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: "Living Doll" (11/01/1963)

Season 5, Episode 6 (126 overall)

Originally aired 11/01/2013

Cayuga Production # 2621

Fifty years ago tonight, a mean ol’ sumbitch matched wits with a doll… and lost miserably. Jeez, wotta wuss.

Erich Streator is your average everyday wicked stepfather. Overbearing and cruel, he makes life miserable for his wife Annabelle and stepdaughter Christie on a daily basis. When Annabelle buys Christie a new Talky Tina doll, Erich is clearly perturbed because, well, nobody in his house should ever enjoy anything. Kinda reminds me of my stepdad when I was a kid.

Hi Daddy! Meet your adorable new nemesis!

“My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much,” coos Tina whenever her string is pulled. But whenever she’s alone with Erich, she says other, more interesting phrases: they start with “I don’t think I like you” and quickly escalate to “I’m going to kill you.” The aforementioned battle of wits escalates from there and, to borrow a catchphrase from Highlander: there can be only one.

ZICREE RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!

I was pretty new to the series when I first read Marc Scott Zicree’s The Twilight Zone Companion in 1982, and there were many episodes that I hadn't seen yet, one of which was “Living Doll.” Zicree’s comments on the episodes are as follows:

“Erich Streator is trying desperately not to alienate his wife and her young daughter. When the child brings home a doll that makes clear its murderous intentions --- but only when it's alone with him --- Erich is in one hell of a bind. If he tries to tell his wife of it, he sounds like a lunatic, and if he tries to protect himself by attempting (unsuccessfully) to destroy the doll, his actions seem those of a twisted mind striking out resentfully to hurt a helpless little girl. Poor Erich; it is clear early on that he hasn't much of a chance against this ruthless doll.” 

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Zicree?

This was all I knew about “Living Doll” until I finally saw it a few years later. I was expecting to see a basically decent guy get decimated unfairly by an evil doll; imagine my surprise to discover that said “decent guy” was actually the villain of the piece! Did Zicree even watch the episode before writing about it? He couldn't have possibly sympathized with Erich Streator AT ALL if he had; however, the excessive praise he heaps on it would seem to imply that not only had he seen it, but had deemed it absolute top tier Zone: “Masterfully written and superbly directed, acted, photographed and scored, it is an episode that can stand with the best of any season.”  It was at this point, at the tender of age of 13, that I had the sobering realization that Zicree was perhaps not the be-all-end-all Twilight Zone expert that I’d assumed he was. I mean, he’d written a goddamned book about it; how the hell could he have been so incredibly wrong?

I think, in describing this dark event in my TZ-formative years, I've figured out why I’m so hostile toward Zicree. Serling was my new idol (after outgrowing such childhood heroes as Spiderman and Luke Skywalker), but he died before I ever heard his name, so Zicree, having chronicled Serling’s wonderful TV series, was the closest I could get to him. And the son of a bitch let me down by being so blatantly wrong about something so obvious. Erich Streator was a bad guy; he deserved what he got. This was the cosmic justice that lay at the very heart of The Twilight Zone, which even I understood at that early age. If Zicree didn't understand that, then who was he to write the book in the first place?

Ahem. I think I might just have exorcised a serious demon here. Maybe now I can move on with my life. Maybe I can even forgive Mr. Zicree his egregious trespasses against my inner child. Maybe.

Okay, therapy session over. Let’s move on.

“Living Doll” has a great concept (which is unfortunately pretty clichéd nowadays; I’m looking at you, Child’s Play franchise) which, coupled with Telly Savalas’s fantastic bad-guy-you-love-to-hate performance, makes for a highly entertaining half-hour (except for the last thirty seconds; see below). Unfortunately, it’s pretty flat on a visual level, the exception being when the action moves to Erich’s garage, where he attempts to dispose of Tina in a number of ways (she’s definitely more menacing in semi-darkness). Still, these scenes offer nothing on the level of, say, season three’s “The Dummy” (which features a menacing ventriloquist’s dummy framed by complex camera work with marvelous lighting).  And the final shot of the episode, in which slow-motion is abruptly employed for no apparent reason, does nothing to advance the mood (and was likely done to stretch out the ending to accommodate Serling’s closing narration, which suggests poor planning during filming).  

In fact, the ending is disappointing in general, since having Tina murder Erich is the easiest possible conclusion. Why not have Erich scared straight, so to speak, and forced to treat his family better under Tina’s ongoing supervision? Further, why the hell does Tina threaten Annabelle (Christie’s one and only champion) after Erich is dispatched? Up until this point, the episode was operating under the cosmic justice approach (discussed in detail last week) but, in the final moment, gears are abruptly switched over to something more akin to chaos theory. It seems Tina is just an all-around evil doll (yawn) instead of a protective shield for a mistreated child (infinitely more satisfying) after all.

One minor bid of weirdness. Annabelle says to Erich that “I know you got more than you bargained for when you married me; two for the price of one, wasn’t it?” Um… surely he was aware that she had a kid, right…? If he wasn’t, then I’m almost willing to cut him some slack for being such an asshole. On that note, surely she was aware that he was a profoundly mean bastard, so why the hell did she marry him in the first place? 

