NBC Experiment in Television (TV Series) The Cube (1969) User Reviews

Pretty intense

[legendNYC · 8/10 · 11 October 2004]

I remember seeing this broadcast but could never find *any* information about it. I was delighted to finally come across this entry on IMDb. Since it was a short subject for television I just figured it slipped through the cracks. It would be truly amazing to get a copy of "The Cube" on DVD. This quest is much more challenging than tracking down copies of "The Lathe of Heaven" and "The Silent Twins".

Since this is a Jim Henson project it may actually see the light of day. I must have been about ten years old when I saw "The Cube". About the same time I saw my first PG movies, "The Dunwich Horror" and "Scream and Scream Again". I am not nostalgic, but all these films left an impression.

Jim Henson meets Thomas M. Disch

[Carl_Tait · 7/10 · 19 February 2008]

In 1967, Thomas M. Disch published a short story called "The Squirrel Cage." The story concerns a man who is imprisoned in a big white cube. The man doesn't know why he's there and never finds out. He never gets out of the cube.

In 1969, Jim Henson wrote and directed a film called "The Cube." The film concerns a man who is imprisoned in a big white cube. The man doesn't know why he's there and never finds out. He never gets out of the cube.

The details, however, are entirely different. In Disch's grim tale, the Man in the Cube is deprived of all human contact. He is provided with the daily New York Times as his only link to the outside world. He writes about various peculiar characters and creatures with no certainty that anyone outside the Cube will read his words.

In Henson's version, the characters who visit the Cube are very much in the Henson mold: offbeat, wry, witty, and often just plain weird. This striking dichotomy between theme -- very dark -- and treatment -- very kooky -- makes a lot more sense if you're dealing with a Disch idea and a Henson treatment. This sort of story is Disch's bread and butter.

See the movie, read the story, and then read some more of Disch's claustrophobic, hellishly imaginative visions: "Descending" and "Casablanca."

Escaping

[PatrickFlanigan · 10/10 · 5 October 2005]

How do you fight an imaginary monster? Understand that it is your mind that makes it real. The paradox is that the mind can't change what it has created... because it believes in itself. I just received a copy of The Cube. I had not seen it in about 30 years. It made a strong impact on me as a kid... probably because children see their reflection clearer without all the assumptions that now cloud our sight. We search for meaning and children just see it. I have written plays because of the impact of productions like this. There is a lot of value here. It is certainly dated, but in a comedic sort of way that seems intentional. One of my first thoughts on seeing it again is that Jim Henson created The Cube and then he spent the rest of his life doing The Muppets... beautiful. A great tribute would be a reproduction of The Cube using The Muppets... Kermit trapped inside with all of the others coming through the panels... if you listen closely to the dialogue... you can hear them all. Don't miss this one.

One of the most fascinating TV shows ever made

[doord · 14 March 2003]

The Cube was shown on NBC as part of a series called Experiments in Television. To my knowledge it was only shown twice, but it was a wonderfully surreal program unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The series showed other unusual things like a series of cartoons that were written by British playwright Harold Pinter.

I certainly wish NBC would find these shows and re-air them, because in the year 2003, they would still look incredibly modern!

THE CUBE: A long-lost "Experiment in Television" and a place to discuss it

[davidemartin · 10/10 · 14 January 2003]

On February 23,1969, a Sunday afternoon, the anthology show NBC EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION aired a one-hour teleplay by Jim Henson, then best known for being the man behind "Ralph the Dog" on the JIMMY DEAN SHOW. This unique film, titled simply THE CUBE, starred Richard Schaal as a man trapped in a white cubical room. He had no idea how he got there or where it was. And although anyone could enter, he couldn't leave....

In 2002 I posted the original IMDb comment on THE CUBE and started the long struggle to expand the credits on this long-lost, long-forgotten classic. Soon other IMDb users were regaining their memories of this odd but invasive show. After a few months of this it seemed a good idea to create a common place to share thoughts, memories, and discoveries about THE CUBE.

And another place online where you can show people and go AH-HAH! SEE! I TOLD YOU IT EXISTED!!!!

Location: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JImHensonTheCube/

In the three years of existence, we've gone from the barest of information online to full cast lists and a reconstructed script. Next, actual screen images from THE CUBE. Come join us! Feel free to add anything you want, anything you can find, from personal thoughts to actual files and images!

-------Postscript, 29July2008------- Six years later and we've accomplished much of our goals. The biggest success was bringing out of hiding both BW and COLOR copies of this lost masterpiece. Those copies are now available online, both for free and in the form of pirate copies others have made. We're still hoping that Henson's kids will bring out a legit, newly-remastered edition.... In the mean time, we've reconstructed the original script, collected a mass of screen caps, and seen the creation of TWO stage versions (one in US, one in Germany).

