4x01 "Cupid Is as Cupid Does"

We’re back! Love is in the air as Craig gazes seductively into the eyes of the first two Twilight Zone episodes he ever saw (“The Chaser” and “Jess-Belle”). Along the way he completely undermines his own efforts to be more “woke” when it comes to lusting after the opposite sex… just in time for Valentine’s Day (which was two weeks ago, so our perfect record of always being late remains intact). It’s a heady brew of Paley Center complaints, surprising Psycho tangents, and more cast connections than you can shake a silver hairpin at. Draw a warm bath, light some candles, and crack open the Courvoisier. Ooh la la!

Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards ballot: https://rondoaward.com/rondoaward.com/blog/?p=890

“I’m in the Mood for Love” performed by the Jackie Gleason & His Orchestra (from the album Music for Lovers Only, copyright 1953 by Capitol Records)


“Love Potion No. 9” performed by The Clovers (copyright 1959 by Capitol Records)


“Every Breath You Take” performed by The Police (from the album Synchronicity, copyright 1983 by A&M Records)


“The Ballad of Jess-Belle (single edit)” performed by Terrea Lea (copyright 1963 by CBS Music)


“I Wonder as I Wander” performed by Terrea Lea (from the album Folk Songs and Ballads, copyright 1958 by HiFi Records)


“The Ocelot” composed and conducted by Joseph Mullendore (from the album Honey West: Original Music from the Soundtrack, copyright 1965 by ABC Records)


“Love Potion No. 9 (instrumental)” performed by Enoch Light and The Light Brigade (from the album Discotheque Vol. 2, copyright 1965 by Command Records)

The Twilight Zone is a trademark of CBS, Inc.

Between Light and Shadow: A Twilight Zone Podcast is a nonprofit podcast. Music clips and dialogue excerpts used herein are the property of their respective copyright owners; we claim no ownership of these materials. Their use is strictly for illustrative purposes and should be considered Fair Use as stated in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107.

Episode Spotlight: "The Bewitchin' Pool" (6/19/1964)

Season 5, Episode 36 (156 overall)

Originally aired 6/19/1964

Cayuga Production # 2619

Fifty years ago tonight, a television legend came to an end as The Twilight Zone aired its 156^th and final episode.  Sadly, the series ended with a soft, weak whimper instead of going out with a powerful, brilliant bang.

The Sharewoods are an unhappy bunch. Gil and Gloria have two modes of interaction: passive aggression and just plain aggression, and siblings Sport and Jeb are constantly caught in the crossfire. One day a young boy named Whit appears out of nowhere in their swimming pool and invites them to come with him. They dive in after him, and emerge in a lake.

There’s a charming cottage on the lake’s shore, and several children are playing in the yard. Whitt introduces Sport and Jeb to Aunt T, an elderly woman who explains that her home is a sanctuary of sorts for sad and neglected children. Sport insists that they aren’t neglected; that their parents do in fact love them despite their fighting. Aunt T tells them that they should go home if that's the case.

The next day, Gloria angrily orders Sport to find her brother (who is nowhere to be found), so that all four can have a family meeting. Sport returns to Aunt T’s home and finds Jeb there, who refuses to leave. Sport lies and tells him that things will be different now, that their parents have promised not to fight anymore, and that they’ll be a happy family at last. Jeb reluctantly goes home with her, on the understanding that they can probably never return to Aunt T’s place.

Gil and Gloria tell Sport and Jeb that they are getting a divorce, and that the kids can choose which parent they want to live with. Sport balks, and she and Jeb return to the pool, calling out for Aunt T to help them. They swim toward the bottom, prompting Gil to in after them... but he comes up empty. The kids are gone.

.

Earl Hamner Jr.’s “The Bewitchin’ Pool” (that’s right, the series finale wasn’t even written by Rod Serling) isn’t necessarily terrible… it’s just nothing special. Drop it in the middle of the third season and I wouldn’t bat an eye. But here, at the very end, it leaves me wanting… pretty badly, in fact. It’s yet another of Hamner’s down-home “city folk are wicked and country folk are good” efforts which, as a lifelong city-dweller, I find a bit offensive.

