Episode Spotlight: "In Praise of Pip" (9/27/1963)

Season 5, Episode 1 (121 overall)

Cayuga Production #2607

Originally aired September 27, 1963

The Twilight Zone returned for its fifth season with a heartbreaking bang: Rod Serling’s “In Praise of Pip” is an aching study of a man’s love for his son, and the lengths he’ll go to save his life.

Max Phillips (expertly played by TZ favorite Jack Klugman) is a low-rent bookie, living in semi-squalor in a boarding house, marking time between drinks and letters from his son Pip, who is serving in Vietnam.  When he receives word that Pip has been injured in combat and is hovering between life and death, he revolts against his crime lord boss and gets a bullet for his trouble.  Wounded, he wanders down to the locked gates of a nearby amusement park and asks God for the chance to talk --- just talk --- to Pip.  This is only the setup; the real story takes place during act two, inside the amusement park, where an unexpected visitor awaits him.  

“In Praise of Pip” resides squarely in TZ’s gentle fantasy category (other occupants of this sub-genre include “Walking Distance,” “The Trouble with Templeton” and “The Fugitive”); it’s also one of the series’ subtlest outings.  It could be argued that the events in act two are simply hallucinations experienced by Max as he slowly bleeds to death. If we take the episode at face value and accept that God grants Max’s request (actually requests, plural), then we’re moving outside of The Twilight Zone and into fundamentalist Christianity (which my agnostic self refuses to allow for). I suppose that the fact that Max specifically calls on God doesn't necessarily mean that it’s God who answers, so it’s not necessarily a conundrum after all.  And ultimately it doesn't really matter: emotion is driving the story, not the entity stimulating said emotion behind the machinations.

There’s a nice montage featuring Max and Pip taking in the assorted pleasures of the amusement park (rides, cotton candy, etc). We’re reminded of the carnival in season one’s “Perchance to Dream”; here, however, the nightmarish aspect is confined to the House of Mirrors, and even that is ultimately more disorienting than frightening.

Max voices regret about all the times he flaked on his parenting time with Pip, which indicates that Pip didn't live with him, but it’s interesting to note that there isn't a single mention of the child’s mother anywhere in the episode. I suppose it doesn't change anything, since we’re really only interested in the father-son relationship, but just a quick reference might’ve been nice.  Is she dead?  Remarried? We’ll never know.

THE MUSIC

“In Praise of Pip” features an original music score by Rene Garriguenc (conducted by Lud Gluskin). It’s fairly generic aside from a couple of nice jazzy cues but, overall, it supports the drama well enough (I almost wonder if using stock cues from “Walking Distance” might’ve been more effective…?). You won’t find Garriguenc’s score on any TZ soundtracks; however, it’s conveniently included as an isolated music track on both the Definitive DVD and blu-ray releases on season five from Image Entertainment.

FAMILIAR FACES

“In Praise of Pip” is Jack Klugman’s fourth and final TZ appearance: he previously headlined season one’s “A Passage for Trumpet” (in which his Joey Crown is something of a dry run for his Max Phillips here), season three’s “A Game of Pool” and season four’s “Death Ship.” Klugman is my favorite actor to ever appear on the series, so I was naturally devastated when he passed away this last Christmas Eve.

Pip is played by Billy Mumy, who attained TZ Legend status with his portrayal of the Godchild Anthony Fremont in season three’s “It’s a Good Life” (he also appeared in season two’s “Long Distance Call”). Observing how much Mumy changed over those three appearances (see pic below) effectively underlines Max’s lament over how quickly his son has grown up.

Several other TZ vets are on display in "In Praise of Pip." Max’s boss Moran is played by John Launer, the Lieutenant Colonel in season one’s “The Purple Testament” (memorable for his unfortunate “War stinks!” line; Launer also provided voice work in “And When the Sky was Opened” and “Third from the Sun,” both from season one).  That’s Ross Elliot as the doctor who first examines Private Pip in South Vietnam; he appeared briefly in season four’s “Death Ship” as Kramer, the hunter in Lieutenant Carter’s vision of home (Elliot never crossed screen paths with Jack Klugman, however, who had the lead in that particular episode). And Russell Horton, who we saw in season three’s “The Changing of the Guard,” is effectively twitchy and pathetic here as ol’ black-eyed George (for whom Max takes the fateful bullet).

Kreg Martin is sufficiently menacing as Moran’s silent, unnamed gunman. This is his only TZ appearance; however, he appeared three times on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and three times on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.  The IMDB only lists acting credits for him in 1962 and 1963, so he evidently came out of nowhere, scored a bunch of TV roles, and abruptly dropped off the face of the earth. I can’t explain why, as I couldn't find anything in the way of biographical info on him.  Anyone?

