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:

frame up | kiss | strawberry jam | trapped | telephone | 

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Music

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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 explanation.
The Man in the Cube: ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Cube (1997)

User Reviews

The Framework

This little project still works, to judge from the comments here. Viewers still think there is something profound going on. There is, I think, but not in the sophomoric story.

You may find this hard to view, so let me describe it. A man finds himself in a white cube, apparently imprisoned forever. For an hour, people enter and leave this cube and a large number of vignettes are played out. Each one deals with some notion of perception or reality.

Careful watchers will see that these episodes are not coherent. They do not incrementally add to a whole view or comment on being. They are, in fact, random and often contradictory. One involves sex, another race, affirmation, communication, religion, family and so on. Each little episode adopts the path of least theatrical resistance regardless of what went before or after. There is no overarching philosophy that they fit into.

I believe that is precisely the point. Henson wasn't interested in making a point. No, he never was, ever. His interest then was to create and explore a theatrical framework that could be easily read by us. And then within that, he could move small, encapsulated dramas in and out. It was essential to him that they NOT be related in any way.

You see, his goal was to design a channel, not the content of that channel. And he did, only later that year with what became the Muppets. His achievement was to create a sort of framework within which any content or message could be packaged and then delivered wholesale.

Its how he sold it to "educational" TeeVee, as a vehicle for whatever they wanted to cram in there, and to change and test however wildly they wished.

So, when you watch this, look for the deliberate dissonance among all the worldviews of the dozen or so episodes and marvel that such a wrapping framework could make them seem so unified and digestible. At least to most viewers.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

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