"The Shelter" is episode 68 of the

American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...

anthology series ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

''. It originally aired on September 29, 1961 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

. It is one of the few ''Twilight Zone'' episodes to feature no supernatural or sci-fi elements.

Opening narration

Plot

It is a typical evening in a typical suburban community outside of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. At the residence of physician Bill Stockton, he enjoys a birthday party being thrown for him by his wife Grace and their son Paul. Also at the party are Jerry Harlowe, Bill's brother-in-law; Frank Henderson and Marty Weiss, Bill and Jerry's former State University roommates; and the wives and children of Jerry, Frank, and Marty. Bill is well known and liked by this gathering. Moreover, Bill has repeatedly administered to the health and well-being of each one of the guests. Everyone is friendly and jovial, even when mention is made of Bill's late-night work on a

fallout shelter A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War. During ...

which he has built in his basement. Suddenly, a

Civil Defense Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, miti ...

announcement overheard by young Paul is made that unidentified objects have been detected heading for the United States, indicating a

nuclear attack Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...

. As panic ensues, Stockton locks himself and his family into his shelter. His friends become hysterical and now want to occupy the shelter. Stockton offers his basement to the guests, but the shelter itself has sufficient air, provisions, and space for a total of three people. The once-friendly neighbors do not accept this. All of the previous cordiality is now replaced with soaring desperation: pent-up hostility, nativism, and other suppressed emotions boil to the surface. They break down the shelter door with an improvised

battering ram A battering ram is a siege engine that originated in ancient history, ancient times and was designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates. In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, hea ...

. Just then, a final Civil Defense broadcast announces that the objects have been identified as harmless

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

s and that no danger is present. His neighbors apologize to each other, and to the doctor, for their behavior; yet Stockton wonders aloud if they were all destroyed without a bomb dropping.

Closing narration

Cast

Larry Gates Lawrence Wheaton Gates (September 24, 1915December 12, 1996) was an American actor. His notable roles include H.B. Lewis on daytime's ''Guiding Light'' and Doc Baugh in the film version of ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1958). He played the role o ...

as Dr. Bill Stockton *

Jack Albertson Harold Albertson (June 16, 1907 – November 25, 1981), known professionally as Jack Albertson, was an American actor, comedian, dancer and singer who also performed in variety. Albertson was a Tony, Oscar, and Emmy winning actor. For his perfor ...

as Jerry Harlowe *

Sandy Kenyon Sandy Kenyon (born Sanford Klein; August 5, 1922 – February 20, 2010) was an American actor of film and television. He appeared as a guest actor on numerous television series, including a recurring role on ''The Americans''. He was also the orig ...

as Frank Henderson * Peggy Stewart as Grace Stockton * Michael Burns as Paul Stockton *

Joseph Bernard Joseph Bernard (1866, Vienne, Isère – 1931) was a modern classical French sculptor, featured on the frontispiece of Elie Faure's 1927 survey of modern art, "Spirit of Forms". Bernard was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in the atelier o ...

as Marty Weiss *

Jo Helton Jo Helton (born Joan Jeter; June 7, 1933 – March 26, 2021) was an American actress on stage, film, and television and a social worker. Early years Helton was born Joan Jeter in Jackson, Tennessee, on June 7, 1933, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W ...

as Martha Harlowe *

Moria Turner Moria may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Moria (Middle-earth), fictional location in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien * '' Moria: The Dwarven City'', a 1984 fantasy role-playing game supplement * ''Moria'' (1978 video game), a dungeon-crawler g ...

as Mrs. Weiss * Mary Gregory as Mrs. Henderson *

John McLiam John McLiam (born John Williams; January 24, 1918 – April 16, 1994) was a film and television actor noted for his skill at different accents. His film appearances include ''My Fair Lady'' (1964), ''In Cold Blood'' (1967), John Frankenheimer's ...

as Man

Context

The episode aired after a summer in which the

had loomed large in national discourse, due to the

Berlin Crisis of 1961 The Berlin Crisis of 1961 (german: Berlin-Krise) occurred between 4 June – 9 November 1961, and was the last major European politico-military incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of po ...

.Meeting with U.S. President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Soviet Premier

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

insisted—not for the first time—that

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

troops withdraw from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, handing over the city to an independent, Soviet-aligned

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. Khrushchev explicitly threatened

thermonuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...

if the United States refused to relent. Kennedy responded publicly seven weeks later in a televised address on July 25, 1961. During the speech, Kennedy stated his intention to ensure access to shelters in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. In the aftermath of the speech, numerous companies began producing such shelters, and products were sold with explicit reference to the shelters; for instance, Foam-Ettes toothpaste tablets boasted that they could be used "wherever you are—even in a family fallout shelter." Rod Serling saw an opportunity for urgent social commentary and "rushed into production" an episode that would comment on prevailing anxieties.Perlstein, Rick. ''Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus''. New York: Nation Books, 2009

001 001, O01, or OO1 may refer to: *1 (number), a number, a numeral *001, fictional British agent, see 00 Agent *001, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian fire brigade (until 1986) *AM-RB 001, the code-name for the Aston Martin Valkyrie ...

Two weeks after the episode aired, the crisis escalated and construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

began.

References

*Zicree, Marc Scott: ''The Twilight Zone Companion''. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition) *DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. *Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. *Henriksen, Margot A. ''Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. *Perlstein, Rick. ''Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus''. New York: Nation Books, 2009

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelter, The 1961 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 3) episodes Television episodes written by Rod Serling Television episodes about nuclear war and weapons