“In Praise of Pip” is probably the single most heart-wrenching (and tear-inducing) episodes of The Twilight Zone, and Klugman’s performance is truly transcendent. There are several episodes that I count among my favorite filmed productions of all time for various reasons (writing, cinematography, performance, etc), but this particular episode is one I identify with on a very personal and visceral level. As a parent who has watched his children transform into adults (in what feels like mere moments instead of years), I experience a nostalgic twinge whenever I see pictures or videos of them when they were small, and… well, I’m reduced to tears every time I watch this. No other episode in the entire series hits me this hard.

Me and my kids, Isaac and Sierra, circa 1995.

Serling’s daughter Anne recently published As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling, an autobiographical account of her relationship with her famous (okay, legendary) father.  She reveals that some of the dialogue from “In Praise of Pip” was directly inspired by exchanges between the two of them, adding yet another layer of bittersweetness to the proceedings.

“In Praise of Pip” is Serling’s last truly great Twilight Zone script, on par with the general excellence of his work in the series’ glorious first season. There are a few decent Serling efforts still to come, but they won’t reach the heights he achieves here. Truth be told, I wish this episode had been the final episode to be aired this season (which would've made it the series finale). It would've been a nice bookend to close out the series.

Next week:  A three-round bout featuring the original Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Bet a fin, take your seat and tune in.

TZ Promo: "Death Ship" (2/07/1963)

Season 4, Episode 6 (#108 overall)

Cayuga Production # 4850

Originally aired February 7, 1963

“Since the beginning, man has looked into the awesome reaches of infinity and asked the eternal questions:  What is time?  What is space?  What is life?  What is death?”

--- Opening narration,

Portrait of Jennie (1948)

The above quote sounds like a Control Voice narration from The Outer Limits, but I’m using it here on my Twilight Zone blog because it fits perfectly:  in different ways, tonight’s episode asks all four of those questions.

Richard Matheson’s “Death Ship,” which turns 50 tonight, finds a crew of three astronauts on a deep space mission, cataloging planets for potential colonization sites. Waiting for them on the 13^th planet of Star System 51 is perhaps the greatest mystery of all, wrapped in the trappings of the deepest horror known to man. “Something glittered down there,” says Lieutenant Mason as he scans the planet’s surface. Lieutenant Carter is excited at the possibilities that may await them, but Captain Ross is reluctant to bother. Protocol demands that they investigate, however, so they land.

Upon landing, the trio discovers a crashed ship that looks identical to their own.  They venture inside and discover a trio of corpses that match themselves in every detail, right down to their ID cards.

Mason and the third crewman, Lieutenant Carter, immediately assume that they are dead. In Matheson’s original short story, this was in fact the truth:  they were essentially ghosts discovering the nature of their own deaths.  In fleshing out the story for The Twilight Zone’s new hour format, Matheson takes things in a different, somewhat more ambiguous direction.

You'll find Matheson's original short story in this collection, circa 1961.

Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to spoil the ending in order for the rest of my comments to make sense.  Without giving too much detail, the reality is that, because of Captain Ross’ iron-willed refusal to accept death, and his intense determination to discover an alternate explanation, he (and his hapless crew along with him) is stuck in an endless loop in time, reliving these events over and over again throughout eternity.  It’s kinda like season one’s “Judgment Night,” but in space.  It’s not necessarily the most satisfying ending, but the real sparks come from the stellar performances by Jack Klugman and Ross Martin.

What can I say about Jack Klugman that I haven’t already said in this blog?  I love the man.  He’s one of my favorite actors of all time (TZ or otherwise), and he was excellent in everything he ever did, period (1957’s Twelve Angry Men, TV’s The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E., the list goes on and on and on).  He’s visited The Twilight Zone twice before (season one’s “A Passage forTrumpet” and season three’s “A Game of Pool”), and we’ll see him again in September for the season five opener (“In Praise of Pip”).  Captain Ross is a bit of a departure for him; his other three TZ roles find him inhabiting variations on the same type of character: down on his luck, rough around the edges but lovable; here, he’s all stone and steel, tough to love and impossible to defy.  Mason and Carter clearly fear and hate him, but they sure as hell do what he says. 

Klugman passed away very recently (Christmas Eve), and I’m still mourning.  For whatever self-delusional reason, I always thought I’d meet him one day.

