User Reviews

That was a line spoken by William Demarest at the beginning of the episode to wife Phyllis (Joan Blondell, looking quite aged. I remember Joan as the beautiful young blonde from those great 1930s Busby Berkeley films such as "Gold diggers 33", "Dames", and "Gold diggers 37"). William was eating Phylis's reheated dinner of " couragated plastic" and arguing, something it looked they often did. The TV repairman, the guy who voiced Winnie the Pooh, was fixing the TV, and I could really hear Winnie the Pooh's voice when he spoke. When Winnie fixes the TV, he tells William there's no charge, but William was a little curious of that since he just gave Winnie a lecture on his crooked money making scenes. He left saying "Can't win em all".

William was a grumpy man but Phyllis was no better. She was a b***h. Especially near the end of the episode when William actually attempted to make peace with her and she arrogantly refused his offer. That's when we get the " Yonkers! Yonkers! Yonkers!" line somewhere in the middle of her tirade.

The real strangeness of the episode begins when William starts seeing himself on a channel that they don't have. He first sees the recent past of his canoodling with another woman. Then he sees the bickering at the dinner table from the first scene of the episode. Then he starts seeing the future, which is quite disturbing to say the least. Phyllis at this point is definitely saying that he's cracked. What William sees on the TV is so traumatizing that he breaks down, to where the doctor comes over and he's put in bed. This is the part I don't get, after seeing all this, wouldn't you think that William would try harder than you can possibly imagine to not let what he saw on TV actually happen? But it happens. Exactly like he saw it. I guess this is where some people believe that certain plots are already set in motion by God, and there's nothing that we can do to change that. William, as terrified as he was for what he saw, he tried to make peace, then Phyllis refused and went on her rampage and William just lost control of himself. The last scene of the episode happens before two more horrible future scenes William saw happen to him on the TV. But we know that they will still happen too after that last scene since every other future event William saw on TV happened exactly like he saw it. Creepy yet very interesting episode.

As I grew up, I was always creeped out by Sterling Holloway. From his roles in the old Superman TV show to his contribution of voice to Winnie the Pooh. He looks absolutely nuts in this episode. William Demarest makes the mistake of rubbing old Sterling, the TV repairman, the wrong way. It allows him to look on a channel not previously available. On that channel, he sees himself putting the moves on a woman (not his wife). Fearing that his wife will watch the same channel, he goes into a panic. The marriage is a hell on earth and the two are in constant combat. Suspicion abounds and it is justified. Finally, the man sees something that has not happened. He sees a huge fight with his wife, ending with her being pushed out a window and killed. He also sees his own trial and execution. Of course, he could stop it, but that's the problem.

Recycling story ideas wasn't at all unusual for The Twilight Zone; back in the second season Rod Serling presented 'A Most Unusual Camera' which basically told the same story as the one here. The thing I find odd is that the finale in both cases called for a character to fall out of a high rise window! Unbelievable as it was the first time around, the fact that it was done once more probably supports the idea that by the fifth season, good original ideas were becoming harder and harder to come by.

I got a kick out of a few things while watching this picture. For starters, Rod Serling introduces it, in the words of contemporary Ed Sullivan, as a 'really big show'. Then once things get going, old Joe Britt (William Demarest) breaks a chair over the back of wife Phyllis (Joan Blondell), suggesting that maybe he's been watching just a bit too much professional wrestling on TV. Can you imagine whacking someone like that so hard you would break a chair? Yikes!

Then there was the doctor's reference regarding Joe's condition, attempting to explain his fixation on the troublesome TV channel 10. As a TV addict, the doc surmised that Joe couldn't distinguish between watching the action on television and being part of it. Which brings us to the present day and a recently diagnosed psychiatric ailment in which patients believe that they're the subject of their own reality show. Now there's a Twilight Zone idea to be explored.

Anyway, Demarest and Blondell are effective in portraying their characters here, even if neither one is very likable. And then there's Sterling Holloway as the TV repairman. If you were a kid in the Fifties and Sixties you were bound to run into him sooner or later. I recall his appearances on 'The Adventures of Superman' and 'The Life of Riley', and you can catch a sampling of his work in showings of Gene Autry flicks on Encore Westerns every now and then.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of guys like the one portrayed by Demarest. Macho, stupid, philandering, self-centered, abusve, insulting, ungrateful and violent. After a lifetime of acting like a rotten jerk, Demarest's character thinks a simple apology is going to make everything better. But instead of being the good little wifey and accepting his apology, Blondell's character tells him to go to hell, which in turn triggers the violent fight as predicted by the mysterious television program.

Fifth season Twilight Zone entry What's In The Box is one of the most daring to be different episodes of the series, as it presents a miserable New York couple, constantly getting on one another's nerves , with the husband a cab driver who clearly doesn't like his work, and who uses television as escape from the woes of a marriage that should never have been.

This man also has a mistress on the side, has been making up excuses for his late returns home, and his wife is beyond suspicious about this, makes it clear to him that she knows what he's up to. Hubby's response is that all he wants to do is watch the "fights" on television (as if his marriage wasn't enough of a real life fight).

