Eye of the Beholder (11 Nov. 1960)
"The Twilight Zone" Eye of the Beholder (original title)

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".

Director:

Douglas Heyes

Writers:

Rod Serling (creator), Rod Serling

Stars:

Maxine Stuart, William D. Gordon, Jennifer Howard

Cast

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

Storyline

Janet Tyler is in hospital having undergone treatment to make her look normal. It's her 11th trip to the hospital for treatment and she is desperate to look like everyone else. Some of her earliest childhood memories are of people looking away, horrified by her appearance. Her bandages will soon come off and she can only hope that this, her last treatment, will have done the trick. If not, her doctor has told she will be segregated with a colony of similar looking people. All that to say that truth is truly in the eye of the beholder.

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Plot Keywords:

hospital | bandage | dictator | sympathy | surgery | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 1960 (USA)

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cayuga Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally a "The" preceded the title, until television producer Stuart Reynolds threatened to sue Rod Serling for the use of the name because at the time he was selling an educational film of the same name to public schools. Reruns following the initial broadcast featured the title screen "The Private World of Darkness".

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Goofs

Before the post operation surgery is revealed, one of the doctor's faces, even though still in the shadows, is noticeable.

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Quotes

Narrator: [Opening Narration] Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness, a universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of a swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment, we'll go back into this room, and also in a moment, we'll look under those bandages, keeping in mind, of course, that we're not to be surprised by what we see, because this isn't just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a ...

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Connections

Remade as The Twilight Zone: Eye of the Beholder (2003)

User Reviews

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).