Monday, May 9, 2022

NIGHT GALLERY / "The Different Ones" - 1971

Here's the companion piece for "Eye Of The Beholder" we vividly remember from The Twilight Zone, but, with a new twist of course.

Rod looks so cool here in his gallery of the weird, my kind of place!

So, the story's about Victor, his father, Paul Koch played by Dana Andrews, is desperate to find a better environment for his deformed son to be in, where he can have a somewhat normal life. He ends up contacting the government for help.

Having no friends at age 17, Victor is unhappy, he feels that he does not have a life of any worth, and is becoming very cynical about the matter. He now wears a hood and dark clothes to hide his ugliness.

Paul contacts the government to see if they can assist him in finding Victor a place to stay where he feels comfortable with other people in his condition.

They want to know what his condition is. Paul tears up and gets tongue-tied, so, Victor rips off his hood and says... I'm UGLY, look!!

Paul gets an appointment to meet with the supervisor for placement into a government institution, but, Victor has a condition that's not in the books, so, he'll either have to live with Paul, or... Be euthanized!!! 

As Paul is leaving, the supervisor gets a call, and it has to do with Victor...

Okay, here's the deal, there is a transfer that can be arranged to the planetoid, Boreon, for Victor. He will be flown there on a rocket ship where another person will be brought back to Earth on the return trip.

Victor agrees and is happy to go, anything's better than his existence on Earth! Wow, I bet that a lot of people in the world today would make that choice. FTW, right Dennis?!

Paul watches as Victor heads off into space, goodbye my son, and good luck!

Victor travels to Boreon in a Saturn 5 rocket, they had great stock footage from the Moon landing in 1969. I was stationed in the Army in Mannheim, Germany on that day and watched it on the TV in the break room with everyone else.

The second stage of the rocket drops off and Victor heads off into the void.

The planet there is actually the Earth, but, I think it's meant to be Boreon.

Here's Boreon, a small planetoid, Victor's destination.

Victor walks into a hallway from the rocket, no one is there to greet him.

Then a regular looking earthling type approaches him. He's the one that will be boarding the ship back to Earth. Victor asks him why does he want to go to Earth, and the guy says... Can't you see?! I'm UGLY! I don't belong here.

And the guy leaves to board the rocket. 

Finally, Victor is greeted by a Boreonian (I made that up) hostess, and guess what?

He looks like everyone else there, and is considered handsome! You can figure out what'll happen to the other guy on Earth, you know, he's pretty handsome himself. Kind of a silly comeback, black and white rules.

6 comments:

Dr. Theda said...

Do love Night Gallery !!
wonderful TV Show !

Randall Landers said...

Have never seen this one. Must put it on the schedule!

SCB said...

If I ever get my house rehabbed, I DEFINITELY am going to get a painting from the Night Gallery.

Realm Of Retro said...

OMG I was 11 when this came out,
I'll never forget THIS experience!

What a wimp I was as a kid being scared, they were just people
with black eyes & goop poured over their heads!

I love the work they put into this episode.
Resonance of 60s futurism shines in this show, I don't care
how much stock footage they used.

How about those ice-cold "picturephone operators", huh?
If you haven't seen this episode, you want to for lots of good things.
This is definitely a color Twilight Zone episode packaged an NG segment.

The original UNedited 25min version of this episode uses scenes
from This Island Earth, Fahrenheit 451,
Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Silent Running.

Final scene with Boreon Ladies took place inside the
set from The Andromeda Strain.
The Boreon planet scene is from Lost In Space.


I'd love to see a scene of those "Boreon Girls"
trying to sell Clearasil or Noxema (skin cream).

THAT would have been the video clip of the century, right there!




Realm Of Retro said...

RE: my earlier post:

"This is definitely a color Twilight Zone episode packaged an NG segment."

should read:

This is definitely a color Twilight Zone episode packaged INTO a NG segment.







Grant said...

That stock footage and those flashback moments evidently didn't come along till the syndicated reruns. A handful of NIGHT GALLERY reruns are notorious for being "padded" instead of just edited! It can be found without those parts, though.

I've always been fond of this one, It could've been only a rehash of "Eye of the Beholder" on THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but I think it works very well on its own.

Dana Andrews is very good in it, and it's funny to see John Korkes is a role like this, mixed in with weird comedies like LITTLE MURDERS, and sitcom roles.

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