"Eye of the Beholder", Poll and discussion thread

A woman hopes that medical treatment has given her a normal face. With Maxine Stuart, Donna Douglas.
Originally aired November 11, 1960.

Alternate title: "The Private World Of Darkness" (click here for more info).

List of musical cues

This is the preferred thread for any and all of your "Eye Of The Beholder" posts--facts, opinions, questions, speculations, and whatever else you can think of.* You can also give your opinion of the episode on a 1 to 10 scale, in the poll shown above.

Let the discussion begin!

*More specific instructions and suggestions about posting questions/comments related to this episode are located here.

never saw the end coming. that helped make it as good as it was. an ok episode.

Good episode with a great ending... I love Rod's lines at the end:

Good stuff. I give it an 8.

"8" because I'm tired of it. But you can't take away the fact that this is a classic.

This was great to see as a child because you most likely didn't see the ending coming. As an adult you try to see through the shadows and try to figure out exactly when they added the make-up. Probably not until the end is my guess.

And Donna Douglas also hadn't reached TV immortality as yet.

Leen

That's possible, and it would probably have been an easier production that way, but I'm guessing the opposite. I think that for director Douglas Heyes to have played fairly with us, he should have had his actors appearing exactly as we eventually see them. As Rod says in another episode, "There was nothing in the dark that wasn't there when the lights were on."

Try studying Dr. Bernardi's features in the scene right after the first commercial break, when he talks with the nurse at levels bordering on treason. Compare them with George's features in "Nervous Man in a $4 Room," since William D. Gordon played both roles. From what we can make out in the shadows, Gordon looks more to me like the doctor we'll see in his full glory than he does the gangster.

By the way, there's a great piece of trivia about that scene in Zicree's DVD notes. It's the only scene where I think the shadows are too conspicuous, and it could be cut without much damage to the story. In fact, this used to be a standard cut when Viacom shortened its syndicated releases around 1985, but Sci Fi re-edited this episode a few years ago.

According to Zicree, once the script was filmed, it turned out to be about two minutes too short. Ordinarily Rod would have expanded his script, but he was unavailable. So Heyes wrote that scene, trying to imitate Rod's style. Rod supposedly was happy with the result after he learned about the incident. Heyes had writing credits outside of TZ, including Night Gallery.

I've looked closely at that scene too, though I thought it looked like the doctor didn't have his pig-person make-up on yet.
I remember seeing EOTB once on TV a few years ago, after I had seen it numerous times, but on this one occasion, I could see the pig-person make-up before you were supposed to. This was while they were removing the bandages, and there was a shot of the nurse and the anesthesiologist, and the lighting was different or maybe the film was overexposed, and you could clearly see what you weren't supposed to see. Has anyone else seen this? Is this the "Private World" version or some crazy fluke? Did I imagine it?

No, Cad, I've seen it too. But one wonders if we see it because we are looking for it or because it's just flat out there!?

Leen

yeah, I don't know. I guess I'll have to show it to someone who's never seen it and see if they react at that point.

A "different" and innovative episode but for some reason I never really warmed up to it. Perhaps it's Donna Douglas' dubbed voice. Perhaps it's her shrill mouthing of period cliche's. I gave it an 8 because it's so well done, not because I particularly like it.

http://spacedoutinc.org/images/eye-of-beholder.jpg

According to Zicree, the only lines Janet has after the bandages are removed are spoken by Donna Douglas. Maxine Stuart, who does all of the bandaged Janet's lines (and is, in fact, the actress under the bandages), was supposed to provide the lines that would be dubbed in over Douglas, but Douglas imitated Stuart sufficiently well for this to be unnecessary. It helps that Douglas is sobbing while saying the lines.

Crown, I never warmed to this one either. I do not like: not seeing the medical staffs faces, thru out most of this episode( Perhaps seeing the different version will help me). I do not like the scenes where we are looking thru bandages, This is TV, I need to see something, not darkness thru guaze, i want to see faces. So this experiment did not work on me. The episode to me seems like a soap opera scene, not stellar imho.

I remember logging on to the net and to TZ boards, and seeing people rating EOTB real high, that shocked me. I did not know many TZ fans,none of them as I remember were big fans of EOTB, I never knew people liked this episode until I came to the net.
Its all Great, it brings people to the Zone, makes me happy.

Q: Is the title the message of this episode? Is it just a piece about nazism/ totalitarians? Or what?

Zone Respects

CLASSIC! I wasn't too surprised by the ending because I was wonering why they didn't show anyone's face! So I was expecting something "ugly".

A GREAT episode! #3 on my list. I love everything about it.

I figured something was up early on in the story, since you couldn't see anyone's faces. But I didn't figure out just what the twist was until they took off the bandages.

And Edson Stroll...very nice!

This is one of those classic Zones that MUST receive a 10!

Just loved everything about it...