--David

What a wonderful find.

[hiveminded · 9/10 · 25 April 2006]

I was recently at an obscure movie party some friends of mine held and got to see this rare little gem of a flick. I was very surprised to see it was produced, directed and co-written by Jim Henson as the film began, and thought that I was probably in for a treat. I was not wrong. This film says volumes in the 50 minutes or so that it runs and definitely leaves the viewer with something to ponder. The acting is also not bad and the film being black and white somehow makes it more impacting. This is Henson at his best in my opinion. I hope this film becomes more available and gets some of the attention it most definitely deserves. And to think this was a movie on television in 1969..

Finally... it exists!

[PatrickFlanigan · 10/10 · 15 April 2002]

I have been searching for this for years. I remember seeing it as a kid as well on TV during the sixties. The only reference I had seen for it was in Vincenzo Natali's "Cube". I actually saw it a few times late at night and even ran across it as a cult movie in a theatre during the 80's. The previous summary is fairly accurate. Obviously, the cube is a metaphor for life in an existential sense. One can sense and test the boundaries of our Self, but can't actually get out. Which is obviously very frustrating for even a small amount of self-awareness. It brings into question such subjects as the metaphysical "Who am I?", free will and interactions between what we perceive to be our Self and others. This is a really cool little film. It had a lasting impression an me. To my knowledge it has never been put on video.

strawberry jam!

[chris919 · 9/10 · 11 December 2005]

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!

More Than Square

[enw · 1/10 · 17 May 2008]

No, this is not the competent little thriller from 1997 (reviewed in BATHOS #6) spawning two perfectly superfluous sequels and a lot of unpleasant nonsense about people for no good reason being tortured in small rooms by unknown assailants. It is a silly, self-complacent sketch made in 1969 and purporting to say something about something or other.

Still, the basic concept (if you can call it that) is the same, a man caught inside a cube. He doesn't know why, nor has he got a lot of time to think about it, since he is constantly visited by funny guys, all presenting him with ample opportunity to escape.

Of course, his situation is completely surreal, which in this case means that it makes no sense whatsoever. Except of course, as any three-year-old will have divined after five minutes, that it is all about modern man being trapped by the conventions of society.

And if you haven't guessed, you will be constantly reminded by hip girls and folksingers talking and singing about how deluded we all are. Unfortunately, this is not about the games people play.

It is about what underdeveloped overpaid television executives fresh out of high school think about the rotten society that gives them cameras to play with. GET A HAIRCUT!

Since the guy is obviously only confined by the idiotic script, it has none of the suspense of THE PRISONER, and it's just as far from the hilariously straight-faced send-up of our television-engineered reality by the Pythons. The cube looks like a toilet, and that's where this crap belongs.

Watching it is like spending an hour in a cube – make that ten hours! Stick to Muppets, Jimmy.

I Sawr It I Sawr It!

[oz-64 · 5 December 2005]

Like so many others here, I too saw it, when it was first run, as a teenager - WOW. And yes, I too can't get it out of my head, and just today learned that it was Jim Henson!!! The man WAS a genius!!! And, like the rest of you - I want a copy!!! Just to prove to my friends that I'm not as crazy as you think I am.

I remember the band playing "You'll never get out.. You'll never get out... you'll never get out of the cube.."

Towards the ending, when he's shown the casket... and given the gun... oh man.. that scene is vivid in my mind right now, 30+ years later after having seen it that one time, in', as we used to say, living color.

But really.. isn't life all just strawberry jam?

When television was daring

[artlong · 10/10 · 10 February 2002]

I'm astonished to see this program listed on here. I've told people about this show for over thirty years and have never spoken to anyone who's seen it.

I saw it when I was nine years old and have vividly remembered it ever since.

I'm VERY sad that it's not available.

Now I can rest in peace.

[foxlor · 10/10 · 7 September 2006]

My brother and I were 9 and 10 years old when this aired on Experiment in Television. It haunted us, in the same way as The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, but more so. Especially the band singing, "You'll never get out til you're dead." Funny that folks are saying it actually aired in color. I remember it without color, sort of like you'd remember a dream. Maybe I just lumped it in my memory drawer with those other creepy black and white shows that I loved. My brother and I would recite the plot to anyone who would listen. When I finally found one more human who had seen it,and clued me in on the Jim Henson connection, I had to marry the guy. Fantastic to know that it outlasted the marriage. So grateful to find it on YouTube last night.

My first exposure to absurdist theatre.....

