Twilight Zone Companion (28 page)

Richard Matheson, another of Idelsons friends, submitted his script to The Twilight Zone. Initially, it was rejected, but Beaumont heard about the script and liked the idea. Upon his promise that he would rewrite the script with Idelson, Cayuga bought it. And Idelson had made his first sale.

Long Distance Call also marked the debut on The Twilight Zone of a gifted young actor who would ultimately be featured in three episodes. Today, Billy Mumy is primarily remembered for his role as Will Robinson on Lost in Space, but in reality his career has been a long and varied one, including such films as A Child is Waiting and Papillon.

What makes Long Distance Call truly frightening is the horrifying concept of a dead relative guiding a child toward suicide. The total vulnerability of the child and the utter helplessness of the parents to intercede (until the end) cannot help but involve us emotionally. It was a theme that concerned some of those on the set as well. I remember my mother was really upset with the suicide scenes, says Mumy, thinking that it might make some type of weird impression on me to get something out of them by maybe pulling a stunt like that. One scene in particular must have caused a great deal of anxiety. When I tried to commit suicide in the pond, Mumy recalls, we shot a whole thing there with me floating in the water. I dont think that that was on camera, but I remember doing it. I was a real good swimmer then.

One of the factors that might originally have dissuaded Cayuga from buying Idelsons script was the less-than-successful climactic scene, in which the childs father picks up the toy telephone and pleads with his dead mother to return the boy. Heres how it appeared in the original script:

Ma! Ma, if you can hear me, give him back to us. You said you loved me, and I know you did. I remember so many things. Remember that funny little dog I had? You let me keep him even when he tore up all the furniture.

Pa wanted to give him away, but you said no. And remember the first day of school? How scared I was … and you sat in the back of the room all morning so I wouldnt cry? And that first pair of long pants. And the time I broke the window with the ball? You hid me under the bed when the policeman came. My graduation … and that first date I had, you remember? With that skinny redhead, how mad you were? We had lots of fights, but I always knew you loved me. And I loved you, too, so very, very much. I never really got a chance to tell you. Oh, Ma, please, give him back to us, so we can love him too. Give him back to us.

Chuck Beaumont and I were on the set while they were shooting the show, says Idelson, and Rod came down and said, T dont like this last speech. I want you to change it. Chuck and I went into an office and changed it, on the spot.

What emerged was a speech (beautifully performed by Philip Abbot) in which the focus was moved away from the father and put where it rightly belongson the child:

Mother, if you can hear me, listen. You said you loved Billy. At his birthday you picked him up and you hugged himand you said he gave you life again. If you really love Billy, give him back. Hes only five. He hasnt even started. He doesnt know anything about going to school.

Or girlfriends. Or wearing long pants. Even pitching a baseball. Hes hardly been out of this room, out of this house. Theres a whole world he hasnt even touched.

Mother, you said Billy gave you life againnow you can give him life. If you really love him, let him live. Give him back. Give him back, Ma!

When the show went on the air, says Idelson, they all came over to my houseChuck, Dick Matheson, Bill Nolanand they were all very complimentary. It was a tremendous thrill for me.

TAKING STOCK

Long Distance Call was the last episode of The Twilight Zone to be videotaped. In all, Cayuga had saved five thousand dollars per episode, but for a series that required the entire universe as a stage, the limitations of tape far outweighed the advantages. In 1972, Serling finally made public his feelings on the subject. In an interview with Douglas Brode in Show magazine, he said, I never liked tape because its neither fish nor fowl. Youre bound to the same kind of natural laws as in live TV, but they try to mix it with certain qualities of film. … on Twilight Zone we tried six shows on tape, and they were disastrous.

Although Serling and company were done with the six tape episodes, others were not. Both Static and Long Distance Call resulted in lawsuits against Cayuga by writers who had submitted stories to The Twilight Zone, one of which utilized a magical toy telephone, the other a magical radio. Unfortunately, because The Twilight Zone was essentially a show that relied on various supernatural or scientific gimmicks, it left itself wide open to such charges.

There were accusations floating around all the time that Rod was stealing every story that was ever written, and Rod was very self-conscious about it, says Buck Houghton. [Science fiction] is a limited field, and you cant write in it without stepping on somebodys former idea. Its like saying that every love story is a steal of Romeo and Juliet. You know, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl is not copyrightable. But there was this feeling. Ultimately, settlements were made in both cases.

