"It's to laugh. I swear it's to laugh. "
- M ax Phill ips of " I n Praise of Pip"
One rarely thinks of The Twilight Zone as a comedy series - it's so much closer to tragedy. However, the formula for comedy offers relief and balances the more promi
nent and serious themes of comeuppance,
alienation, and conformity. Most audiences enjoy a good comedy, some
thing to soften the blows of a sometimes harsh reality. The Twilight Zone understood this, as Rod Serling and the other writers aimed to not only shock and terrorize, but also amuse viewers with the lighter sides of sto
rytelling. Out of the dozen or so comedy episodes, there are certainly a few gems that do just that, but The Twilight Zone will never be in the same company as classic comedy series of the time, such as I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, or Bewitched.
Patricia Breslin and William Shatner goof around during a break from the filming of
"Nick of Time."
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LEFT: Actress/comedian The tendency of most critics and fans of the series is to write off the comedy
Carol Burnett poses with episodes as forgettable; even Serling referred to a couple of them as "turkeys. "
Serling behind the scenes Like the poor delivery of a punch line, the series does have its share of missteps,
of "Cavender Is Coming." which has led to the perception that The Twilight Zone was better suited for
por-CENTER: Jesse White and traying tragedy. Although it may feel sacrilegious to call any Twilight Zone
Carol Burnett star in the episode a turkey, the turkey prize clearly goes to both "Cavender Is Coming" and
comedic turkey, "Cavender "From Agnes - With Love." This dubious honor is based merely on their weak
Is Coming." material and flat humor, and is not meant as a poke at the talented cast members.
RIGHT: Serling visits Jesse Jesse White, Carol Burnett, and Wally Cox are all class acts with great bodies of
White on the set. work, and it's a delight that they appear in the series. But "Cavender Is Coming"
is dreadful, almost as bad as that "hippie" episode of the original Star Trek. In this corny installment, White plays Cavender, a cigar-smoking, undisciplined guardian-angel-in-training, assigned to fix the life of misfit Agnes Grubbs, played by Burnett. As in "Mr. Bevis," the character to be saved is given opportunities for a new and improved life of fame and fortune, but in the end she decides to stick with the meager life she already has. There is only one seriously funny moment in this episode - when the bus driver makes that unexpected dive out the driver's-side window, it seems right out of a Monty Python sketch. The other pratfalls seem like fillers in an overall weak comedy episode that just isn't funny.
To make matters worse, a forced laugh track was used over the episode, a deci
sion that CBS executives made to promote this episode as a possible pilot for Jesse White. There's nothing more insulting than a laugh track.
"From Agnes - With Love" also falls flat due to the main character, James Elwood, played by Wally Cox, who is written as such a clueless nerd, it's no
won-der the only action he can get is from a computer. "Agnes" does, however, have LEFT: Raymond Bailey stars
its moments, such as the unique close-up wide-angle shot of Don Keefer in the with Wally Cox In the flat
opening sequence, and the animated look of insanity when Elwood finds out that episode, "From Agnes
-supercomputer Agnes is in love with him. These brief moments are this episode's With Love."
only respite, and they aren't nearly as interesting as the little moral lessons we get CENTER: Larry Blyden and
from other episodes. Though there does seem to be an ironic lesson in both of Arch Johnson star in the
these episodes: never name a main character Agnes. silly "Showdown with
Unfortunately, there are a few other Twilight Zone comedies that end up Rance McGrew."
offering more comic grief than comic relief. Poorer episodes - based purely on RIGHT: Orson Bean and
bad material and not necessarily the casts - are Serling's "The Whole Truth," Henry Jones star in
"Showdown with Rance McGrew," and "Mr. Bevis." The latter was originally "Mr. Bevis."
meant as a pilot for a comedy series starring Burgess Meredith as Bevis, but after Meredith turned the project down, Serling ended up salvaging the script for The Twilight Zone, not once, but twice. Two seasons later, in a decision that defies logic, the weak "Mr. Bevis" was remade as the weaker " Cavender Is Coming."
Richard Matheson's " Once Upon a Time," starring silent-film comedian Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams, and Jesse White, begins to show how The Twilight Zone could indeed honor the tone and timing of classic comedy.
Producer Buck Houghton and Matheson had the idea to do a comedy that fea
tured Keaton and old-school director Norman Z. McLeod, who was known for directing comedy greats such as Topper and the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. The payoff in " Once Upon a Time" comes with the homage of filming the beginning and end in the style of a silent film. The crew, not coincidentally, used a street on the back lot that 40 years earlier was built for
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LEFT: Stanley Adams stars with comedy legend Buster Keaton in the quirky "Once Upon a
Time." a Buster Keaton comedy. Even though the genius of Keaton's comic timing is
CENTER: Keaton stands on tapped into, other elements keep this episode from being a comedic masterpiece.
his mark for the next shot For one, the gags aren't all that funny. This may be due to budget considerations
while the lighting of the -some of Matheson's more elaborate slapstick chase sequences had to be cut,
special effects takes replaced with the rather normal repair-shop scene, directed later by Les
place. Goodwin. Although Keaton is best known for his outrageously choreographed
RIGHT: Keaton plays chase sequences, it is a special treat that during the "talkie" repair-shop scene, we
around with the camera get to hear this silent-film icon speak his lines. The opportunity to see the great
during a break. Buster Keaton in a Twilight Zone makes this episode worth watching.
