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Running Head: THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE 1

The Atomic Bomb and

Donald Lambert

Shepherd University

THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE 2

Abstract

This paper will explore how The Twilight Zone would reflect the feelings and fears of the atomic bomb in 1960’s society. I want to show that captured the fear and mentality of the people living at a time where the atomic bomb was just the push of button away. The different sources used in this paper will range from internet articles to written about the show. I will also reference a number of episodes from The

Twilight Zone that deal with the subject or the atomic bomb or atomic war in general.

Each episode will reflect on something related to the bomb and how society would react.

I ultimately concluded that The Twilight Zone indeed reflected 60’s society’s fears of the atomic bomb.

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The Atomic Bomb and The Twilight Zone

After World War II, things were on the minds of the citizens of the United

States: the Cold War and . Even though TV had been popular since the 1940’s, an argument can be made that television didn’t really get it’s feet planted into the ground until the 1950’s. At this time, Russia and the United States were locked in a deadly game of who would be the first to push the button to start a nuclear holocaust. At the same time, television was picking up steam. With shows like I Love Lucy dominating the airwaves, there was a bright future ahead for television. The 50’s also saw the rise of Rod

Serling, a writer who gained fame by writing for the TV series, Playhouse 90. Serling, who had previously had trouble dealing with censorship over some of his scripts in the early years of his career, wanted to make a series that would deal with such issues like racism and, the topic of this research paper, the atomic bomb, which were considered taboo in the early years of television. He took taboo subjects and mixed them with the anthology format to create The Twilight Zone.

This paper will take a look at the show and how Serling would inject views

(sometimes his, but most times, societies’ in general) into The Twilight Zone. This paper will specially look at how Serling would add the Cold War element into his show and would reflect how people were feeling about the possibility of nuclear war. This paper will include a look at the production history of selected episodes from the series, commentary (both expert and my own) on those episodes that dealt with the topic at hand and see if Serling was able to capture the thoughts and fears of a society, a nation and a

world on the brink of nuclear war.

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As the 1950’s drew to a close, The Twilight Zone began to air on CBS. One after another, the episodes of the series would take on one taboo subject after another. It wasn’t until the episode, “,” that The Twilight Zone would touch on the subject of the atomic bomb. The episode, based on the short story by Lynn Venable tells of Henry Bemis (played by ), a bank teller who has a strong love for books. Bemis loves to read so much that people in his life, notably his wife and boss, bash him for reading. One day, while eating lunch in a bank vault, a bomb goes off and

Bemis is the only one alive. He begins to survey the hellish wasteland. After a few days,

Bemis decides that living alone was not worth it and decides to end his own life (a thing that was not on TV much during the time this episode aired). Bemis then notices the library had survived the atomic bomb. As he prepares to read the books that had survived,

Bemis’ glasses slip off and break, leaving Bemis sightless and unable to read his books.

This episode is considered a classic Twilight Zone for its story (that Serling had to flesh out since the original work was a short story), its writing and, most notably, the aftermath of the bomb. David Cochran, author of the , In America Noir :

Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era, calls how Serling made the urban setting of the episode post-bomb “unsettling.” (p. 9) Cochran cites Bemis walking around the rubble calmly. Marc Scott Zicree talks about the making of the after-the-bomb sets in his book The Twilight Zone Companion. Zicree (1992) wrote the following on the making of the landscape post-bomb:

One [set] was a seemingly huge Bomb-wrecked landscape, complete with storm

cloud-filled skies. In reality, this set was built on a soundstage, with a sky

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originally painted for a motion picture. (p. 69)

After the episode aired on November 20, 1959, it was met with mixed reactions, mostly positive. As Martin Grams shows in his book, The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the

Door to A Television Classic, the episode was brought up in editorial written in The

Stamford Advocate in 1960. Grams (2008) focuses on a comment by the writer, Vilius

Brazenas, about the episode:

[Brazenas] claimed part of the problem was that juveniles, fostered by shows like

this, lacked an understand of “the enemy,” faltered by shows like this. “By atom

horror shows and movies we are being gradually scared into surrender without

being told or shown what that surrender would mean. Why couldn’t those brilliant

scriptwriters and producers make a movie about American victims in Korea?” (p.