Jerry Sohl and Charles Beaumont

“Living Doll” is the first of three episodes credited to writer Charles Beaumont this season. Unfortunately, he didn't actually write any of them, as by this time his health was rapidly deteriorating (he passed away in 1967). In this particular case, Beaumont mapped out the plot with Jerry Sohl, who ghostwrote the script.

THE MUSIC

“Living Doll” features another great score from Bernard Herrmann. As a fan(atic) of his work, I find it fascinating to compare his Twilight Zone work with the film scores he composed around the same time (for example, his score for 1959’s Journey to the Center of the Earth shares similar instrumentation with TZ’s “The Lonely” from that same year). His sole film score in 1963 was Jason and the Argonauts which, now that I think about it, doesn’t really sound like “Living Doll” at all.  Here, Herrmann employs a very small ensemble (two harps, celesta and bass clarinet) to create moody, suspenseful cues that perfectly underline the escalating psychological warfare between Erich and Talky Tina. The original Herrmann recordings have never been properly released; however, they can be obtained via the isolated music tracks present on both the DVD and blu-ray sets of season five (from Image Entertainment).  

Additionally, Joel McNeely recorded all seven of Herrmann’s Twilight Zone scores in 1999 for a 2-CD set released by Varese Sarabande Records (which was the only game in town for 4/7ths of Herrmann’s TZ output before Image came along). I do have some issues with some of McNeely’s interpretations (some cues are too fast while others are too slow; further, much of “Where Is Everybody?” just sounds off to my ears); however, his take on “Living Doll” is quite good (though it’s no match for the original recording).

FAMILIAR FACES

Telly Savalas, who has a long history of imposing and often malevolent characters on his resume, is perfect as Erich Streator.  This is his only TZ appearance, but he does have another connection to the series: he appeared in 1962’s Cape Fear, which was scored by Bernard Herrmann (and co-starred TZ vets Martin Balsam, Edward Platt and Paul Comi). Savalas also played super villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of my favorite James Bond films.

Mary La Roche (Annabelle Streator) previously entered The Twilight Zone as Mary, Gregory West’s mistress, in season one’s “A World of His Own.” Here she plays an unhappy wife, so I guess she got to play both sides of the extramarital fence (though I guess Erich isn't depicted as an adulterer; but honestly, would we be surprised?).

Tracy Stratford is convincingly sad and under-loved as Christie (she was also Tina in season three’s “Little Girl Lost,” which was also scored by Bernard Herrmann. Wait, so first she played Tina, then she had a doll named Tina… is it possible that Talky Tina came from the fourth dimension?). Additionally, Stratford provided the voice of Lucy Van Pelt in the 1960s Charlie Brown TV specials. So when Annabelle tells Erich to see a psychiatrist, I wonder if she meant….

Good grief! Uh, I mean... who loves ya, baby???

And hey, Telly Savalas and Charlie Brown are both bald. Coincidence?  I dunno… maybe Charles Schulz was a Twilight Zone fan…?

June Foray, probably the hardest working voice actor in Hollywood, provides the unforgettable voice of Talky Tina. She’ll also do some (slightly controversial) dubbing later this season in “The Bewitchin’ Pool,” but she has another less-obvious TZ connection as well.  80’s kids like me will have no trouble remembering the 1985 film Weird Science, but do you remember the TV spin-off, which lasted five seasons (1994-1998) on the USA Network? In the episode “Sci-Fi Zoned,” the main characters are trapped inside black and white episodes of their favorite TV show (a thinly-veiled TZ knockoff called The Sci-Fi Zone), one of which involves a murderous doll named “Talking Tammy,” who is voiced by…. yup, you guessed it, June Foray (she also voices a sentient candy bar named “Baby Ruth” in the same episode).

An iconic episode like this is almost guaranteed to spawn a parody somewhere along the line. Like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” a few weeks back, “Living Doll” got the Simpsons treatment in 1992’s “Treehouse of Horror III,” in which a Krusty the Klown doll menaces Homer Simpson (“Clown without Pity”). Also of interest to genre fans is the framing device employed in this episode, which is patterned after TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents and features the rotund Homer standing in for Hitch.

Good morn--- D'oh!

Bif Bang Pow! has immortalized Talky Tina in every conceivable form (a talking bobblehead, action figure, and a fully-functioning life-sized replica). The bobblehead seems to be sold out but, as of this writing, the action figure and life-size replica are still available through Entertainment Earth (but, as with any collectible, they won’t be around forever). I can’t comment on the life-sized replica since I don't own it (c'mon, how could I possibly justify buying a fucking doll? For over a hundred bucks, no less!), but I've reviewed the other two (see here and here).

Questionable ending aside, “Living Doll” is great fun and a definite highlight of The Twilight Zone’s fifth and final season. Other than the misfire “A Kind of a Stopwatch” two weeks ago, season five’s offerings have ranged from good to excellent… unfortunately, the quality is about to start dipping in a big way.  Stay tuned, but temper your expectations from here on out.

Next week: Hoo boy. Where’s Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery when you need ‘em?