Looking closer, we see several gems that offer pure comic relief and do indeed prove that The Twilight Zone could succeed at featuring some good laughs.
Confirming that Serling could do comedy are solid comedic episodes like the quirky "Mr. Dingle, the Strong," starring Burgess Meredith as a vacuum-cleaner salesman given superhuman powers by visiting aliens. Other such Serling scripts include "A Most Unusual Camera," " Escape Clause," "The Mighty Casey," "A Kind of Stopwatch," "Mr. Garrity and the Graves," and "The Mind and the Matter. " Other more serious episodes feature hints of comedy designed to offer a tone of normality. A certain element of humor in the script helps ground charac
ters, as we find in episodes such as "Time Enough at Last," "One for the Angels,"
" Elegy," "A World of His Own," "Five Characters in Search of an Exit, " "Nick of Time," and even "A Passage for Trumpet," in which, despite the suicidal ten
dencies of Jack Klugman's character, he still has the ability to poke fun at himself.
Another comedy gem worth noting is the whimsical "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby, " based on Frederick Louis Fox's unpublished story and adapted by Serling. Here, the viewer is taken along on a journey of a boy who cried wolf.
Except, in the Zone universe, we find an enjoyable Andy Devine, with that high
pitched crackling voice of his, playing backwoods liar and spinner of tales Somerset Frisby. Costarring are some familiar faces from television history, including Dabbs Greer, who appeared in several episodes; Howard McNear, most remembered as Floyd the barber in The Andy Griffith Show; and Milton Selzer and Larry Breitman, playing the two aliens. In this story, grocery-store owner Frisby is known to burn the ears of his customers with exaggerated claims that range from having invented the first rear-engine automobile for Henry Ford, to being able to predict the weather. It's Frisby's overconfident claims of multiple degrees in engineering that cause two human-like aliens to abduct him, thinking he's an optimal human specimen. Back in their spaceship, the aliens divulge their plans for putting Frisby in their alien zoo, to make use of his superior intellect. Frisby, fearing for his life, finds himself forced to
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ABOVE: Actor/comedian Don Rickles taunts a power-readying Burgess
LEFT: Wired for a stunt to be pulled up into an alien spaceship, Andy Devine stars as Somerset Frisby in the fun "Hocus-Pocus and
6 1
Actors Jack Weston and John Williams star in Serling's top comedic episode, "The Bard."
fess he's just a liar and a country bumpkin with a big mouth. Yet the aliens have no concept of dishonesty and proceed with their plans. Frisby panics and punches the commanding alien in the face, which cracks apart and reveals the creature's true alien identity, hidden under a human mask. What makes this so funny is the audience's knowledge that if Frisby ever does get himself out of this pickle, he'll finally have a story for the ages. But will anyone believe him? The obvious lesson here is not only that honesty is the best policy, but also, it might be wise to keep a harmonica handy, just in case.
The brightest comedic turn by far comes in the tongue-in-cheek quality of
Serling's hilarious episode "The Bard." The last of the fourth season's hour-long episodes to air, this was one of the few that actually worked. Starring a witty Jack Weston as Julius Moomer, character actor John Williams as William Shakespeare, and Burt Reynolds as Rocky Rhodes, a Marlon Brando knockoff, this gem offers fine comedic timing. Hack wannabe television writer Moomer mistakenly misuses a book of black magic to conjure up a writing partner in the form of the William Shakespeare. Moomer, who seeks fame even though he has absolutely no idea how to produce good writing, is able to convince "Will" to
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Look out! There 's a man behind the wheel of this cart!
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A guy walks into a barber shop . . .
A dimension of sight . . . A dimension of clowns.
help him write a television pilot. At times, the dialogue is flavorful, and, through the playfulness of Moomer's quirky Bronx dialect, we see how Serling had a tal
ent for animating his characters with a touch of authenticity. We're even witness to hearing William Shakespeare's final good byes to Moomer in a round of proper Shakespearean vernacular, followed by an outright hilarious, "Lotsa luck!" "The Bard" clearly shows that Serling was capable of writing comedy, not just the drama he was most known for.
But one of the things that makes this comedy episode work so well is Serling's parody of his own bread and butter, the television industry. He shows how a tel
evision play can be butchered under the steely knives of network executives who cower before the nonsensical edits of the commercial sponsors. And as an extra treat, Reynolds is priceless in his cool parody of Brando, with his beatnik sum
mation on the meaning of acting: "What is my tertiary motivation?" "The Bard"
proves to audiences and critics alike that comical regions of the fifth dimension were present and accounted for.
When all is said and done, if you ever wished away any of the 1 56 Twilight Zone episodes, even if it were one of the two comedic turkeys, there would be an empty black hole in its place. Instead, one ought to look at the series as a matched set, where each piece has its place. Sure, there are a few that can be a little painful to watch, but for a television series, that's not a bad average. And again, the comedy episodes were chosen to simply balance the more intense tone of the series, and for the most part, they do that well. This is entertainment, not rocket science, and no one said it was a perfect medium.
C H APTER F I VE