Early on, we see the television set in the process of being repaired by a fey and peculiar looking man played by Hollywood veteran Sterling Holloway, who tended to play benign, often comedic roles; but not this time, as his character's brief time on screen suggests that there's more to this man than meets the eye. His late reappearance, in the final scene, is surreal and unsettling, as there's no reason for him to be there.

But this is small beer when compared to what has already transpired, which is mostly bickering, hollering and threats. Fortunately for the viewer, the dysfunctional couple is portrayed by yet two more Hollywood veterans, Joan Blondell and William Demarest, both of whom were known for playing down to earth, likable, even at times lovable characters; yet as with Holloway, both are playing way against type this time; and they're wholly credible not only as a battling couple but as loathsome human beings.

It's worth mentioning that the eponymous box, the television, is apparently haunted,--or maybe possessed would be a better word for it--as it shows Demarest's character not only events from his past but what is about to transpire in the near future, which causes him to literally collapse. Unfortunately, the feisty Demarest does not stay in bed, as his doctor ordered, and when he arises what occurs is exactly what he had seen on the television earlier in the evening!

There's no explanation for why things went the way they did offered for the viewer; and not much to think about while the story unfolds, though erupts might be a better word for it. This is near experimental television, from a time when most shows were conventional. Everything happens in the apartment. Nothing extraneous occurs. It's no frills all the way. The extreme unpleasantness of not only the story but its main characters is never explained. They are given no back story. It's almost as if they were born like this, miserable and quarrelsome.

It's left for the viewer to come to his own conclusion, as this is a rare Twilight Zone, with Rod Serling's closing narration not so much wrapping up what has just been shown as being playful. Yet the episode was anything but playful, as it consisted mostly of knock down, drag out fights, verbal and physical, between two aging, unappealing people who might never have known what a hell their life was if it hadn't been for a television.

Another reviewer rightly pointed out that this episode was a retread--a story that is essentially a remake of an earlier "Twilight Zone" show--the one with the camera that takes pictures of the future. And, as this reviewer said, season five was pretty weak as the series has started to run short of ideas--hence the remake. Sadly, and not surprisingly, the person got a lot of 'not helpfuls' when they were simply explaining why they thought this was a sub-par episode (which it was).

This show features a rather nasty and crass old couple (William Demarest and Joan Blondell). They are amazingly unlikable and crude. The show finds their TV is broken and Demarest is yelling at the repairman. You assume what happens next is karmic retribution for this, as the TV now begins showing what will happen--and it's very vicious--too vicious, actually. It all seemed mean-spirited and atypical for the series--and not all that clever. This, the lousy use of stunt doubles and the fact it's clearly a recycled idea mean this is a show you can skip without missing very much.

It was nice to see these two veteran actors--too bad the script wasn't worthy of their talents.

The point of the Twilight Zone is not to wait for the "twist." In some episodes, that was an added thing, but the strength of the episodes came from other directions as well. In the case of "What's in the Box," what impressed me was the homey feel of the situation, as if the story was taking place in a sit-com about two married people who were always at each other's throats. Despite the somewhat comical progression of the two bickering spouses, it ends oddly tragic, and after we see the wife fall out of the window to her death, it culminates with the husband being strapped into the electric chair and looking quite terrified.

Then there is the TV repairman who is very weird-looking, and acts even weirder. Did he have something to do with it, such as putting a curse on the obnoxious man who was accusing him of being dishonest, or is he just a dimwitted person who asks for more work at the end because that's all he knows to do, despite the murder that has just taken place? That ambiguity adds to the allure of this episode.

Perhaps one can argue that the episode is formulaic, or that it was done before. Well, any movie about anything has been done before, in this regard. Never mind that it may be considered corny that someone sees the future on a channel that should not be working. Rather, consider that what is shown of the future is bleak and negative and something that should be avoided, particularly to the person that can try to change it, and then watch in dismay as, even as any attempt to correct that future happening, it will ultimately lead to it as it was written to happen. If you do, instead of looking for a magic twist, then you'll agree with me that this episode is one of the best in the series. (Not the best, but up there.)

Joe and Phyllis Britt are not just cranky and miserable, they are both hiding from the ugly reality of their shared existence. Phyllis seems to know that her husband is cheating, but only explodes in rage when he foolishly confesses. Joe must have an inkling of the violence of which he is capable, but has a nervous breakdown when confronted with its potential consequences. The TV repairman was not put into the story to give these two what they deserved as much as to show the viewer how much they, like so many other people in this world, hide from themselves. I also suspect that Rod Serling, who was fairly disillusioned with the TV business by now, was also demonstrating how TV can lead the viewer down a path of darkness when those who control it are motivated only by greed and cynicism. Viewers choose what they watch, and what they chose can reveal more of who they really are than they might want to know.

