"The Lateness of the Hour" is episode 44 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 An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...

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 December 2, 1960 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 Entertainm ...

. It was one of the six episodes of the second season which was shot on videotape in a short-lived experiment aimed to cut costs.

Opening narration

Plot

Jana, the sensitive daughter of a creative genius, Dr. William Loren, is distraught over her parents' reliance on her father's five seemingly perfect servants. After Jana pushes one of the maids down the stairs, the maid then gets up without injury, being a robot built by Dr. Loren, complete with programmed memories and personalities. Jana feels trapped, and wishes to go out; her father believes he is protecting her from the outside world, keeping the windows permanently shut. She implores her father to dismantle the robots before he and her mother become completely dependent on them. Dr. Loren feels that doing so would destroy his work, which he believes is a form of life. He eventually gives in to save his relationship with his daughter, and orders the robots to his basement workshop, where they are to wait to be disassembled. The machines protest, asking how their service was substandard; Dr. Loren again orders them downstairs. Once the robots are gone, Jana is thrilled and begins looking forward to a new life with traveling, socializing, romance, and children. Her parents react strangely to these happy tidings, and this, combined with realizing that the family photo album contains no pictures of her as a child, prompts Jana to arrive at the shocking awareness that she is a robot. Like the servants, all of her past memories were created by Dr. Loren. Dr. Loren tries to explain that he and his wife were childless and wanted someone to love, and that they see her as their daughter. Jana is convinced that she was built not to be a beloved daughter, but to be merely a prop. She exclaims "I'm a machine" and repeatedly bangs her arm against a railing while yelling "No pain!" She becomes conscious of the fact that she cannot even feel love. This discovery causes Jana such anguish that her "father" recognizes it is not possible for her to go on this way. At some point later, the Lorens are seen relaxing as before, but it is revealed that Dr. Loren has erased Jana's identity and memory and now utilizes her as a replacement for the maid known as Nelda, who gave Mrs. Loren daily shoulder massages.

Closing narration

Credits

*Directed by

Jack Smight John Ronald Smight (March 9, 1925 – September 1, 2003) was an American theatre and film director. His film credits include ''Harper'' (1966), '' No Way to Treat a Lady'' (1968), ''Airport 1975'' (1974), '' Midway'' (1976), and ''Fast Break'' ...

*Written by

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...

*Produced by

Buck Houghton Archible Ernest "Buck" Houghton (May 4, 1915 – May 14, 1999) was an American television producer and writer best known for producing the first three seasons of ''The Twilight Zone'', as well as many other television programs and independen ...

Inger Stevens Inger Stevens (born Ingrid Stensland; October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970) was a Swedish-American film, stage and Golden Globe-winning television actress. Early life Inger Stevens was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the eldest child of Per ...

as Jana *

John Hoyt John Hoyt (born John McArthur Hoysradt; October 5, 1905 – September 15, 1991) was an American actor. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series. He is perhaps best known for his film and TV ...

as Dr. Loren *

Irene Tedrow Irene Tedrow (August 3, 1907 – March 10, 1995) was an American character actress in stage, film, television and radio. Among her most notable roles are as Janet Archer in the radio series ''Meet Corliss Archer'', Mrs. Lucy Elkins on the TV sit ...

as Mrs. Loren *Tom Palmer as Robert *Mary Gregory as Nelda *Valley Keene as Suzanne *Doris Karnes as Gretchen *Jason Johnson as Jensen

Production

"The Lateness of the Hour" was one of six ''Twilight Zone'' episodes shot on videotape instead of film in an attempt to cut costs. By November 1960 ''The Twilight Zones season two had already broadcast five episodes and finished filming sixteen. However, at a cost of about $65,000 per episode, the show was exceeding its budget. As a result, six consecutive episodes (production code #173-3662 through #173-3667) were videotaped at

CBS Television City Television City, alternatively CBS Television City, is an American television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. Designed by architect William Pereira and Ch ...

and eventually transferred to 16-millimeter film kinescoped".html" ;"title="kinescope.html" ;"title="kinescope">kinescoped"">kinescope.html" ;"title="kinescope">kinescoped"for syndicated rebroadcasts. Total savings on editing and cinematography amounted to only about $30,000 for all six entries, not enough to justify the loss of depth of visual perspective, which made the shows look like stage-bound live TV dramas (such as ''Playhouse 90'', which was also produced at CBS), or even daytime soap operas, which, at the time, were quickly and cheaply produced live on one or two sets. The experiment was deemed a failure and never attempted again.

References

Sources

*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.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lateness Of The Hour, The The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 2) episodes Fiction about memory erasure and alteration Television episodes about robots 1960 American television episodes Television episodes written by Rod Serling