Ross Martin visited The Twilight Zone previously in season one’s “The Four of Us Are Dying,” a relatively forgettable appearance, but here he shines in one of my favorite TZ performances.  Watch his face fill with teary-eyed joy as he comes face to face with his deceased wife and daughter, and later, mournful despondency as he realizes the truth behind the episode’s central mystery.  Mason played the creepy-as-hell “Red” Lynch in 1962’s Experiment in Terror, which was recently released on blu-ray from Twilight Time. 

I believe you're going... my way?

Fredrick Beir, playing the slightly-dopey Carter here, played another astronaut the same year on The Outer Limits (“The Man with the Power”).  He and Klugman would cross paths again eight years later on The Odd Couple (“Felix’s Wife’s Boyfriend”).

Martin (as Mason) has a wonderful moment outside the wrecked ship in act one:  after surveying the craft’s hull damage, he imagines the disaster.  Over a close shot of his face, we hear the deafening roar of the engines as the ship descends and crashes (as he imagines it).  It’s interesting to reflect on this after the episode ends.  Is it his imagination, or is it an actual memory echoing through their endless time loop?

This episode undoubtedly inspired "Cause and Effect," one of my all-time favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which finds our intrepid Enterprise 1701-D crew trapped in a “causality loop” in which they meet a catastrophic end over and over again (lucky for them, the android Data finds a way to eventually break them free; our E-89 boys unfortunately didn't bring an android with them).

Forbidden Planet alert!  The United Planets C-57D Space Cruiser makes yet another appearance on The Twilight Zone, this time standing in as the E-89 spaceship.  We get lots of it here, in both pristine and crashed form.  The takeoff and landing footage is very impressive (it kicks up dust and everything!) as is the miniature set representing the surface of the planet. The uniforms worn by the E-89 crew are also Forbidden Planet leftovers.  The E-89 interior, meanwhile, appears to be new (which means no Pac-Man lights, dammit).

There’s an (unfortunately) obvious cut in the shot in which Mason first reveals his duplicate’s corpse in the wrecked ship.  I tried to get a screen capture for illustration’s sake, but there’s too much motion to get a clear shot (it happens at time stamp 11:57; you really can’t miss it). There’s probably no way they could’ve pulled this off seamlessly in a single shot, but it’s a bit disappointing after the marvelous split screen work achieved on “In His Image” a few weeks back.  They could’ve simply blocked the shot differently and avoided the cut (interestingly, we get some great split screen shots mere seconds later).  It’s really the only blemish on an otherwise excellent episode, one that I count among my top 10 favorites.

Next:  The incomparable Anne Francis does some betwitchin.’

R.I.P. Jack Klugman

Jack Klugman

1922-2012

It's Christmas Eve, and I just found out ten minutes ago.  Klugman was my favorite Twilight Zone actor, appearing in four great episodes, all of which reside in my top 40 favorites ("A Passage for Trumpet," "A Game of Pool," "Death Ship" and "In Praise of Pip").  Needless to say, I'm devastated.  I always imagined I'd somehow meet him, shake his hand and thank him for a lifetime of brilliant work. It'll never happen now.  The closest I'll ever come are the two autographed items I bought on eBay:

Rest in peace, Jack.  And a Merry Christmas to each and all.

TZ Promo: "A Game of Pool" (10/13/1961)

Season 3, Episode 5 (#70 overall)

Cayuga Production #4815

50 years ago tonight, a little David took on a big Goliath. The weapon of choice wasn’t a slingshot, however. It was a pool cue.


“A Game of Pool,” written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Buzz Kulik, tells the tale of a skilled but relatively unknown pool player named Jesse Cardiff, who longs to be the best at the game. He’s streetwise and cocky, a bit full of himself, hungry for fame and glory. Late one night, alone in a pool hall, he loudly challenges deceased pool great Fats Brown to a game. Jesse’s just shooting off his mouth, of course, and you can’t really challenge the dead… but this is The Twilight Zone. Fats Brown materializes before his eyes, and the game is on.


The game itself is a tense, well-staged roller coaster, infused with great character moments (Jesse describes all the life pleasures he’s eschewed in order to focus on the game; Fats, meanwhile, names off all the life pleasures he valued over the game; it’s a nice juxtaposition of priorities). When Jesse takes that final life-or-death shot, it’s one of those wonderful edge-of-your-seat moments. You like Jesse, and you want him to win despite his obvious hubris issue, but since it’s The Twilight Zone, a happy ending isn’t always guaranteed (I’m looking at you, “Time Enough at Last”) . Further, happy endings aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be (that’s you, “A Nice Place to Visit”). There, that’s as close to a spoiler as you’re gonna get outta me this week.


