The Cube 

A man is trapped inside a mysterious cube.

Director:

Jim Henson

Writers:

Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl

Stars:

Richard Schaal, Hugh Webster, Rex Sevenoaks

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Schaal	...	The Man in the Cube
Hugh Webster	...	Arnie
Rex Sevenoaks	...	Manager
Jack Van Evera	...	Prisoner
Jon Granik	...	Straight Man / Sergeant (as Jon Granic)
Guy Sanvido	...	Comic Fritz
Eliza Creighton	...	Seductress
Don Crawford	...	Black Militant
William Osler	...	Scientist
Jerry Nelson	...	Monk
Sandra Scott	...	Decorator
Claude Rae	...	Dr. Conners
Don McGill	...	Professor
Ralph Endersby	...	Guitarist
Trudy Young	...	Liza 1

Storyline

A man awakens inside a white cube, covered in a four-by-four grid. He has no memory of how he got there and there seems no way out. But as time passes, panels open temporarily to admit an intruder or onlooker. They pop back through their panels but bar the man from going through, pointing out "this is MY door; you'll have to find YOUR door." The intruders vary from individuals to a child on a tricycle and and a rock band. More and more people start to come into the cube, filling it up and this developes into a sort of cocktail party. A rock band comes through sometime during all of this, singing The Cube's theme song, "You'll never get out, you'll never get out, you'll never get out till you die." At one point the man sees himself, a double, and has a dialog with himself about how he has to find HIS way out. Is the man a prisoner? An inmate? Someone on a voluntary retreat? The stories change with each new visitor. Eventually, just as he succumbs to despair, a square panel clicks open....

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Plot Keywords:

strawberry jam | trapped | telephone | framed | taunting | 

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Music

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Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 February 1969 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CFTO-TV Studios, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Henson Associates (HA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

53 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film features the talents of two collaborators who would stay with Jim Henson for the next 20+ years: co-writer Jerry Juhl, who wrote or co-wrote most of the Muppet TV shows and films; and muppeteer Jerry Nelson, who plays the Monk.

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Quotes

Professor: [clears throat] Excuse me, I know this is, well, a bad time but I just wanted to congratulate you and shake your hand.
The Man in the Cube: Oh? On what?
Professor: Well, as I interpret what you're doing here, this is all a very complex discussion of, eh, Reality versus Illusion. The perfect subject for the television medium!
The Man in the Cube: What do you mean, television?
Professor: Well, this is a television play.
The Man in the Cube: [scoffs] What?
Professor: Oh, you don't believe that?
The Man in the Cube: Of course not!
Professor: I should have thought you'd want to. After all, there's only one other possible ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in In Their Own Words: Jim Henson (2015)

User Reviews

strawberry jam!

I saw this insane thing at my high school, of all places, stoned out of my face as a little hippie about 1971. I remember laughing myself sick over "The Cube" -- and then I never heard of it again. I almost wondered whether I'd dreamed it up, but my fellow spaceshots remembered it with the same mixture of wonder and disbelief I did. ("What WAS that crazy thing we watched -- and why were they showing it in the auditorium?" I've gone on Google and Amazon and EBay looking for this over the years, and never seen any mention of it. Now I've finally ascertained that it does exist (Jim bloody Henson???) and maybe I'll find it someday. I've cleaned up my act a lot in the last 34 years, so I doubt it will have the same effect. But I'm sure curious...

Strawberry jam!