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| Mr. Archibald Beechcroft (Shelly Berman) in his natural habitat |
“The Mind and the Matter”
Season Two, Episode 63Original Airdate: May 12, 1961
Henry: Jack Grinnage
Mr. Rogers: Chet Stratton
Landlady: Jeane Wood
Man in Elevator: Robert McCord
Director: Buzz Kulick
Producer: Buck Houghton
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Phil Barber
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and H. Web Arrowsmith
Assistant Director: Darrell Hallenbeck
Editor: Jason Bernie
Sound: Franklin Milton and Bill Edmondson
Music: Stock
“Next week, the very considerable talents of Mr.
Shelley Berman are utilized to bring you another in our weekly excursions into
the never-never-land of the wild, the wooly, and the wondrous. He plays the
part of a little man who yearns for the serenity of a world without people and
as it happens he gets his wish: to walk an uninhabited Earth and face the
consequences. Our story is called the Mind and the Matter. I hope we see you
then.
“Now this isn’t just a word from the
sponsor it’s simply a very good suggestion. It stands for real refreshment.
Before we meet again, try Oasis for the softest taste of all.”
“A brief if frenetic introduction to
Mr. Archibald Beechcraft, a child of the nineteenth century, a product of the
population explosion, and one of the inheritors of the legacy of progress.[…]
Mr. Beechcraft again. This time act two of his daily battle for survival. And
in just a moment, our hero will begin his personal one-man rebellion against
the mechanics of his age, and to do so he will enlist certain aids available
only in the Twilight Zone.”
Archibald Beechcroft is a middle-aged
curmudgeon who has lost all need for the company of others. He spends his days
in a state of perpetual irritation with the people around him. After
accidentally spilling coffee on Beechcroft one morning, Beechcroft’s young
coworker Henry gives him a book on witchcraft as an apology. He says that he
has seen people manipulate the world around them simply through mental concentration.
Beechcraft takes the book home and skims through it. He decides that he will
rid himself of the daily irritation of others by making every one in the world
disappear.
The
next day Beechcroft steps out into a world void of people. His plan has worked.
Through simple concentration he has removed everyone else in the world. But
later on in his office he finds that now that has solitude he is incredibly
bored and he actually misses interaction with other people. He decides to bring
everyone back but only this time he makes them in his likeness. He wishes for a
world full of people just like himself. But he soon realizes that a world full
of Archibald Beechcrafts is even worse than a world full of normal people. So
he decides to put everything back the way it was.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration”
“Mr. Archibald Beechcroft: a child of the twentieth century, who has found out through trial and error—and mostly error—that with all its faults it may well be that this is the best of all possible worlds—people not withstanding…it has too much to offer. Tonight’s case in point…in the Twilight Zone.”
Commentary:
--Shelley Berman also appeared in three Twilight Zone Radio Drama episodes, "Hocus Pocus and Frisby," "Kick the Can," and "The Hunt."
--Brian Durant
The
next day when he arrives at work he is greeted by a bustling, chaotic office
full of various types of people. Right on schedule, his young coworker, Henry,
spills a cup coffee all over him. Henry asks Beechcroft if he read the book
that he gave him. Beechcraft admits that he read it but says that he regards it
as nothing more than foolish nonsense. Henry shrugs this off and goes back to
his day as Beechcroft grins to himself.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration”
“Mr. Archibald Beechcroft: a child of the twentieth century, who has found out through trial and error—and mostly error—that with all its faults it may well be that this is the best of all possible worlds—people not withstanding…it has too much to offer. Tonight’s case in point…in the Twilight Zone.”
Before we give an
episode a grade of a D or an F we take into consideration every element that
goes into an episode of The Twilight
Zone. Story, dialogue, performances, direction, photography, music, art
direction, etc. Episodes that exhibit strong amounts of all of these elements
get an A. Episodes that have none get an F. Everything else falls somewhere in
between. Before I say anything about “The Mind and the Matter” I will disclose
that this episode gets an F, meaning that I cannot recommend it to
anyone, for any reason. It is only the second F that we have handed out. The
first went to Season One’s “The Mighty Casey.” I can’t say if “The Mind and the
Matter” is any better or worse than “The Mighty Casey” but I can say that this
was only the second time that I have seen this episode and it did not inspire me to plan an eventual third viewing.
Like “The Mighty Casey,”
“The Mind and the Matter” is a comedy and was written by Serling. It feels very
much like a last minute script. A notion of an idea with a story wrapped
loosely around it. It is a be-careful-what-you-wish-for morality tale in the
tradition of W. W. Jacobs’s famous story “The Monkey’s Paw.” But it feels like
Serling didn’t have enough time to construct a proper plot structure for his
idea flourish in. What initially distracts me about this episode is that the
fantasy element is absurdly weak. Many episodes of the program, especially those
dealing with time travel, have no explanation for the fantastical things that
happen to or around their characters. They just happen. In “Walking Distance”
Gig Young simply revisits his old hometown and finds that he has traveled back
in time to when he was a small child. No explanation given. In “A World of
Difference” Howard Duff walks into work one morning and finds that his life is
actually a film set. Again, no explanation given. The fantasy here though, that
Beechcraft can make everyone disappear just by thinking about it, seems to
violate some kind of literary fantasy-reality boundary. So if he can make
people disappear just by thinking about it then why hasn’t this ever happened
before? He hates everyone so surely at one point he must have wished for the
world to himself.
Serling wrote this
episode specifically for Shelly Berman. Berman started as a straight actor who transitioned
to comedy when he landed a spot in the Chicago comedy troupe Compass Players which later became Second City. His performance here isn’t
notably bad and even has bursts of clever awkwardness but is ultimately forgetful.
But the biggest blunder
of this episode lies in the work of makeup artist William Tuttle. The normally
failsafe artist was brought in to mold masks of Shelly Berman’s face to be worn
by extras after Beechcraft has made the world in his image. Instead of looking
like a lot of Archibald Beechcrafts the extras look like a crowd of
leatherfaces.
The only memorable
aspect of this episode is the directorial innovations of Buzz Kulick in the
scenes where Beechcraft’s argues with his conscience. But ultimately this
episode comes off as a poorly written attempt at comedic fantasy and, again, I
cannot recommend it for any reason.
Grade:
F
Notes:
--This
episode was adapted into a Twilight
Zone Radio Drama starring Hal Sparks.--Shelley Berman also appeared in three Twilight Zone Radio Drama episodes, "Hocus Pocus and Frisby," "Kick the Can," and "The Hunt."
--Brian Durant
