The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Twenty-Five “People Are Alike All Over”

Original Air Date: March 25, 1960
Writer: Paul Fairman/Rod Serling
Director: Mitchell Leisen

“You’re looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animal with extremely small heads, whose name is Man. Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They’re taking a highway into space, Man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers up into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we’ll land there with them.”
-Rod Serling

The origin of “People Are Alike All Over” was inspired by Paul Fairman’s short story entitled “Brothers Beyond the Void” first published in 1952 in Fantastic Adventures. After acquiring the story, Rod Serling notably made a few changes for this episode. It isn’t altogether clear why Serling made these changes, but “People Are Alike All Over” is a wonderfully eerie science fiction episode all the same.

At some point in the not too distant future we encounter mankind’s maiden voyage to Mars –a rocket piloted by two men: Sam Conrad (played by Roddy McDowall who appeared in the Planet of the Apes series among other classic films) and Warren Marcussen (played by Paul Comi). Before they take-off Conrad is apprehensive about what sorts of creatures they may find on Mars, but Marcussen is optimistic. He thinks empathy and and compassion are common to all creatures –even interstellar beings.

When they arrive on Mars, their ship crashes on the surface and Marcussen is seriously injured. Marcussen pleads with Conrad to open the door so that he may see the red planet but Conrad refuses. He is worried about what they might find outside their door. Shortly thereafter Marcussen dies. Left with no alternative, Conrad opens the ship door and he quickly encounters a crowd of humanoid, toga-clad Martians. They seem friendly, particularly a woman named “Teenya” (played by Susan Oliver, known for her role as Vina in Star Trek’s pilot “The Cage”). Conrad is then offered his own home on Mars which is modeled after an ordinary American suburban house. Pleased with himself, Conrad accepts their offer –but he soon discovers that his home is locked from the outside. His home is, in fact, a cage used by Martians for entertainment; his life is a living zoo. Conrad becomes the star attraction with a sign outside his window reading: “EARTH CREATURE IN HIS NATURAL HABITAT.” Perhaps his initial reservations were correct and indeed ‘people are alike all over.’

“Species of animal brought back alive. Interesting similarity in physical characteristics to human beings in head, trunk, arms, legs, hands, feet. Very tiny undeveloped brain. Comes from primitive planet named Earth. Calls himself Samuel Conrad. And he will remain here in his cage with the running water and the electricity and the central heat as long as he lives. Samuel Conrad has found The Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

---

My Thoughts On “People Are Alike all Over”

“People Are Alike all Over” shares a great deal in common with the film Planet of the Apes (1968) as well as the original pilot episode of Star Trek (“The Cage”) in which humans, the dominant species on earth, are suddenly dropped into a foreign planet and held at the mercy of other creatures. Instead of fearing aliens for behaving unlike us, we are asked to examine a far more dangerous question –what if they are exactly like us? Who are the true barbarians –us or them?

---

Credits:

• Director: Mitchell Leisen
• Written by: Rod Serling (based on “Brothers Beyond the Void” by Paul W. Fairman, originally published in March 1952 edition of Fantastic Adventures)
• Music: Nathan Van Cleave
• Director of Photography: Harkness Smith
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
• Film Editor: Fred Maguire
• Assistant Director: Edward Denault
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Rudy Butler
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Jean Valentino
• Casting Director: Mildred Gusse
• Starring:
  • Roddy McDowall…..Sam Conrad
    • Roddy McDowall (1928-1998) was a British-American child star-turned celebrated adutlt actor. His career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. He achieved prominence for his starring roles in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Lassie Come Home (1943). Unlike many of his contemporaries, McDowall managed to evolve from child star into an adult performer and appeared on Broadway and in films, winning a Tony Award for his performance in Jean Anouilh’s The Fighting Cock. For portraying Octavian in the historical epic Cleopatra (1963), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. McDowall played Cornelius and Caesar in the original Planet of the Apes film series (an early draft of the script was written by Rod Serling), as well as Galen in the short-lived spin-off television series. He also appeared in shows like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Batman, The Invaders, and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, among others. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died at the age of 70 in Studio City, California. He never married nor had any children. He was apparently gay, though he never discussed his sexuality during his lifetime. He had a romantic relationship with Montgomery Clift in the 1950s (he was rumored to have attempted suicide when they broke up).
  • Susan Oliver…..Teenya
    • Susan Oliver (1932-1990) was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author. Perhaps her most famous role was as Vina in the unaired pilot for Star Trek “The Cage” (later made into the double episode: “Menagerie: Part” and “The Menagerie: Part II”). In addition to acting, Susan Oliver was also an accomplished pilot. She was a passenger aboard Pan Am Flight 115, a Boeing 707 on a transatlantic flight from Paris to New York City when it suddenly plummeted thousands of feet after the pilot left the plane on autopilot and roamed about the cabin while his co-pilot was not paying attention to the controls. It was February 3, 1959, the same day Buddy Holly died in an airplane crash. These events led to Susan Oliver not flying for the next year and later acquiring her own pilot’s license. In her later years, she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that later metastasized to her lungs, and she died on May 10, 1990 (aged 58).
  • Paul Comi…..Warren Marcusson
    • Paul Comi (1932-2016) was an American film and television actor. After graduating from high school in 1949, he joined the United States Army and was awarded three Purple Hearts during the Korean War. Comi’s professional acting career began in 1957, when, as an apprentice at the La Jolla Playhouse, he was given a small part in the play “Career” that starred Don Taylor and Una Merkel. Comi played navigator Lt. Andrew Stiles for the classic Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror.” Comi was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He had three children and died in 2016.
  • Byron Morrow…..First Martian
    • William Byron Morrow (1911-2006) served in the U.S. Army in World War II before acting in theatrical productions. He appeared in several episodes of Perry Mason and two episodes of Star Trek: “Amok Time” as Admiral Komack, and “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” as Admiral Westervliet, the first appearance of an admiral in the original series. He made an uncredited appearance as “Mr. Jameson,” one of the poker players in the train scene of the film The Sting (1973). Morrow died at the age of 94 on May 11, 2006 in Woodland Hills, California.
  • Vic Perrin…..Second Martian
    • Victor Herbert Perrin (1916-1989) was perhaps best remembered for providing the “Control Voice” in the original version of the television series The Outer Limits (1963–1965). He appeared in many television shows like The Adventures of Superman, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Perry Mason, Have Gun – Will Travel, and he voiced multiple characters on the Hanna-Barbera animated television series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! as well as numerous other Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He married three times (twice to the same woman) and had one son. Perrin died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 73 in 1989.
  • Vernon Gray…..Third Martian

