What's in the Box

"What's in the Box" is episode 144 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 13, 1964 on CBS. In this episode, a man's television set displays his past, present, and future, revealing to him that he will kill his wife.

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Transcription

Opening narration

Portrait of a TV fan. Name: Joe Britt. Occupation: cab driver. Tonight, Mr. Britt is going to watch "a really big show," something special for the cabbie who's seen everything. Joe Britt doesn't know it, but his flag is down and his meter's running and he's in high gear—on his way to the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Joe and Phyllis Britt are an old married couple in New York City who do not get along. Joe gets home from his job as a cab driver late one night, and Phyllis accuses him of seeing another woman. In the meantime, a television repairman is in the next room fixing their broken set. Irritated, Joe harasses the repairman about the inconvenience and cost. The repairman abruptly closes the open TV panel and announces the TV is fixed. After stating the job is free, he leaves, and the TV starts getting channel 10—a station showing the past, present, and future of Joe and Phyllis' lives. Joe refuses to let Phyllis watch the TV and faints when he sees himself and a mistress talking.

When he tunes in again later, it shows him killing Phyllis in a fight. Joe breaks down at the sight and tells Phyllis what is happening. Phyllis seeks help from the family doctor, who gives Joe a sedative and says that seeing oneself on television is one of several common delusions manifested by the struggle to adjust to the new technology of television.

Profoundly disturbed by the sight of Phyllis' death, Joe tries to heal their relationship, telling her that he accepts the blame for their feuding and has realized that his extramarital affairs were only an escape from the stress of his job, that Phyllis is still the one he really loves. Embittered by years of Joe's coldness and philandering, Phyllis scorns his attempt at reconciliation. When he begins reacting to another channel 10 vision – his trial for Phyllis's murder and execution via electric chair – even as Phyllis sees only static, Phyllis is convinced that Joe has lost his mind and taunts him. Joe, angered, attacks and kills her in the same manner as he had seen on the television screen.

As Joe is arrested by the police, the TV repairman suddenly appears and mockingly asks, "Fix your set okay, Mister? You will recommend my service, won't you?" The repairman smirks as Joe is taken away.

Closing narration

The next time your TV set is on the blink, when you're in the need of a first-rate repairman, may we suggest our own specialist? Factory-trained, prompt, honest, twenty-four hour service. You won't find him in the phone book, but his office is conveniently located—in the Twilight Zone.

Cast

Joan Blondell as Phyllis Britt
William Demarest as Joe Britt
Sterling Holloway as TV Repairman
Herbert Lytton as Dr. Saltman
Sandra Gould as Woman On T.V.
Howard Wright as Judge
Douglas Bank as Prosecutor
Ted Christy as The Wild Panther
Robert McCord as Electric Chair Guard
Tony Miller as Announcer
Mitchell Rhein as Neighbour
Rod Serling as Host / Narrator – Himself
Ron Stokes as Car Salesman
John L. Sullivan as The Russian Duke

References

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, Ga.: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, Md.: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

"What's in the Box" at IMDb

v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

v <abbr style=";;background:none transparent;border:none;box-shadow:none;padding:0;" title="Discuss this template">t</abbr> e Works directed by Richard L. Bare
Films	Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948) Flaxy Martin (1949) The House Across the Street (1949) Return of the Frontiersman (1950) This Side of the Law (1950) Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957) Girl on the Run (1958) I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1969) Wicked, Wicked (1973)
Film and television series	Joe McDoakes (1942–1956) So You Want to Learn to Dance (1953) The Twilight Zone "Third from the Sun" (1960) "The Purple Testament" (1960) "Nick of Time" (1960) "The Prime Mover" (1961) "To Serve Man" (1962) "The Fugitive" (1962) "What's in the Box" (1964) Green Acres (1965–1971)

This page was last edited on 8 April 2024, at 09:59

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