[smendler · 10/10 · 30 September 2008]

I was 12 when I stumbled on this show one Sunday morning - and I think it permanently Warped My Mind. I'm pretty sure it was my first exposure to absurdism, if you don't count MAD Magazine... I never forgot the show, and for years afterwards I tried to find more info about it. What a thrill to stumble on Wikipedia's entry,which had a link to the full video... and I did *not* know till just now about Henson's role in the production! One can see the roots of many future TV and movie productions here - from THE PRISONER to THE MATRIX to THE TRUMAN SHOW. And considering the times, the production effects and editing are simple yet sophisticated, perfect usages of the possibilities of the medium. A crucial piece of TV history... Be sure to let your preadolescent or adolescent child watch this thing, it'll prepare them nicely for the absurdity to come...!

It really did happen...

[crash5 · 10/10 · 22 March 2003]

Me too. I've been telling people about this for 30 years. I can't believe I found proof it really exists! I was starting to think I'd dreamed it. Jim Henson? That's quite a leap. From "The Cube" to "Sesame Street". It was almost 35 years ago and I just happened to catch it one weekend morning. (I think I was hung over or coming down or something.) But it left a lasting impression on me. I would LOVE to see it again.

Validation of a dream-like memory

[leahcim1-1 · 10/10 · 4 March 2005]

I too had Powerful memories of this "Experiments in Television" project, that left me wondering if I had dreamed this nightmare myself. The Cube was a highly original and visionary presentation of human existential drama. The psychological tensions portrayed were sufficient to imprint a deep resonance on even very young viewers. For me to learn that others, at a similar age, were left with an impact like my own was astonishing--and validating. A profound teleplay that left the children who saw it pondering it for decades--and searching for a copy these 35 years later ! (Not your everyday television program.)

Truly seminal art.

When I first saw CUBE (1997), I insisted that it must be derived from this same source. Only recently, have I learned this is true. To view this , followed by the three movies would be a great way to quicken a dreary day. A reading of Sartre's "No Exit" might well round out the experience.

well... at least we know that the Muppet's were the results of LSD...

[boe_dye · 3/10 · 17 July 2007]

My father found this the other day on some kind of public domain video sight, and wanted my thoughts on it. I suppose that he thought that because I was a fan of "Cube" that this might make for an interesting unintentional precursor...

This movie was just odd...

I could see why one might think that "Cube" would be a distant cousin to this movie though...

My problem was that in the end seemed like such a gross waste of time. In the beginning it seemed like it could have been an interesting topic of philosophical discourse. Why didn't the man just walk out of the cube? Why didn't he just say screw you if it's not my door, I'm leaving anyway...

You could, at that, point argue that he was simply a victim of a power telling him what to do. Someone said that he couldn't leave through a door because it wasn't "his" door. He never thought to question it, he just obeyed...

On the other hand you could argue that the cube was his own doing, and that he couldn't leave because he chose not to. All the characters were elements of his subconscious trying to cure him of his losing grip on reality. That was the way it seemed to go up until the end...

In the end, he finally chose to leave, and that he finally stated that he had a gripe on reality and that no one could take away the one piece of reality that was his self. He had identity, he had form, he felt, he bled...

And then he walks out of the cube with all the world that he created applauding because he now understood his place in reality...

But then it's puts him right at back to where he started again in the cube, and the movie ends...

Which one can only logically deduce that he was simply insane suffering from some sort of mania...

But then one could argue, was the cube his source of insanity, or was his insanity the source of the cube.

You could twist yourself into a nice little mental pretzel trying to figure that one out...

But like most things that came out of that era, it wasn't the definitive end that was important as it was "what did you think".

And this movie would do nice to sit around a group and discuss it. However seeing as how the movie had no end and no definitive conclusion it would be impossible to actually have a conversation that could conclude. It would be nice for about 20 minutes of argument, then ultimately be abandoned because of the impossibility of a definite conclusion...

even writing about it is a circle jerk...

The Framework

[tedg · 15 February 2006]

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.

Available for sale on DVD-R

[dfox11 · 10/10 · 8 September 2006]

Available here: http://adifferentcity.com/viewtitle/5

In Color. From what they say on their website, this is totally legal, as the copyright has expired and it's now in the public domain.

I'm not affiliated with the company. I ordered a copy on the night I'm writing this. So I haven't seen it yet and cannot vouch for it's quality. I will say that they have a small but really strong catalog of public domain items that are nigh on impossible to find elsewhere.

Also, I'm foxlor's brother, and I insist that I was eight at the time, not nine. Sisters, they just lie about you. There's no getting away from it.

you'll never get out...you'll never get out...