200)

I understand where Brazenas was coming from with that comment, but I disagree.

I don’t think it was Serling’s intention to scare people into surrendering with this episode.

“Time Enough at Last” was unique in how it was one of the first mediums to display the aftermath of an atomic bomb going off. If anything, this episode displayed how someone would be if they somehow survived an atomic blast. Serling was able to hone in on the concept of survival and loneliness, much like he did in the very first episode of the series,

“Where is Everybody?” “Time Enough at Last” was able to entertain the audience and

show them a world after the bomb went off.

Almost 2 months after “Time Enough at Last” aired, “” premiered on January 8, 1960. This episode took the threat of atomic war and put it in the

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6 forefront unlike “Time Enough at Last,” which foreshadowed the bomb before it went off, but never made it the focus of the episode.

This episode tells of a scientist who learns of the threat of atomic war. Along with a co-worker, the scientist, William Sturka (played by Fritz Weaver), plans to take an experimental aircraft and escape the planet. The two men and their families outrun their pursuers and escape the planet before the war broke out. The twist of the episode in the form of the destination the aircraft is heading in. The final destination is revealed as

Earth.

As mentioned above, this episode dealt with the topic of atomic war a bit more than “Time Enough at Last.” The episode starts off with the talk of two nations (who we are led to believe are the United States and the Soviet Union) readying to launch weapons at each other. This was a pretty forceful way to start an episode, but I guess after “Time

Enough at Last” and the reaction it got, the producers didn’t think it would be a big deal to dive right into the topic of the atomic bomb or atomic war. Meredith Brenner, author of the article, “Thirty Minute Reality Check: How the Twilight Zone Reflected American

Society in the 1950’s” (2004), talks about the episode:

Serling uses this seemingly innocuous episode to reinforce the fact that the bomb

has the power to destroy the world if not used correctly, because the families'

home planet faces that destruction. However, it also forces the viewer to question

whether or not the earth is really that different from the warring planet in the

episode -- is it so peaceful and safe that it could really be considered a refuge, or

is it in just as much danger as the home planet in this episode? (p. 1) THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE 7

Brenner brings up a good point in that the viewer is forced to question how much different a fictional world is from the world they currently live in. Throughout the entire episode, the audience is led to believe that this is indeed Earth the men and their families are trying to escape. Everything, from the signs and language to Struka’s home, are replicated like a home in the United States. Not until the end is it revealed that the ship is

GOING to Earth.

Brenner also brings up another point that would become a staple in the “Atomic

War” story of the series from here out, the social reaction of the bomb:

The families in this episode feel so threatened by the impending war that they are

willing to steal and, when it comes down to it, harm others in order to get away. If

we were threatened in a similar way, what would we be willing to do to ensure

our own safety? (p. 1)

This point would be better brought up in a later episode of the series entitled “The

Shelter,” which would come out in the third season. It had been two years since an episode about the atomic bomb had been out (besides the episode that aired a few weeks before called “Two,” starring Charles Bronson). “The Shelter” would deal with the topic of social reaction to an atomic threat that was brought up in “Third From the Sun” and in

Brenner’s article.

“The Shelter” begins with a birthday party being held for a doctor. As the party continues, news breaks of missiles heading to the United States. The doctor rushes his family to the bomb shelter he had recently finished. Meanwhile, the doctor’s neighbors have no place to go so they ask the doctor to share his shelter. After the doctor turns them

THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE 8 down, the neighbors become restless and desperate. They attempt to break down the door to the shelter. After the door is broken down, news comes out that the missiles were satellites. The episode ends with everyone mortified by the experience.

The reviews of the episode were mixed. While general audiences liked the episode, Zicree (1992) wrote in his book about criticism of the characters: “The people are clearly cardboard cutouts being moved around as the story dictates” (p. 227). He went on to criticize Serling for not giving the characters any “logical dramatic progression.”

Arlen Schumer, author of the article “The Five Themes of the Twilight Zone,” called the mob mentality of the neighbors “Lord of the Flies - like” (p. 1). Ironically, one week after

“The Shelter” aired, President Kennedy advised families to start building bomb shelters to protect them from the bomb. Whether this episode had any impact on that decision is unknown.