Following the tape shows, Cayuga broke for the remainder of the winter. For most of the production crew, this meant a well-deserved vacation, but not for Serling. If anything, his work load increased, preparing six of the remaining seven scripts of the season. Shooting of film episodes resumed at the beginning of March, 1961, with two very different stories of time travel, both by Serling.

A HUNDRED YARDS OVER THE RIM (4/7/61)

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: Buck Houghton

Director: Buzz Kulik

Director of Photography:George T. Clemens

Music: Fred Steiner

Cast: Christian Horn: Cliff Robertson Joe: John Crawford Mary Lou: Evans Evans Doctor: Ed Platt Martha Horn: Miranda Jones Sheriff: Robert L. McCord III Miranda Jones and Cliff Robertson Charlie: John Astin

The year is 1847, the place is the territory of New Mexico, the people are a tiny handful of men and women with a dream. Eleven months ago, they started out from Ohio and headed west. Someone told them about a place called California, about a warm sun and a blue sky, about rich land and fresh air, and at this moment almost a year later theyve seen nothing but cold, heat, exhaustion, hunger, and sickness. This mans name is Christian Horn. He has a dying eight-year-old son and a heartsick wife, and hes the only one remaining who has even a fragment of the dream left. Mr. Chris Horn, whos going over the top of a rim to look for water and sustenance and in a moment will move into the Twilight Zone.

Scouting a hundred yards over the rim, Horn is shocked to see a paved highway lined with telephone poles and the wagons he left behind only minutes before completely gone! A huge truck which Horn takes for a monster thunders by. He throws himself to the ground and his rifle discharges into his arm. Stumbling along the road, he comes to a diner run by Joe and Mary Lou (a former nurses aide). Mary Lou treats Horns arm and gives him a bottle of penicillin pills. The couple find the stranger

extremely odd, and Horn finds both them and the restaurant totally inexplicable until he spies a calendar dated September, 1961. The couple summon a doctor who questions Horn and finds that his delusions have their own peculiar rationality, lent credence by his clothes, his gun, and the old-fashioned fillings in his teeth. Joe, realizing this is all beyond him, calls the sheriff to take Horn away. Horn emerges from the other room. He has looked in an encyclopedia and found that his son grew up to be a renowned physician. He realizes that his journey through time has been for a purpose. As the sheriff arrives, Horn runs from the diner. Joe and the sheriff give chase, but Horn tops the rim and returns to 1847 armed with penicillin for his boy and the knowledge of nearby water and game. All that is left in 1961 is his rifle, which suddenly looks as though it has been rotting in the desert for a hundred years.

Mr Christian Horn, one of the hardy breed of men who headed west during a time when there were no concrete highways or the solace of civilization. Mr. Christian Horn, family and party, heading west, after a brief detour through the Twilight Zone

In order to save money, whenever possible Buck Houghton liked to schedule two shows utilizing similar locations back to back, so that the crew would only have to make one trip outside the studio. Both A Hundred Yards Over the Rim and The Rip Van Winkle Caper were shot in the desert near Lone Pine, California.

First to be filmed was A Hundred Yards Over the Rim. The episode boasts many good performances, but it is the powerful central performance of Cliff Robertson that holds the show together. As Chris Horn, he plays his role with intelligence and conviction, seeming in movement, expression, and even accent every bit the nineteenth-century man.

Director Buzz Kulik recalls being impressed with Robertsons methods. He came to me while we were rehearsing with an eight-or nine-page analysis of his character that he had written, and he said, Will you read this and see if you agree or disagree or if theres anything you can add. Well, we used to do that when we were all kids just out of acting school, but very few people take the time to do that.

In his striving for authenticity, Robertson sometimes went to lengths that people on the set found curious. Both Kulik and Robertson wanted the main character to look not like a cowboy, but rather to wear what actually might have been worn by an Easterner on his way west. Says director of photography George Clemens, Do you remember he wore a big stovepipe hat? It was Cliffs idea and I was so scared that wed be laughed off the screen on the first scene. In fact, Rod was back in Interlaken [town in upstate New York bordering Cayuga Lake] and I even insisted that Buck call him and talk to him. Comedy and drama are so close that if you step over one side you get a laugh and you ruin the whole effect of the drama. But I was wrong, and I was the first guy that admitted it. Cliff was a great guy, and I thought he did a hell of a job.