Occupying the director’s chair is Joseph M. Newman, who previously helmed “In Praise of Pip,” “The Last Night of a Jockey,” and the terminally goofy “Black Leather Jackets” (he also directed an impressive ten Alfred Hitchcock Hours). Sci-fi fans are probably aware that he also directed 1955’s This Island Earth, which co-starred TZ alums Russell Johnson (“Execution” and “Back There”), Jeff Morrow (“Elegy”), and Lance Fuller (“The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank”). I can only assume this week’s episode was a quick paycheck for Newman and nothing more, since there’s really nothing notable about the episode’s direction. It just…. is.

Some of Mary Badham’s dialogue is regrettably dubbed by June Foray, who provided the voice of Talky Tina earlier this season in “Living Doll” (I can’t help but wish she said “My name is Sport Sharewood, and I don’t think I like you” at some point in the episode, preferably to her asshole parents), as Badham’s southern accent was reportedly thick enough to make her semi-unintelligible. The dub job is obvious and, frankly, a bit confusing since all of Badham’s dialogue in the Aunt T segments --- which wasn’t replaced --- sounds fine. History also cites “backlot noise” as an additional culprit, so I dunno. In any case, the episode’s post-production took longer than anticipated and, rather than airing in March as originally planned, it was held back until the very end of the season. So at least we know why such a limp offering ended up being the series finale.

Leave it to The Twilight Zone to throw us a curve ball in the final play of the final game. The entire prologue segment isn’t a prologue at all; it’s what we generally call a “teaser” over on my Outer Limits blog, which means it’s a scene from the episode shown out of order and out of context, intended to (wait for it) tease the viewer. The Outer Limits used this practice for most of its first season (at ABC’s behest) in order to show the audience the alien/monster of the week as fast as possible. “The Bewitchin’ Pool” has no such beasts to speak of, so I’m guessing the episode ran several minutes short (in addition to the sound problems detailed above), necessitating some creative editing. We do get the customary Serling intro at the end of it, but we don’t get the customary whip pan leading into it; rather, Serling’s face emerges from the swirling waters of the Sharewood clan’s swimming pool, which is admittedly a cool effect, hearkening back to the imaginative and unexpected Serling appearances in the show’s second and third seasons.

Rod Swirling?

A further indication that the teaser wasn’t part of the original plan can be found at the start of act one, where we hear another chunk of Serling narration (this is the only time in the entire series we hear him during the first act). I’m guessing (I don’t have the script, so guessing is all I can do) that the teaser narration was written at some later time after principal photography had wrapped.

I find myself a a bit hung up on the concept of Aunt T’s Refuge for Neglected Tykes; specifically, what’s the long-term plan? Does she return them to the real world when they reach the age of majority, after she’s raised ‘em up right 'n all? Aunt T explains to Jeb and Whitt that “all children need chores” to teach them responsibility and so forth, so this certainly seems possible. However, I get a very strong Neverland vibe from the whole thing, which might keep the kids young forever. So I dunno.

I’m reminded of the X-files episode “Closure,” in which the mystery of FBI Agent Fox Mulder’s missing sister is finally (sort of) solved: it turns out she was taken by “The Walk-Ins,” spectral beings who saved her from imminent harm and relocated her to an ethereal paradise for lost children.  Is Aunt T such a being?  Is Samantha Mulder with her now???

.

THE MUSIC

“The Bewitchin’ Pool” is stock-scored with selections from the CBS Music Library, a few of which are vaguely familiar (meaning they probably appeared in other episodes). Two cues of note are “Hope" and "Act Ending" by Bernard Herrmann, both from his sublime Walt Whitman Suite. I’m really glad that ol’ Bennie, who scored the series pilot “Where Is Everybody?,” is heard one more time in the series closer; it’s a nice musical bookend of sorts. If you'd like to obtain said Walt Whitman Suite, you can find on Bernard Herrmann at CBS, Volume 2: American Gothic from Prometheus Records.

.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Mary Badham stars as Sport Sharewood in her only Twilight Zone appearance. Badham’s résumé is pretty sparse, but she did play Scout Finch (who is more or less a younger version of Sport) in 1962’s wonderful adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, so color me impressed as hell.

The cherubic and adorable Jeb Sharewood is played by Tim Stafford, who now works under the name Jeffrey Byron. I couldn’t find any of the usual genre connections for him; however, he did appear on The Fugitive in 1964 (“Tiger Left, Tiger Right"; below), my favorite non-genre series of that time. More recently, he administered the Kobayashi Maru Scenario test in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot.

