SEASON 1 – CBS
Created by Rod Serling
Theme song by Bernard Herrmann, narrated by Rod Serling
NOTE: The 1957 pilot for this anthology series was entitled “The Time Element”, which was broadcast in 1958 on the anthology series “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.”
- 000. Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Time Element – 11/24/1958
- A man named Peter Jenson (William Bendix) visits psychologist Dr. Arnold Gillespie (Martin Balsam) to tell him about a recurring dream that he has been having. He describes the dream, which starts when he wakes up with a severe hangover in a strange hotel in Honolulu, even though his last memory is of being in New York City. He is quite disagreeable with everyone he meets, including the hotel bartender (Jesse White). He also meets a young newlywed couple, Ensign Janowski (Darryl Hickman) and his bride Edna (Carolyn Kearney). When Janowski mentions being stationed on the U.S.S. Arizona, Jenson mentions that shop sinking in Pearl Harbor on December 7. When Jenson sees their startled reactions, he checks the newspaper and sees that the date is December 6, 1941… which is seventeen years earlier than 1958, the date he believes it to be. At this point in the current day in 1958, Jenson tells Gillespie that he believes that the entire occurrence is not a dream at all but that he is time traveling in a loop. He continues to describe the situation in Hawaii, where he starts making bets on sporting events of which he knows the outcome. When Janowski stops by to see him to make sure he is okay, Jenson pretends that he never mentioned 1958. Jenson begins to worry about what will take place the next day and heads to the Honolulu News to report the impending attack to the editor Mr. Gibbons (Bartlett Robinson) and reporter Hannify (Don Keefer). They humor him at first and then try to throw him out, but again Jenson is forced into a physical altercation. The men subdue Jenson and call an army doctor (Alan Baxter) to examine him. Although Jenson slips up on naming the current president and vice-president, after he leaves, the men agree that he is not crazy and really believes what he is saying. He meets up with the couple for drinks again, he starts to pity what will happen to them, and again returns to telling them that he should not be on the Arizona the next day. This earns him a punch in the mouth from Janowski and then when he starts singing World War 2 songs, from the bartender. Jenson wakes up the next morning in his Honolulu hotel room and sees the Japanese planes flying over. Back in the present, he tells Dr. Gillespie that he feels there is more to the dream but he has always awakened at this point. Gillespie tries to convince him of the impossibility of time travel, as making one small change in the past cold drastically alter the future. Jenson tells him that he looked up Janowski and his wife and called Janowski’s mother, only to find out that they had been killed in Pearl Harbor. Jenson then falls asleep on the doctor’s couch and begins the dream over again, as the doctor watches him. This time, as the planes are flying over, Jenson is shot and killed through his window. Back in the office, Dr. Gillespie has a strange feeling that something has happened, but Jenson is nowhere to be found. Gillespie doesn’t have any memory of him and leaves for the day. He stops at a bar for a drink on the way home, and he sees a photograph of Jenson hanging behind the bar. The bartender (Paul Bryar) tells Gillespie that it is a photo of Peter Jenson who wants tended bar there, but he has been killed in Pearl Harbor. Desi Arnaz introduces the episode and provides commentary on it after the show. He speculates that the doctor had seen the photo in the past and then dreamed the entire encounter with Jenson. Lucille Ball appears as herself to promote the next episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Joe DeRita is the drunk at the bar. Jesslyn Fax is the hotel maid. 1/29/24
Read the rest of this entry »