[framptonhollis · 9/10 · 3 March 2018]

'Time Piece' was fantastic, and Jim Henson's follow up of sorts is even better. It is called 'The Cube' and is about a man trapped in a cube that he cannot escape...and that is, essentially it, but that is also not it at all. It sounds simple, but gets more complicated by the second as strange characters come and go and come back again and go away again; the man is confused and so are we, it seems that there is no solution to a problem so absurd, so nonsensical. It takes on a style of sorts (story-wise) that expresses what the halfway point between the meeting of the worlds of 'The Twilight Zone' and a Samuel Beckett play would look like. It is so surreal and thought provoking, but also extremely funny (an important aspect of Henson's entire career was, obviously, his witty sense of humor that hasn't aged in the slightest), and kind of disturbing and weirdly sad and sadly weird (sadly as in the weirdness itself sometimes takes on a more tragic feeling, even when it's still being very humorous, not as in the weirdness itself is an unfortunate product of the film, as it is certainly quite the opposite of THAT), and genuinely really terrifying in parts (those laughing clowns, the boy on the bike singing "you'll never get outta here..." *shudders*). It's so many emotions bottled up into one stylistically consistent surrealist comedy that is as metafictional, postmodern (more so in an artistic sense than in a philosophical sense, although there's a little of that, too), philosophical, strange, confusing, thought provoking, troubling, dark, funny, and entertaining as I could have ever anticipated!

Unbelievable

[rpartain · 10/10 · 9 October 2005]

I have looked for information on this show FOREVER. Wish I had a way of buying it. Like other comments I have seen here, I saw this show many years ago as I teen. However I don't think a year has gone by since that I have not thought of it one or more times. I have also tried to talk with other people about it but other than my brother, who also happened to watch when I did, I have never yet found anyone else who has seen it.

It was such a bizarre story. And of course it pre-dated even VCRs so I have NO idea how a person could get a copy. I'm not even sure who would own the rights to it. I am pretty sure it was not from a major network. I can not imagine a mainstream network in 1969 that would have shown it let alone developed it.

It definitely had an impact on me.

I remember the ending as ...

[alans75 · 29 May 2002]

I remember the show ending with the main character being escorted down the corridor, as the previous reviewer stated. Once in the office the man was given a fountain pen to sign some forms before being discharged. He accidently cuts his finger, and when he sucks the cut he tastes not blood but .... strawberry jam. The office then dissolves into ... the white cube. Fade to white.

I too can't believe I finally found other people who have seen this show.

My long national nightmare is over!!

[eskovan1 · 19 February 2004]

Not to just repeat what others have said, but memories of this show have been floating around in my head for some 30 years now!! I must have been no more than 5 or 6 and I only remember tiny bits of it. I often started to wonder if I had just dreamed the whole thing! But this is most definitely it.

I remember the people telling the guy in the cube, "This is my door, you can't use it", so much so that when somebody does offer to let him escape he protests, "I can't, that's your door!". I also seem to remember that it was shot on videotape, not film. That's about all I can picture. I must have missed the ending.

It seems so appropriate to find out that this show was done by Jim Henson! Because I also have memories of watching 'Hey Cinderella' and 'The Musicians of Bremen' at about the same time (early 70s).

On how to find this "cult" film

[vandino1 · 3 December 2005]

I haven't personally bought it, but there IS an internet company supposedly offering copies for sale at $11.99. The website is www.dvdmovie-finds.com As for myself, I also have memories of seeing this as a child and having it stuck in my head and wondering all this time if it was just a nagging old dream. Amazing! It's almost as if it was some bizarre cultural experiment by Henson to see if he could get some program in your brain that won't go away. There's something about the idea of being in a small "room" that allows visitors to enter and exit, but NOT the occupant, that is so oddly frightening, yet thought-provoking, that young minds (I was eight-years-old at the time) buying into the fantasy can never forget it. It's an early brush with the frustrating world of Kafka. I'm tempted to buy the DVD and watch it again, but maybe knowing it WASN'T a dream and could be simply a silly old TV program might ruin the sense memory. Then again, maybe that website is lying and the film truly ISN'T available, thus keeping 'The Cube' as fittingly out of reach as getting out of the cube was to the occupant!

I Saw It In High School

[coolmoose25 · 27 March 2002]

I saw this in high school, probably 1980 or 81. It was shown on either video tape (which was new back then) or on film. I was taking a "Film in American Society" class and this was one of the films we analyzed. It was extremely thought provoking. I'm hoping that since it was available to a school, copies of it might be available somewhere.

I knew i wasn't wacko

[jameszombie · 20 August 2006]

I remember The Cube, saw it on a Sunday afternoon and have been trying to find any record of it since. Does anyone remember the "Song"? "You'll never get out until you're DEAD-DEAD-DEAD" He had to find his own door to leave and couldn't use anyone else's'. I remember the guy selling "Chocolate Bunnies"? When he finally put the gun to his head and the Pall Bearers were carrying the coffin and a man came in and showed him "His door" they walked down the hall and talked ( about the chocolate bunny guy too) They told him he had to sign some papers before he left and when he did...everything disappeared and he was back in the white cube..looking for his door I imagine.