“The Shelter” wasn’t a “great” episode from the collection, but it did show what could happen if the United States was hit with a bomb warning. It showed what our neighbors could do if they had to fend for their lives. It also showed what the aftermath of such an event like the one depicted in the episode would be like. Could we ever trust our friends/neighbors after going through a hell like that? Sure, the characters weren’t memorable, but the event itself is what made the show memorable. To me, that’s what’s

important when showing an event like this.

The final episode I want to touch on is actually based AFTER the atomic war happens. “” is set years after the war had ravaged the world and left few survivors. This episode continues depicting how people survive following the

THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE TWILIGHT ZONE 9 bomb being dropped.

After an atomic war wipes out much of civilization, a small group of survivors live under the leadership of an “Old Man in the Cave.” A man, Mr. Goldsmith, relays the information from the “Old Man” to the survivors. One day, a small military force, led by

Major French (played by James Coburn), take over the town and try to distribute the food and liquor that was contaminated by the war. Goldsmith tells everyone that the “Old

Man” deemed all the food uneatable. Frustrated, the townspeople and the military go to the cave and find out that the “Old Man” is actually a . The townspeople destroy the computer and eat and drink the contaminated food and liquor. The next day, everyone, except for Goldsmith, is dead.

This episode came out during the final season of The Twilight Zone and isn’t a particularly memorable one. I chose it because it added a bunch of elements from the previously mentioned episodes into one. It took the “aftermath” element from “Time

Enough At Last” and the “do anything to survive” element from “Third From the Sun” and “The Shelter.” “The Old Man in the Cave” did its job in showing a post-nuclear war world, even if that wasn’t the whole point of the episode. I did like that this episode brought up the dangers of contamination. Other episodes in the series that were set in this type of environment (“Time Enough At Last” and “Two) didn’t touch on the issue and

what would happen if someone ate food that wasn’t eatable after being irradiated. The

“survival” element was done a bit differently in this episode. This time, this element dealt more with greed than survival. The townspeople, needing food, let their instincts take over thought and it ultimately cost them their lives. One could argue the neighbors

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10 from “The Shelter” were greedy when they attempted to break into the bomb shelter. I agree with this to a point. The neighbors did what they did out of fear of the incoming bomb. The townspeople from “Old Man” did it because they were tired of not eating.

I believe Brenner said it best about The Twilight Zone: “It was a spotlight on

American society in the middle of the century, showcasing our fears and criticizing our flaws, tricking us into examining our lives, selves, and society” (p. 1). Serling and the various writers of Twilight Zone did capture the fear of not just Americans, but the world when it came to the possibility of nuclear war. At the height of the show’s popularity, the

Cuban Missile Crisis happened, an event that put us super close to nuclear war. It made us think back to “The Shelter” and would our neighbors/friends/family turn on us just to survive. It also made us think back to “Time Enough At Last” and how would someone live alone in a postwar area.

In many ways, The Twilight Zone and the messages it presented to us over a half century ago are still relevant today. We still live a world that is on the brink of nuclear war. We still live with many of the same pre/postwar fears of our neighbors turning on us and if loneliness would get the better of us and questions like “how will we survive in a postwar world?” To some, the way some of the ideas presented by Serling and The

Twilight Zone may have been too much for people back in the 60’s. Some could make the same argument for people today. To me, these ideas and how they were presented were perfectly fine. Serling didn’t want to baby his audience. He wanted to get people talking about the various topics and taboos of the era and to show that the world wasn’t perfect. Serling wanted to present his thoughts in a medium that would entertain and

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Works Cited

Brenner, M. (2004). Thirty Minute Reality Check: How The Twilight Zone Reflected American Society in the 1950s. University Honors. http://universityhonors.umd.edu/HONR269J/projects/brenner.html

Cochran, D. (2000). Another dimension: Rod Serling, consensus liberalism, and The Twilight Zone. In America noir : underground writers and filmmakers of the postwar era (pp. xiii, 280 p.). Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. (p. 9)

Grams, M. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the door to a television classic. Churchville , MD: OTR Pub. (p. 200)

Schumer, A. The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone. Arlen Schumer. http://www.arlenschumer.com/twilight-zone/the-five-themes-of-the-twilight-zone

Zicree, M. S. (1992). The Twilight Zone Companion. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press. (p. 69, 227)