Aunt T is played by Georgia Simmons in her sole Twilight Zone excursion. Simmons has no other genre credits to speak of, but she did appear in Fellini’s 8½, so at least she did something worthwhile with her career (“The Bewitchin’ Pool” sure as hell ain’t it).

The Huck Finn-ish Whitt is played by Kim Hector, who only worked as an actor for six short years. In that brief amount of time, he managed to score this TZ gig and an Outer Limits (he played the afflicted child Johnny Subiron in “The Inheritors”)…. but his most impressive credit came with his role as Cecil Jacobs in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, so he already knew Mary Badham when he reported to the TZ set.

Kim Hector (right) squares off against Mary Badham.

If Dee Hartford (Gloria Sharewood) looks familiar, it may be because she also appeared on The Outer Limits (“The Invisibles,” which starred TZ alums Don Gordon and George MacReady). Hartford also showed up on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“Day of Reckoning”) and Batman (she played Miss Iceland in “Green Ice”/”Deep Freeze”). Is she a TZ Babe? I’d say yes, despite her bitchy demeanor here.

Dee Hartford (left) with TZ alum Don Gordon.

The résumé of Tod Andrews (Gil Sharewood) doesn’t contain any of the usual genre connections; however, he did appear as “Skipper” in 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes, so there’s a very tenuous Rod Serling connection (since Serling worked on the screenplay for 1968’s original Planet of the Apes. Don’t look at me that way; I said it was tenuous). Andrews also starred in 1957’s From Hell It Came which, despite a promising title, concerns a wrongfully-executed man who is reincarnated… as an ambulatory tree stump monster.

.

The Twilight Zone served many functions during its five-year life span. It meted out cosmic justice by punishing the guilty, and allowed second chances to those deserving of them. It enlightened those who’d lost their way, and it provided escape for those desperate enough to seek it out. As its final noble act, it provided a haven for neglected children which, as a parent, I can definitely appreciate. But damn it, I wish the episode surrounding that promising theme was better. “The Bewitchin’ Pool,” taken strictly on its own, is mediocre at best. As the final Twilight Zone episode ever, it’s disappointing and anticlimactic.

Episode Spotlight: "Stopover in a Quiet Town" (4/24/1964)

Season 5, Episode 30 (150 overall)

Originally aired 4/24/1964

Cayuga Production # 2611

Ah, the hangover. You wake up disoriented, your head throbbing, your mouth dry and pasty, the previous night a disjointed blur. “Where am I?” you ask yourself feebly. “What happened? Oh god, I drank so much I blacked out. How big an ass did I make of myself? Never again, goddammit. Never again.” Fifty years ago tonight, a young couple joined the illustrious ranks of the bleary-eyed party goers in search of their bearings… only these two have much bigger issues to sort out. 

Bob and Millie Frazier wake up in a strange house in a strange town, hung over and unsure what transpired the night before. Millie vaguely remembers having to drive (since Bob was too drunk to do so) and seeing a large shadow loom over their car. They hear the giggling of a little girl, but can’t find her as they search their surroundings for a clue as to where they are.

They gradually notice that everything is fake --- appliances, food, trees (complete with a stuffed squirrel), even the grass is nothing more than papier-mâché. They find a car, but there’s a mannequin at the wheel and no engine under the hood. They can’t shake the odd sensation that, despite the absolute lack of people to be found, they are being watched. They begin to ask themselves the typical Twilight Zone questions: is it an elaborate joke? Are they dreaming? Are they dead?

They find a railway station and board a train, which goes in a circle and returns them to where they started. They exit the train and are terrified to see a giant shadow looming over them. They make a run for it, but are quickly scooped up by a gigantic hand. They stare up in horror at the enormous face of a little girl, the source of the laughter they’ve been hearing all morning. It seems her father brought the Fraziers to her “all the way from Earth,” and they’ll be the perfect toys for her sprawling small-town playset.

“Stopover in a Quiet Town” is written by Earl Hamner Jr., who is better known for his more rural contributions to the series (“Jess-Belle,” “The Hunt,” etc.). It’s competently written (more so than many season five episodes); unfortunately, it rips off Rod Serling’s “Where Is Everybody?”. and blatantly so. Aside from the basic story idea (a seemingly-populated town inexplicably absent its populace), Hamner lifts very specific story details, the most glaring of which concerns a mannequin sitting inside a parked car (though the accompanying crane shot is quite nice). The ending is of course completely different here, and is clever and surprising enough to at least partially make up for the obvious pilfering.  

