod Serling was disappointed with the name of the casino being “The Casino”. He had reached out to several Vegas casinos in the hopes that one of them would lend their name to the production, but there were no takers.

The slot machine features in this episode was also used in an earlier episode, “The Fever”. The set used for the Hall of Records looks very similar to the post-apocalyptic library in “Time Enough At Last”.

At one point, Rocky requests a million bucks in “5G notes”. These $50000 bills were still in circulation at the time this episode was produced.

The role of Rocky Valentine was initially intended for Mickey Rooney. But when Rooney was unable to accept, Charles Beaumont suggested Serling take the role. For some reason, Serling passed.

Larry Blyden, who would play two-bit criminal Rocky Valentine in this episode broke out on Broadway, earning a Tony Award in 1972. During the 50’s and 60’s, he guested on numerous t.v. anthologies. A big fan of game shows, he served as a semi-regular panelist on Password (1961) and To Tell the Truth (1969), eventually assuming hosting duties on What’s My Line ? (1968). A collector of antiques, Blyden would travel around the world in search of new pieces for his collection. On one such trip to Morocco in 1975, he was carjacked and murdered.

Sebastian Cabot who plays the role of the affable Pip is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mr. French in the television series Family Affair. Although he earned a living playing posh, upper-crust characters, Cabot had a very tough, working-class upbringing. Cabot left school at an early age (14) and worked odd jobs before discovering a passion for acting, eventually moving to the U.S. and playing Dr. Cary Hyatt in the detective series Checkmate. He was a voice actor who did a lot of work for Disney and was the original narrator of the Winnie the Pooh series. A year after playing Santa on Miracle on 34th Street (1973), Cabot suffered a stroke. He retired to Deep Cove, British Columbia where he passed away after suffering a second stroke three years later.

This was an enjoyable episode that, while possessed of a memorable twist, doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of some of Twilight Zone’s best. While I thought Sebastian Cabot was fantastic as Pip, I found Larry Blyden’s almost lunatic turn as Rocky Valentine silly, at times annoyingly so. That dance sequence! Oof. While I get the idea of the Living Hell of having everything you could ever want, I honestly think I could used to it after a while. I don’t know.

So, what did you all think?

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