"The Twilight Zone" Eye of the Beholder (1960)

Director:

Douglas Heyes

Writers:

Rod Serling (creator)
Rod Serling (writer)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Original Air Date:

11 November 1960 (Season 2, Episode 6)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A young woman lying in a hospital bed, her head wrapped in bandages, awaits the outcome of a surgical procedure performed by the State in a last-ditch attempt to make her look "normal". |

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Bandage | Sympathy | Nurse | Conformity

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Jan. 1

9:48 PM

SYFY

The Eye of the Beholder

#2.6

Cast

Maxine Stuart	...	Janet Tyler (under bandages)
William D. Gordon	...	Doctor
Jennifer Howard	...	Janet's Nurse
George Keymas	...	The Leader
Joanna Heyes	...	Nurse #2
Edson Stroll	...	Walter Smith
Donna Douglas	...	Janet Tyler (revealed)

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Cayuga Productions

Trivia:

The original title (as listed in the credits) is "The Private World of Darkness".

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Saturday Night Live: Pamela Lee/Rollins Band (#22.18)" (1997)

Good, but not enough for a half hour episode

Donna Douglas plays a freak who is about to be operated on to make her less hideous. Everyone at the hospital is shocked at how ugly she is but there is some hope for her--providing the operation is a success.

This episode is considered a classic and years ago it was the one representative episode from THE TWILIGHT ZONE featured during a history of television show a couple decades ago. While it is a pretty good episode, the way in which it was constructed and shot didn't work perfectly because the show was forced into a half hour format. Had the show used a format like Serling's later NIGHT GALLERY series, then it could have been better as almost everyone in the audience knows what the "surprise" will be at the end because they secret is easy to guess after a while. Shorter definitely would have been sweeter, though I am not saying NIGHT GALLERY was a better series--it just allowed for episodes of varying length (some as short as five minutes).