---

The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• In early March 1959, Rod Serling expressed an interest in the short story “Brothers Beyond the Void.” Fred Engel of Ashley-Steiner reported that the story was owned by Dudley Pictures. Carl Dudley returned to the United States from a vacation and asked for a very high price for the story. Buck Houghton suggested they drop the idea but Rod Serling was adamant that The Twilight Zone should acquire the story. The screen rights were eventually purchased for $2,500 –the most expensive acquisition of the season. Additional script costs, such as Rod’s payment for the teleplay, totaled $5,860.10 (the second most expensive was “The Hitch-Hiker” for $5,204).
• An early working draft of the script was titled “Human Beings Are Alike All Over” and it featured some notable changes, such as that a humanities professor is the only passenger on the spaceship. In the original story, the protagonist is Marcusson and Conrad exists only at the beginning of the story as Marcusson makes the trip to Mars alone. Serling also changed the climactic final words from the story which initially read “People are the same everywhere” to the more alliterative “People Are Alike All Over.”
• The opening scene of Marcusson and Conrad discussing their future uses the same set from “Third From The Sun.”
• The Martian exteriors for this episode were taken from the oversized painted background cycloramas from the film Forbidden Planet, one of many episodes to borrow from Forbidden Planet. It also borrowed props from the film.
• Actor Paul Comi appears in several additional Twilight Zone episodes, and actor Byron Morrow also appeared in Star Trek and Outer Limits episodes.
• Director Mitchell Leisen began his career working as an art director for Cecile B. DeMille during the silent era. He apparently regaled the cast and crew with stories during the making of this episode.
• Much of the music in this episode uses “Outer Space Suite,” a musical composition deliberately created for CBS’s music library. Bernard Herrmann did not compose every part of the suite but he has often been given credit for its authorship.
• In this episode, Marcusson mentions they have traveled 35 million miles to Mars, though the distance between Earth and Mars ranges between 36 million and 250 million miles due to both having slightly elliptical orbits and different lengths of time to orbit the sun.
• Many of Paul Fairman’s mystery/fantasy/science fiction short stories and novels were turned into television shows. His 1962 novel Solaris has been made into a feature film twice, first by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and then by Steven Soderbergh in 2002.
• In the opening monologue, Mark Marcusson (Paul Comi) is described as 35 years old and Sam Conrad (played by Roddy McDowall) as 31 years old. However, at the time, McDowall was indeed 31 but Comi had just turned 28.
• Many of the actors in this episode also appeared in multiple episodes of Star Trek: Susan Oliver played as Vina in the unaired pilot “The Cage” (scenes of which were later edited into The “Menagerie: Part” and “The Menagerie: Part II.” Vic Perrin appeared played Tharn in Mirror, Mirror (written by Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson). Perrin also did the voice acting of the Metron in “Arena,” Nomad in “The Changeling,” and The Keeper in “The Menagerie: Part II.” Paul Comi appeared as Lieutenant Stiles in “Balance of Terror.” And lastly, Byron Morrow appeared in two episodes, as Admiral Komack in “Amok Time” and Admiral Westervliet in “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.”

Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.