The direction by Ron Winston (who also helmed “The Big Tall Wish” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” both in season one) is fine but not remarkable; however, the optical effects used for the climax are quite impressive (similar shots of miniature people in the hands of giants in season three’s “The Little People” and season four’s “Miniature” aren’t quite as as cleanly achieved).

"The Little People" (left), "Miniature" (right)

.

.

Speaking of “The Little People,” it ends quite similarly to “Stopover,” except that the tiny Earthling in that episode ends up crushed to death in the giant astronaut’s hand. I can’t help but wonder if those enormous astronauts hail from the unnamed planet depicted here. Speaking of which, it seems highly unlikely that the alien child’s town playset would be such a dead ringer for an Earth town; moreover, what are the odds that the Fraziers --- (comparatively miniature) aliens from another world --- would be exact fits for it?

THE MUSIC

“Stopover in a Quiet Town” is stock-scored almost exclusively with Jerry Goldsmith cues from scores from “The Invaders,” "Back There,” and “The Big Tall Wish.” It’s interesting that “The Invaders” score was used, since that episode also concerns tiny Earth men.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Bob Frazier is played by Barry Nelson in his only Twilight Zone appearance. Other genre credits include roles on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Waxwork”), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (“Misadventure” and “Anyone for Murder?”), and the original Battlestar Galactica (“The Magnificent Warriors”). On the big screen, he played Stuart Ullman in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining.

Nancy Malone (Millie Frazier) is also TZ one-timer, but she also showed up over on ABC’s The Outer Limits (“Fun and Games,” which just turned 50 a few weeks ago). Malone also directed two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (“Coda” and “Message in a Bottle”) and, speaking of that venerable sci-fi institution, she can be seen in The Green Girl, a 2014 documentary about the life and career of Trek icon (and TZ alum) Susan Oliver.

“Stopover in a Quiet Town” probably seems better than it actually is, coming so late in The Twilight Zone’s fifth, final, subpar season. Despite the familiar subject matter (it’s usually Serling ripping himself off, so it’s interesting to see someone else doing it, not to mention getting away with it), I don’t dislike it. I realize that’s not exactly praise, but the episode isn’t quite praiseworthy. It’s okay.

Next week:

George Takai pays a pre-Star Trek visit to The Twilight Zone to do battle

with some WWII demons. Not a comedy.

Episode Spotlight: "Black Leather Jackets" (1/31/1964)

Season 5, Episode 18 (138 overall)

Originally aired 1/31/1964

Cayuga Production # 2628

50 years ago, The Twilight Zone continued its slide into oblivion with something truly…. weird. Oh, and stupid too.

Suburbanite Stu Tillman is annoyed by his new neighbors, three leather-clad motorcycle riders whose elaborate rooftop antenna array is interfering with his TV reception. When he goes to bust their chops about it, they telepathically change his disposition. Back at home, he vacantly tells his wife that the new neighbors are “nice boys.”

But they aren’t. They’re invaders from an unspecified planet, one small cell in a large force planning to eradicate mankind by poisoning the earth’s water supply. The youngest of the three, Scott, starts hanging around Ellen, Stu’s daughter and, as he gets to know her, he starts thinking twice about their mission. Maybe humans aren’t the self-destructive, godless cretins their research has indicated.

The night before the worldwide poisoning, Scott confesses the whole thing to Ellen who, thinking he’s off his nut, relays the story to her father. Stu, still hypnotized into thinking the best of the alien thugs next door, calls the police in an earnest attempt to “get that boy some help.” The sheriff, however, has been replaced with another invader. Scott is apprehended without incident, and the invasion commences.

Earl Hamner Jr.'s “Black Leather Jackets” is hands down the weirdest, wackiest episode in the entire series; however, compared to The Outer Limits (which around the same time was airing its wildest and woolliest entries, “Don’t Open Till Doomsday” and “ZZZZZ”), it seems pretty tame. By TZ standards, however…. well, it's quite jarring after almost five years of conservative urbanity.

