The Bewitchin' Pool
- Episode aired Jun 19, 1964
- TV-PG
- 25m
Two children escape their bickering parents through a portal in the bottom of their swimming pool to a magical land watched over by a kind old woman the children call Aunt T.Two children escape their bickering parents through a portal in the bottom of their swimming pool to a magical land watched over by a kind old woman the children call Aunt T.Two children escape their bickering parents through a portal in the bottom of their swimming pool to a magical land watched over by a kind old woman the children call Aunt T.
- Jeb Sharewood
- (as Tim Stafford)
- Sport
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Narrator
- (uncredited)
- …
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe "confrontation" sequence (where Jeb and Sport declare they don't have to live with their bickering parents anymore and dive into the pool for good), was actually written by Earl Hamner Jr. to be the climax of the story; it was also used at the beginning because the final version came up a few minutes short (Whit's "Howdy!" greeting as the kids emerge from the "swimming hole" and the tracking shot of the children in Aunt T's yard were repeated as well for the same reason). There was noise interference on the MGM back-lot during the pool sequences, and everyone had to be called back for post-dubbing, but actress Mary Badham had already flown back to Alabama and it was deemed too expensive to fly her back to Los Angeles. June Foray was brought in to dub her lines. It was a "sloppy" job, and Rod Serling knew it. It was held until the very end of the season as the "final" show (where, it was figured, most people wouldn't notice, having tuned out of the series).
- GoofsThe last time that Sport jumps in the pool to return to Aunt T's house, she is wearing a housecoat over her swimsuit. When she surfaces on 'the other side', she is no longer wearing the coat. Apparently the surfacing scene is the same scene used for their original arrival.
- Quotes
[opening narration]
Narrator: A swimming pool not unlike any other pool. A structure built of tile and cement and money, a backyard toy for the affluent, wet entertainment for the well-to-do. But to Jeb and Sport Sharewood, this pool holds mysteries not dreamed of by the building contractor. Not guaranteed in any sales brochure. For this pool has a secret exit that leads to a never-never land, a place designed for junior citizens who need a long voyage away from reality into the bottomless regions of The Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Twilight Zone: Healer/Children's Zoo/Kentucky Rye (1985)
I actually feel sorry for the two kids and poor old Georgia Simmons ("Aunt T"), being stuck in the middle of this mess.
OK--- the plot is pretty unique, and I can certainly appreciate its significance to viewers who have endured stressful, traumatic childhood experiences, and who long for that wondrous, Never-Never Land, with a kindly old lady to serve as a surrogate parent-- I GET IT! As a matter of fact, I'd like to see this show re-made and done really well, using Hamner's basic plot. But the script would have to be almost entirely re-written, since it is so seriously flawed.
The LOOPING of the dialogue in the "real world" is abysmal-- not only Mary Badham's voice (I'd call it "Southern-fried Squirrel" courtesy of June Foray/Rocky), but the parents as well. Tod Andrews was a decent actor, but he's TERRIBLE in this! Dee Hartford was a famous model but a TERRIBLE actress (she was Grocuho Marx's real-life sister-in law, which may explain part of her problem), and she's EVEN MORE TERRIBLE THAN USUAL in this turkey! Their dialogue is SO stilted, caricatured..... which obviously made it very difficult to deliver convincingly in the confines of a recording studio. Just BAD.
And why is the little boy ("Whitt") wearing his straw hat underwater??? Just to telegraph the fact that he's a country kid, I guess. Then there's the establishing shot of Aunt T's cottage, with all of the standard, cliched contrivances that signal "Happy Kids at Play"---- pony ride, skipping rope, see-saw, playing catch,...and that poor boy whose 30 seconds of fame consists of (unsuccessfully) trying to roll a big wooden hoop with a stick ---he was probably trying it for the first time as the cameras rolled. I also felt sorry for him.
Actress Georgia Simmons-- who usually played bit parts--- seems somewhat out of her league here; I wonder how the casting decision was made. In any case, Hamner admits that he fashioned the role of Aunt T after that of Rachel Cooper (Lilian Gish) in "The Night of the Hunter"---but any similarities between that iconic masterpiece and this disaster are out of the question. Maybe, deep down, Hamner was also thinking of the witch in Hansel and Gretel---- that old-world cottage with the kid brother and sister being fattened up on a steady diet of cake, etc. Who knows what madness lurks in the minds of TZ creators?
At least we get to see plenty of the MGM backlot's Esther Williams Pool--which, a decade later---would be derelict and overgrown with weeds, as seen in "That's Entertainment."
The Twilight Zone had, on several occasions, achieved true TV greatness during its first three seasons. But as the end approached, the folks in charge--from Serling and producer Froug on down--- just couldn't deliver anything close to the quality of those earlier shows, for a variety of reasons.
At least the stock library musical score in this episode contained a couple of nice cues.: Jerry Goldsmith's "Saturday Night", the cheery, rustic piccolo tune associated with Aunt T's joint, and Bernard Hermann's Pastoral from his "Walt Whitmann Suite"--the sparkly, "watery", reverberant cue heard upon the kid's final return to paradise. LR
- lrrap
- Aug 31, 2019
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1