THE RIP VAN WINKLE CAPER (4/21/61)

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: Buck Houghton

Director: Justus Addiss

Director of Photography:

George T. Clemens Music: stock

Cast: Farwell: Oscar Beregi DeCruz: Simon Oakland Brooks: Lew Gallo Erbie: John Mitchum Man on Road: Wallace Rooney Woman on Road: Shirley OHara Brookss Stunt Double:Robert L. McCord III Oscar Beregi, John Mitchum, DeCruzs Stunt Double: Lew Gallo and Simon Oakland Dave Armstrong

The time is now and the place is a mountain cave in Death Valley, U.S.A. In just a moment, these four men ivill utilize the services of a truck placed in cosmoline, loaded with a hot heist cooled off by a century of sleep, and then take a drive into the Twilight Zone.

After robbing a bullion train bound from Fort Knox to California, four thieves stow their million dollars worth of gold bricks in a cave and, utilizing a gas invented by Farwell, the ringleader, enter glass cases and go into suspended animation. While asleep, one is killed by a falling rock. But the others awake a hundred years later, hale and hearty and free from all possible pursuit. They soon find, though, that they have not escaped their own greed. Hot-tempered DeCruz, eager to lessen the number of partners, uses the truck to run over and kill Brooks. But then the truck goes out of control and is wrecked. DeCruz and Farwell must walk through the desert to the nearest town, carrying as much gold as they can. Farwell, the older of the two, quickly becomes parched and exhausted. After losing his canteen, he is forced to pay DeCruz one gold bar for each sip of water. When the price goes up to two gold bars, Farwell lashes out, striking DeCruz with one of the gold bricks and killing him. Weak and dehydrated, Farwell trudges along the highway weighted down by the golden burden he is unwilling to abandon. Finally, he collapses. A futuristic car drives up. Farwell offers his gold to the couple inside in exchange for a drink of water and a drive into town, but he is already too far gone. He dies never knowing that years earlier a way of manufacturing gold was found … making his precious loot utterly worthless.

The last of four Rip Van Winkles who all died precisely the way they lived, chasing an idol across the sand to wind up bleached dry in the hot sun as so much desert flotsam, worthless as the gold bullion they built a shrine to. Tonights lesson … in the Twilight Zone .

Two performances raised The Rip Van Winkle Caper above the mundane: Simon Oakland, as a sadistic and greedy thug, and Oscar Beregi, as the brains of the operation. Together, the two generate a lot of electricity. This episode also adds another fine ironic ending to the catalogue of The Twilight Zone.

SHADOW PLAY (5/5/61)

Written by Charles Beaumont

Producer: Buck Houghton

Director: John Brahm

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: stock

Cast: Adam Grant: Dennis Weaver Henry Ritchie: Harry Townes Paul Carson: Wright King Jiggs: William Edmondson Carol Ritchie: Anne Barton Coley: Bernie Hamilton Phillips: Tommy Nello Priest: Mack Williams Judge: Gene Roth Attorney: Jack Hyde Jury Foreman: Howard Culver Guard: John Close

Adam Grant; a nondescript kind of man found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Like every other criminal caught in the wheels of justice hes scared, right down to the marrow of his bones. But it isnt prison that scares him, the long, nights of waiting, the slow walk to the little room, or death itself Its something else that holds Adam Grant in the hot, sweaty grip of fear; something worse than any punishment this world has to offer,; something found only in the Twilight Zone .

What has Grant so scared is his certainty that all of this is a dream hes having, a recurring nightmare that has him waking up screaming every single night. District Attorney Ritchie rejects this as preposterous, but his friend Paul Carson, a newspaper editor, isnt so sure and hes terrified that when Grant is electrocuted all of them will cease to exist. Carson convinces Ritchie to visit Grant in his cell, but Ritchie is not swayed by the fact that Grant is expecting him, nor by Grants ability to lip-sync his every word. Grant offers to prove the world is all his invention; when Ritchie goes home he finds that the steak his wife put in the oven has inexplicably changed into a roast yet he still refuses to accept Grants claim. As midnight draws near, Carson pleads with him to call the governor for a stay of execution, arguing that Grant is clearly a mental incompetent. Reluctantly, Ritchie picks up the phone. But it is too late. As the switch is pulled on Grant, Ritchie and Carson disappear as does everything else in their world. For a moment, all is blackness, then suddenly Grant is back in the courtroom being sentenced. Some of the characters are different, but the scenario is the same and the nightmare is starting over.