Often in these types of stories, the invasion plan is full of exploitable inexplicable holes (honestly, many Outer Limits invasion tales, particularly the aforementioned “Don’t Open Till Doomsday” and "The Mice" are guilty of this). Surprisingly, this invasion plot, essentially a silent affair without bloodshed or planet-wide destruction, is actually pretty ingenious. Where it gets stupid is the hilariously unsilent manner with which our trio goes about its business, with its loud motorcycles and confrontational behavior… unless they’re using some kind of alien reverse psychology approach, which I suppose is possible. They don’t seem like dangerous extraterrestrials… they just seem like assholes who speak in 60’s lingo (in his "next week on The Twilight Zone" preview at the end of last week's episode, Serling called them “beatniks” and “raunchy-looking characters”). So yeah, maybe it’s intentional. If so, the episode isn’t as stupid as I want to think it is.

The episode would work immeasurably better if the invaders masqueraded as everyday ordinary guys. Well, they could still be dicks (which would preserve the initial conflict with Stu), but subtract the leather jackets and the motorcycles (and the horrendously dated “Daddy-O” dialogue), and you've got a much more convincing story. Actually, replace the biker trio altogether with a nice couple and their teenage son, and you've got something even better… nobody’s gonna suspect em, right? Nope, we get brash, obnoxious proto-Fonzies instead. But, no matter what, it’s fun. Goofy, eye-rolling fun. Part of the fun is the relative lack of campiness, which one might expect from a story like this: the actors play their parts earnestly, without eye-winking or in-joking, as this TV equivalent of a 50’s-b-movie-slash-60's-teen-rampage-flick unfolds.

And it’s worth noting that, while it’s certainly not the first alien invasion the show has done, it doesn’t shamelessly rehash previous episodes (like many season five efforts do). So at least it’s got that going for it. And I do like the big communications center, just sitting there in any otherwise empty house, and the fact that we only see one eye of the Imperious Leader-type that our invaders report to (why? Who cares? It looks cool!). And look! The aliens even have their own insignia!

THE MUSIC

“Black Leather Jackets” features an original jazz score by Nathan Van Cleave. Like all fifth season original scores, it’s never had a soundtrack release; however, unlike most of them, it’s NOT available as an isolated track on the DVD and blu-ray releases. The only way one can possibly hear Van Cleave’s score is to actually watch the episode and try to ignore the hep-cat dialogue. For a TZ music collector like me, this is a major drag, man.

FAMILIAR FACES

Scott is well-played by Lee Kinsolving in his only TZ appearance; he’d also appear the same year on The Outer Limits (in “The Guests,” which turns 50 in March). Despite his talent, Kinsolving’s acting career was brief: he retired from Hollywood after a scant eight years. Ten years after "Black Leather Jackets" aired, he passed away from a rare respiratory illness. He was only 36 years old. I was going to make a joke about the hazards of being a leather-clad street biker, but it suddenly seems callous.

The lovely Shelley Fabares plays Ellen Tillman in her only TZ appearance. This is the only sci-fi/fantasy credit on her considerable résumé, but she did co-star in three Elvis Presley films, which I guess is sorta tangentially related to the whole 60’s “Daddy-O” vibe on display this week. It’s a stretch, I know. Maybe I just wanted a reason to show her in a bikini. She is undoubtedly a TZ Babe.

*Sigh*

Michael Forest plays Steve, one of Scott’s biker alien peers. Interestingly, he played outlaw biker Zeno in 1972’s The Dirt Gang, a role which “Black Leather Jackets” undoubtedly prepared him for. Forest’s other genre credits include appearances on Star Trek and One Step Beyond, but I know him best from his work on The Outer Limits (“It Crawled Out of the Woodwork”).

Michael Conrad plays Deputy Harper in his only TZ appearance, but he does have another (extremely tenuous) Rod Serling connection: he appeared in an episode of TV’s Planet of the Apes in 1974 ("The Tyrant"), a series which was based on the 1968 film of the same name… which Serling co-wrote.

Finally, Wayne Heffley is easy to miss as an uncredited mover here, but he was much more visible (and he did receive credit) as 2nd Officer Wyatt in season two’s “The Odyssey of Flight 33.”

“Black Leather Jackets” is stupid, but entertaining. Given some of the shitty episodes coming up, however... well, it’s hard to hate it. Turn off your brain and enjoy it.

Next week:

TZ alum Gladys Cooper is getting obscene phone calls. Okay, maybe they aren’t

exactly obscene, but they’re definitely creepy.*

* For real this time!