Thank God I saw most episodes in the early 70's when I was less than ten
(yes, I have another Nirvana coming soon, but damned if I'll be obsolete)
because now I might have predicted the ending of "Eye Of The Beholder."

I gave this a ten, because it's one of the top ten ever, and I was completely fooled.

10 for me. Always in my Top 10 or 15 or so. Used to be higher for me, but repetition has dulled the effect just a little.

Remember: "It is essential in this society that we not only have a norm, but that we conform to that norm!" Oh, by the way, here's Norm:

http://www.terra.com.mx/galeria_de_fotos/i...s/13/025614.jpg

You are so funny.

Would you conform to this 'Norm'?

http://www.sherwoodcpas.com/images/norm.jpg

"Hey, Mr. Peterson, Jack Frost nipping at your nose?" "Yep, now let's get Joe Beer nipping at my liver, huh?"

Thanks, Lazyboy. I was thinking along those same lines, but I didn't know where to find a photo.

By the way, I've heard that the Cheers character's name is intended to be a play on the word "norm," meaning that Norm Peterson is Everyman.

My favorite Norm entrance: "It's a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy, and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear."

Cheers trivia: Norm's real first name is Hillary, to which he once admitted with embarrassment in a late episode. It may be that his full name is Hillary Norman Peterson, but we never learned one way or the other.

Sweet! I think I read that somewhere too (about his first name being Hillary). I love the milkbone underwear quote too...I wanted to use another one, perhaps less memorable, but just as funny, or clever.
I just looked on google for any pictures.

This is my daughters most favorite episode....and she is 11, shows you good taste can start at an early age!

Here's a link to a "Saturday Night Live" parody of this episode: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96rtwilight.phtml. I thought this was funny.

That was so funny..very cool twist on the original.

I agree with Crown85. Very well done but I never really liked it that much. I can see why it's so popular but it just never clicked for me. In the words of one of our posters, it just didn't grab me.

This obviously doesn't have the same impact it did when I first saw it, but repeat viewings make me realize just how shocking this episode must have been to viewers during it's first run.

It's fun to watch now and to take note of the camera tricks played to mask the faces of the doctors and nurses. I love the broadcast of "The Leader" on all of the flat TVs throughout the hospital. I've always been fond of the moment the doctor drops the scissors and exclaims "no change!". At that point, the true faces are all revealed. It still packs a punch.

I do believe that when the doctor is talking to the nurse behind the curtain, the actor is not wearing the "normal" makeup. The one thing that bugs me whenever I see this is the dubbed in voice of the Janet Tyler character. I still don't think it sounds right.

I am going to wait until I finish watching ALL of the Twilight Zone episodes before I pick my favorites overall. While I don't think "Eye of the Beholder" will be in my Top Ten, it certainly is classic television.

Unless Zicree is wrong, there's no dubbing. That really is Maxine Stuart wrapped in bandages, and she was cast specifically for the voice she would provide. As for Donna Douglas after the unwrapping, Stuart's voice was supposed to be dubbed over Douglas's, but Douglas imitated Stuart well enough to leave Douglas's voice alone. (After writing this paragraph, I realized that both actresses' surnames are men's first names.)

Yes, I was shocked when I saw the premiere around the time I turned 11. Part of what makes this episode so great is that we're building to the supposed climax of seeing the face under the bandages, yet only a few seconds after that mystery is revealed, it's immediately trumped with the revelation of Dr. Bernardi's face that is still the most memorable fictional TV image I've ever seen.

I react similarly to the voice. My theory is this: If your face is wrapped with layer upon layer of bandages and you try to speak, wouldn't your voice sound muffled or otherwise distorted to the listener? I think it would. Here, the voice sounds too pure and doesn't quite mesh with the visuals.

Excellent point. It's a little too melodious and sweet from a strictly technical standpoint. But there's also something haunting about it.

Both were also the first names of TZ directors, namely Stuart Rosenberg and Douglas Heyes. Neither director ever imitated the other, as far as I know.

SPOILERS








Does anyone else think that the new mastering on the definitive edition actually hurts this episode's credibility? The picture is so clear that you can see their faces much better before we're supposed to. At the very beginning, when the nurse walks in you can see very well that she is not wearing her pig-person makeup. And in the scene between the doctor and the nurse it is pretty clear that he is not wearing makeup either. Oddly, in the interview with director Douglas Heyes, he claims that the actors were in makeup the whole time, which is clearly not the case. On the other hand, during the bandage removal scene, you can see pretty well the pig-nose of the nurse toward the top of the screen when we're looking down at them. I've noticed this one before, though, so I can't blame it on the new mastering. And to be fair, if you didn't know to look for something like this you probably wouldn't notice it at all.

Eye Of The Beholder is a great episode.

SPOILERS HERE TOO






Definitely a yes to this Cad! Back in the day the idea was to perhaps see the eps once or twice in reruns. And remember the shock value of the twist. But this was before the days of VCRs, stop, pausing and rewind and now the digital world of DVDs.