It’s no surprise that Klugman shines here; in his youth, he excelled in this type of “downtrodden-but-scrappy” role. What IS a surprise is the nice-guy-tinged-with-menace performance turned in by Jonathan Winters as Fats Brown (yes, THAT Jonathan Winters, the guy who played the giant baby on TV’s Mork & Mindy). You might expect some goofy cheese, but this Winters portrait is the real deal: terse and serious, not to mention downright scary when he first appears. The two actors play off one another beautifully. This is a perfect episode, perfectly executed, and it’s right at home in my top ten favorites list.



REMAKES, REMAKES, REMAKES!

“A Game of Pool” was remade during the 80’s Twilight Zone revival series on CBS. This time, Johnson’s original ending was used, in which the outcome is reversed from what we see in the original episode. The remake features Esai Morales and Maury Chaykin in the Klugman and Winters roles, and is actually fairly effective (as far as remakes go).


Curiously, Johnson himself directed his own production a couple of years ago, also utilizing his original ending (I saw it here, but I'm not sure the link still works). I hate to say it, but it’s a wasted effort. Here are my thoughts, originally posted over at The Twilight Zone Café on 10/27/2009:

“I watched it today. Unfortunately, it doesn't touch the original (for that matter, the 80s remake is superior too) IMHO. I didn't care much for the actor playing Jesse (he seems a bit old for the part, and he tends to rush through critical sections of dialogue early on), but the actor playing Fats (well, Duke here) is suitably ominous. I can't decide if I like the underscore or not... it seems too modern for the material. And the pool sound effects don't mesh well with the soundtrack. I think my single biggest complaint, though, is the complete lack of actual pool footage! Film is a VISUAL medium. We need to see the damned balls, especially when a specific shot is referenced in the dialogue. All in all, it just seems unnecessary to me. Between the original and 80's versions, both endings are covered. What's the point?”

So... there ya go. Don't let my low opinion stop you from checking it out.



“A Game of Pool” was also performed live right here in Portland back in 1995 (retitled “The Pool Player” for some unknown reason) as part of Tales from The Twilight Zone, a stage adaption of three episodes. As I recall, the players simply described the shots as they took them, which I guess worked well enough (I don’t remember if they used sound effects or not). If I found myself mounting a stage production of this particular episode (hey, never say never), I’d have my actors fake the shots and employ a simple laptop/projector setup (we use ‘em here at work for training purposes) to display pre-filmed footage of each shot. I guess that would make it a multimedia show of sorts. Cool.

Next week: Columbo + Castro = Crappy episode. Ugh.

TZ Promo: "A Passage for Trumpet" (5/20/1960)

His name is Joey Crown. He's a trumpet player whose drunkenness has derailed a promising career. He's at the end of his rope and is looking for an escape. He pawns his horn, gets drunk one last time, and steps out in front of a moving truck... and straight into The Twilight Zone.

"A Passage for Trumpet," which first aired 50 years ago tonight, is the first of four episodes to star character actor Jack Klugman, best known for his roles on TV's The Odd Couple and, later, Quincy. Klugman had a knack --- perhaps more than any other TZ actor --- for capturing the elusive essence of a basically decent guy who's missed the boat in life, the down and (almost) out dreamer. In three of his four TZ outings, he plays variations on this same basic character (the exception, season four's "Death Ship," finds him more focused and intense, but still brilliant). Sure, Crown's to blame for his bad choices. We still feel for the guy nevertheless, and we want things to work out for him. As Joey Crown, Klugman turns in a wistful, self-deprecating performance that absolutely shines. You can't help but root for him.

Crown meets up with Gabe, a fellow trumpeter played by John Anderson. The less I say about him the better (no spoilers here), but Anderson's performance is every bit as solid (if a bit less nuanced) than Klugman's. He also gets to utter my single favorite line of dialogue from the entire series: "You're in the middle, between the two: the real, and the shadow." If that doesn't sum up The Twilight Zone, I don't know what does.

Serling's script is predictably stellar, and the episode benefits greatly from the partnership of director Don Medford and Director of Photography George T. Clemens. Much of the episode takes place in what looks like the backstage area of a theater (scaffolding abounds), and the chiaroscuro lighting is gorgeous to behold. Mention should also be made of Lyn Murray's excellent jazz score. I ranked "A Passage for Trumpet" in my Top 40 back in November, but it didn't quite make my Top 10 (Klugman's other three TZ episodes, however, did). I think it's safe to say that I'm a huge Jack Klugman fan.

Coming up two weeks from tonight: One of the worst Twilight Zone episodes ever made celebrates the big 5-0. I'm dreading it in a HUGE way. In fact, it may be my single least favorite episode in the series' 156 episode run. Tune in to see what makes it so horrible.