I should add that I wouldn't call this episode a rehash. Sure, it wasn't the first show in or out of TZ to deal with a view into the future; the Unusual Camera and Room 22 episodes, as well as Serling's contribution to the Desilu theater, "The Time Element" all made use of this prop. But each of these examples deals with that insight differently. In this case, one sees characters that are so fatally flawed that even when warned about the excesses of their impending doom, they still bring it on.

This is a hilarious little gem. The dark side of married life is explored here,and it is as ugly as it is funny! The fighting between Joan Blondell and 'Uncle Charlie' William Demarest is very well choreographed,and it almost rivals the tv wrestling or roller-derbys that were popular at the time that this episode was made. The tv repairman character having the voice of 'Winnie the Pooh' is the icing on the cake,it is almost too much as it adds another element of odd to a pretty strange show! (If you are deeply disturbed by violence don't watch this)

A philandering middle-aged man discovers that his newly repaired TV set shows scenes from the future, including his eventual murder of his wife.

By its fifth and final season, THE TWILIGHT ZONE was retreading old plot lines and generally in decline. To be sure, some good episodes were still produced, but they were few and far between and "What's in the Box" is decidedly not one of them. I won't mince words: this episode about domestic bickering leading to violence and death is loud, nasty, crude, over-the-top, and as subtle as a sledgehammer. There is no twist ending to speak of; indeed, the climax is shown to us in foreshadowing, and then everything replays itself just as we expected. Although presented as a comedy episode, "Box" is about as funny as a backache. The fault is in the writing and directing, not the acting of Joan Blondell and William Demarest - two performers who were delightful in film comedies of the 1930s and '40s. It's sad to see these veteran players saddled with this shabby material.

What pushes the episode over the edge of tastelessness for me is the fact that we're forced to watch the couple's fateful fight not once but twice, in all its brutality. It's not clear whether Demarest's character was responsible for his actions or whether the TV set was controlling his actions in addition to foreshadowing them. The TV repairman apparently worked some trickery with the set at the beginning of the episode, but his motivation for doing this is unclear. Sterling Holloway is wasted in this brief role. I saw no moral here, nothing redemptive.

Can one say anything positive about "What's in the Box"? The theme of being driven to distraction by television is good. A number of TZ episodes dealt with the overpowering effects of technology. As other viewers have correctly pointed out, "Box" recycles elements from the Season 2 episode "A Most Unusual Camera," but with much less charm and humor. A better episode could have been fashioned around the subject of a magical TV set. "What's in the Box" is pretty deplorable.

This episode was hilarious! It's practically an episode of wrestling between a miserable man and his wife. Can you even do this on TV today? The part where he hits is wife across the back with a chair was about the funniest thing I ever seen on tv. Of course real world domestic violence is awful, but this is just a tv show so it's fine. The episode is not condoning such behavior.

The writing is SOO REAL and RAW! Finally an episode that doesn't feel like a man child wrote it. It was a huge departure from most episodes. It took real guts to make this one and the 2 actors play their parts soo well you'd think it was real. The TV repair man was hilarious at the end too.

It was really sad that the man was finally sorry after seeing himself on tv enough, to see how horrible he had been to his wife, and so he says sorry and wants to start over with her. She mocks him for this. It's at this point I start to realize, I guess the wife is part of the problem too. So he sadly fulfills the vision he sees on tv and kills his wife. I like to think the TV was not magic, but he is suffering mental anguish as he is shocked to death on the electric chair, so his final moments and thoughts are the entire episode. A sort of flashback that he thinks is real. Not unlike another episode earlier in the year of a man being hanged on a bridge.

A greatly entertaining episode with a sad end. If only they had stuck with hour long episodes, this is one that definitely needed to be. It takes 2 to make a marriage work, but it still looks like the man did most of the evil here.

"What's In The Box" features two stars of the Golden Age in William Demarest and the lemur eyed Joan Blondell. William plays a none too faithfull cab driver husband to Joan Blondell's home maker. Apart from driving, Joe's life seems to revolve around a younger woman who is demanding divorce then marriage, watching the tv wrestling, drinking beer and consuming his wife's "corrugated plastic" dinners.

Having just had his tv fixed, Joe finds that he can get Channel 10, except he sees himself with his bit on the side. He yells for his wife Phyllis to come and watch as he doesn't realise HE is on "candid camera". When he does see himself with his girlfriend, Joe is so stunned that he spills his beer. He later sees a re-run of himself eating his "corrugated plastic" dinner whilst arguing with Phyllis. He passes out and his wife shows that she DOES actually care about him.

Whilst she is calling for the doctor to come and care for Joe, Joe is watching Channel 10 again and sees himself and Phyllis having a violent fight where he ends up accidentally killing her through a fall from their apartment window to the pavement, many floors below.

Later, the fight happens for real, after Joe has seen himself on Channel 10 again, this time being sentenced to death for killing Phyllis and then being strapped into the electric chair. Phyllis is packing her bags and all SHE hears is static. She mocks him until he is furious, and kills her in the exact same fashion as he'd seen earlier.

9/10.