I've noticed the same things you have in the exact same places. Why? Not only because we are looking for it, but because now we can actually see it in the shadows.

I bet if I could capture a scnene just right and lighten it a bit it would be a classic for the spittle. Which reminds me. I need to capture the shadow the lamp casts on the wall while the doctor is sitting in the lounge. This was another syndication cut from what I recall.

Hey thanks Cad for making me think of that.

Leen

That's a hoot! Thanks!

Spittle time! So the other day I was visiting the hospital and there were faces and things I had never seen before

Spoilers for EOTB

This is the nurse entering Janet's room in the first scene
http://img208.echo.cx/img208/8170/nursearriving9wl.jpg

Here we have a nurse entering the employees lounge
http://img208.echo.cx/img208/695/nurseii4jw.jpg

Check the shadow on the wall cast by the lamp
http://img208.echo.cx/img208/104/lampshadow3qr.jpg

And now we have the doctor uncovered
http://img226.echo.cx/img226/9476/doctoruncovered5hv.jpg

The one with the lamp was funny Leen!

Hey I just noticed. If you look at the second photo with the nurse arriving the shadow on the wall over the lamp looks like a big butt sitting over it? Anybody else see it?

Well we all go on our journey of imaginations here right?

Yes I see it now! What about the shadow for the second picture? To me it looks like a face!

Yes I see it now! What about the shadow for the second picture? To me it looks like a face!

that is a face man

This to me is 100% classic Zone. An absolute 10 in my book.
Though I have yet to see many of the latter seasons eps, I have no doubt that
this will remain forever in my personal top 10.

The reason that this may stand out to all of you is but for one reason.
I am 34 years old. I first saw this gem about 60 days ago. I had already read
about the ending and the premise of the whole thing.
Regardless of that, this one was done/filmed SOOO well, that it delivered that
"Zone Punch" and it still froze me in place! It still amazes me that this worked so
well for "me" even after I knew going in how the ending would be.

Granted I DO have a soft spot for Donna Douglas when they cut those bandages
off.

Everything just works in this one for me. From the "strong" voice of the doctor, to
Maxine Stuart, and the rest of "the uglies".

10 All the way around.

Thank you and good night.

TZ DZ Fan

My favorite -and coincidently, the best- episode of any television show ever. I love talking about this one and, apparently, I've felt that passion for a long time now. Here's what I wrote for thetzsite.com (::wipes away tear::) almost two years ago:

"Not convinced this is the best episode of the Twilight Zone? Consider the following.

For one thing: it's experimental...and quite an ambitious in this aspect. Whereas most shows around TZ's time were scraping the bottom of the barrel, Serling and crew came in and filled it back up again. You can't do that without stepping into new ground. You can't do that without taking some risks. And for this ambition alone EOTB should be praised.

Furthermore, along with "The Invaders," this is the Twilight Zone's *biggest* experiment. Whereas "The Invaders" removed dialogue almost entirely, forcing the whole story to be told through visuals (amazing given TV's ancestory lies in radio), "The Eye of the Beholder" almost entirely removed visuals, forcing the story to be told through dialogue. Then - utilizing a trademark twist ending - they pull the rug out from under your feet and use the extra dimension visuals add to television to its greatest extent. It now becomes absolutely neccesary to *see* this episode to understand it. Thus the episode demonstrates the strength of having both media available on the tube in a mere 23 minutes.

Once we get past the ground-breaking in this episode, and we see it as just another second season entry we get: inventive and effective direction (it would have been really hard to pull this episode off as effectively as Heyes did...he improved a lot on the camera cues in the original script and was quite daring, electing to direct around the natural movements of the charectors rather than fixing the camera a safe distance from those he was filming and allowing for the shadows to do the rest of the work), wonderful dialogue presented most effectively through the performances of Maxine Stuart and William Gordon (the scenes "What about the day?..." and "...I've seen that woman's real face, nurse..." are most unforgettable, and the *way* they are said, the emotion and the speed and simply the sound of their voices sticks with you just as long as the words themselves), an otherworldly and most imaginative score, and most of all a powerful message attatched to a very memorable moment: a *very* good way to get your point across, since the unmasking scene will inevitably stick with you longer than say, the preacher's sermon in "I Am the Night - Color Me Black." The episode takes an old cliche and makes it fresh by graphically illustrating it...no one really listens to cliches, people really listen to this episode.
Also, I'm personally a very big fan of those masks. Superior makeup, and very creative too. Some nice subtleties, like the differences between the lips of the males and females. To think this was created in a tight schedule of 3 days or so!

If you're still not keen to this episode, consider this: what helped me really enjoy EOTB was to forget about the ending... pretend it doesn't exist and just be patient and enjoy where you are. The camera angles are far less distracting when you think about the dialogue."