The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Thirty-Three “Mr. Bevis”

Original Air Date: June 3, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: William Asher

“In the parlance of the twentieth century, this is an oddball. His name is James B. W. Bevis, and his tastes lean toward stuffed animals, zither music, professional football, Charles Dickens, moose heads, carnivals, dogs, children, and young ladies. Mr. Bevis is accident prone, a little vague, a little discombuberated, with a life that possesses all the security of a floating crap game. But this can be said of our Mr. Bevis: without him, without his warmth, without his kindness, the world would be a considerably poorer place, albeit perhaps a little saner…Should it not be obvious by now, James B. W. Bevis is a fixture in his own private, optimistic, hopeful little world, a world which has long ceased being surprised by him. James B. W. Bevis, on whom Dame Fortune will shortly turn her back, but not before she gives him a paste in the mouth. Mr. James B. W. Bevis, just one block away from The Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

James B.W. Bevis (played by Orson Bean) is a lovable but accident-prone character who enjoys goofing off and playing with the neighborhood children before driving his 1924 Rickenbacker to work. He is something of an adult child –he dons a bow tie and plays with toys. On this particular morning, Bevis arrives thirty minutes late to his job and he is promptly fired. He steps outside to find that his car has rolled away and crashed into a light post. When he returns home to his cluttered apartment his landlord is bitter and angry. Bevis is evicted from his apartment after six weeks in arrears. With nowhere left to turn he heads to the nearest bar.

At the bar, he sees a man in the mirror who waves at him from a booth, but in reality there is no man sitting there. In the mirror, the man motions for Bevis to come join him. And so Bevis walks over and the strange man suddenly materializes. His name is Mr. J. Hardy Hempstead (played by Henry Jones). He is Bevis’s guardian angel and he offers Bevis the chance to relive this whole horrible day all over gain, this time with a new disposition.

Bevis then wakes up at his home again. His apartment is now clean and organized (Hempstead says Bevis needs to keep himself clean and organized if he is to become successful). Bevis is also forbidden from playing with the neighborhood children, he now has a new sports car, and at work his desk has changed. Exasperated, Bevis calls out to Hempstead. He does not want to live an inauthentic life. In the end, Hempstead obliges and Bevis is returned to his normal life again. We then find Bevis back at the bar and he runs outside to find his old Rickenbacker car parked on the street, not crashed, while a police officer is writing him a ticket because his car is parked next to a fire hydrant. Then suddenly the hydrant disappears and moves further down the street. Bevis nods upward to Hempstead as he avoids a ticket and drives off.

“Mr. James B. W. Bevis, who believes in a magic all his own. The magic of a child’s smile, the magic of liking and being liked, the strange and wondrous mysticism that is the simple act of living. Mr. James B. W. Bevis, species of twentieth-century male, who has his own private and special Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “Mr. Bevis”

“Mr. Bevis” is a delightful, comical episode in the series, but admittedly it is not one of the best (perhaps because it was considered for its own spin-off series). Easily the worst episode of Season One, even Rod Serling was dismayed by this one. At the very least, it explores the folkloric concept of supernatural events occurring in modern America –namely guardian angels. The lesson learned here by Mr. B.W. Bevis is to live authentically, even if he is a clumsy goof-off.

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Credits:

