The Trouble with Templeton
- Episode aired Dec 9, 1960
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
A nostalgic actor revisits his late wife and friends at their old haunt, only to find that he is now out of place there.A nostalgic actor revisits his late wife and friends at their old haunt, only to find that he is now out of place there.A nostalgic actor revisits his late wife and friends at their old haunt, only to find that he is now out of place there.
Larry J. Blake
- Freddie
- (as Larry Blake)
George Boyce
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Paul Bradley
- Crowd Member
- (uncredited)
George Ford
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Kenneth Gibson
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Robert Haines
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
John Kroger
- Ed Page
- (uncredited)
Robert Locke Lorraine
- Crowd Member
- (uncredited)
Monty O'Grady
- Crowd Member
- (uncredited)
Murray Pollack
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Bernard Sell
- Crowd Member
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt the beginning Templeton watches his wife beside their swimming pool. This was the very same pool used in The Bewitchin' Pool (1964), the very last episode broadcast.
- GoofsWhen Booth grabs Laura to stop her dancing, her flapper beads end up hanging from her neck in two long strands, but later are shown intact.
- Quotes
Narrator: [Closing Narration] Mr. Booth Templeton, who shared with most human beings the hunger to recapture the past moments, the ones that soften with the years. But in his case, the characters of his past blocked him out and sent him back to his own time, which is where we find him now. Mr. Booth Templeton, who had a round-trip ticket - into The Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsEdited into Twilight-Tober-Zone: The Trouble With Templeton (2021)
Featured review
"I don't like what you're become..."
In what is one of the best episodes of the Twilight Zone that I've seen so far, Brian Aherne stars as Booth Templeton, an aging Broadway play actor unhappy with what his life has become. One day, after witnessing his trophy wife flagrantly galavanting with an attractive lodger half Templeton's age, he beings lamenting about his lost past, and soon finds himself transported back to it.
Anytime I see time travel stories in movies or TV shows, one of the most interesting things to me is how the actual time travel is presented. In this case, it's not presented at all, Templeton literally walks out to the door to go to work, we go to commercial, and when we come back he's dropped off more than 30 years in the past, but this episode still has more layers of meaning than any other episode of the show I've seen so far.
Templeton is understandably shocked to find himself transported into his past, and succumbs to the obvious desire to get alone with his wife who, at the time we had met Templeton at the beginning of the episode, had been dead for many years but remained very much alive in his memories. In one of the show's most interesting scenes, he and his lost wife get into an argument, leading him to tell her he doesn't like what she has become.
What we in the audience know, and Templeton eventually figures out, is that it's not her that has become anything, it is him who has been changed by the decades that have passed since the last time they saw each other. It's an interesting analysis of how people change over the years, both from who they were when they were younger and, unfortunately often, from the person they have chosen as their life partner. We wonder how happy Templeton and this woman would be had she lived.
Watch for Sydney Pollack in an early role as an obnoxious director, of all things, and for Adhere's revelation early in the show of the fact that he has no idea how to tie a necktie. Past and present become confused at the end of the episode, but it's still one that makes you think even more than most other...
Anytime I see time travel stories in movies or TV shows, one of the most interesting things to me is how the actual time travel is presented. In this case, it's not presented at all, Templeton literally walks out to the door to go to work, we go to commercial, and when we come back he's dropped off more than 30 years in the past, but this episode still has more layers of meaning than any other episode of the show I've seen so far.
Templeton is understandably shocked to find himself transported into his past, and succumbs to the obvious desire to get alone with his wife who, at the time we had met Templeton at the beginning of the episode, had been dead for many years but remained very much alive in his memories. In one of the show's most interesting scenes, he and his lost wife get into an argument, leading him to tell her he doesn't like what she has become.
What we in the audience know, and Templeton eventually figures out, is that it's not her that has become anything, it is him who has been changed by the decades that have passed since the last time they saw each other. It's an interesting analysis of how people change over the years, both from who they were when they were younger and, unfortunately often, from the person they have chosen as their life partner. We wonder how happy Templeton and this woman would be had she lived.
Watch for Sydney Pollack in an early role as an obnoxious director, of all things, and for Adhere's revelation early in the show of the fact that he has no idea how to tie a necktie. Past and present become confused at the end of the episode, but it's still one that makes you think even more than most other...
helpful•418
- Anonymous_Maxine
- Jun 26, 2008
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content