• Director: Don Medford
• Written by: Rod Serling
• Music: Stock Music
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and Merrill Pye
• Film Editor: Bill Mosher
• Assistant Director: Don Klune
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Keogh Gleason
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell
• Starring:
  • Orson Bean…..James B.W. Bevis
    • Born Dallas Frederick Burrows, Orson Bean (1928-2020) was a comedian, actor, and game show and talk show host who was a “mainstay of Los Angeles’ small theater scene” for many years (especially The Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice). He was sometimes regarded as famous for being famous. He appeared frequently on several televised game shows from the 1960s through the 1980s and was a longtime panelist on the game show To Tell the Truth. He was also a favorite of Johnny Carson, appearing on The Tonight Show more than 200 times. He was blacklisted in the 1950s for attending a Communist Party with a young woman he was dating at the time. He appeared in various shows over the decades like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Modern Family, Two and a Half Men, Will & Grace. He voiced the main characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1977 and 1980 Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and The Return of the King. He also appeared in Spike Jonze’s 1999 film Being John Malkovich. He was a distant cousin of President Calvin Coolidge, and in later life, his politics ventured toward extreme conservatism, penning articles for the likes of Breitbart News. Bean was married three times and had four children. He was killed in 2020 when two vehicles struck him as he was trying to cross Venice Boulevard. He was 91 years old.
  • Henry Jones…..J. Hardy Hempstead
    • Henry Burk Jones (August 1, 1912 – May 17, 1999) was born in New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia. Growing up, his father told him he could be anything he wanted but a doctor (since doctors were not known to be particularly financially successful during the 1930s) and after some health issues and the general awkwardness of youth, he discovered he made people laugh and so he went into acting. He appeared in films like 3:10 to Yuma, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and Arachnophobia, among others. He appeared in television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery, Bewitched, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, MacGyver, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lost in Space, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Jones was a Republican and he supported the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election. He died in 1999 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 86 due to complications after he suffered in a fall at his home.
  • Charles Lane…..Mr. Peckinpaugh, Mr. Bevis’s boss at the Peckinpaugh Corporation
  • Florence MacMichael…..Margaret, Mr. Bevis’s co-worker
  • William Schallert…..Police Officer #1
  • Dorothea Neumann…..Land Lady
  • Vito Scotti…..Tony, the Fruit Peddler
  • Horace McMahon…..Bartender
  • House Peters Jr……Police Officer #2 writing ticket
  • Coleen O’Sullivan…..Michelle, the young lady
  • Timmy Cletro…..the little boy

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• The Twilight Zone was not broadcast on May 27, 1960. Instead another installment in the CBS Reports series was aired featuring Edward R. Murrow presenting a segment “Who Speaks for the South?”
• This episode marks the debut of the “eye” opening sequence when it first aired. This unique opening sequence was featured in the latter four episodes of Season One, finally appearing in the finale “A World Of His Own.” The “eye” opening was a joint creation by MGM and Pacific Title. Apparently, it was an animation intended to mirror the CBS logo. On the DVD and Blu-Ray compilations, the episodes that feature the “eye” opening include “Mr. Bevis,” “The After Hours,” “The Mighty Casey,” and “A World of His Own.”
• Rod Serling was apparently disappointed in this episode for its campiness. He originally intended for it to become the pilot episode for a new comedy series on CBS starring Burgess Meredith. It was to be sponsored by Prudential Insurance Company (which first considered sponsorship of The Twilight Zone), however Burgess Meredith turned down the role. Other actors in consideration for Mr. Bevis included Shelley Berman, Jack Carson, Wendell Corey, Henry Jones (who plays Hempstead in this episode), Zachary Scott, and Alan Scott. Other actors under consideration to play Hempstead included Edward Atienza, William Demarest, Robert Emhardt, Gale Gordon, Sterling Holloway, Henry Jones (who plays Hempstead in this episode), Murray Matheson, Harry Von Zell, John McGiver, and Paul Hartman.
• The original concept for a character named “Bemis” which was later changed to “Bevis.” He was to be a gentle, warm, compassionate, accident-prone, awkward, bumbling, unconsciously funny, honest, and likable. He loves children, fairy tales, exotic European food, professional football, beautiful women; but he dislikes deferential nouveau riche, pseudo-intellectuals, excessive sophisticates, prejudice, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and crooked politicians. And, of course, he has a guardian angel.
• There was an amusing little blooper in which Mr. Bevis asks “who might you be?” to which his guardian angel replies “whom, I’m your guardian angel” –an incorrect use of the objective case. This was brought to Serling’s attention in a variety of letters. He simply seemed to think this whole episode was something of a blooper anyway. This little blooper follows a minor little play on the “nominative” use of “them” versus “those” Bevis mentions to the bartender.
• Orson Bean later described his excitement working with Rod Serling on a new pilot, but he confessed “Mr. Bevis” was “not up to Serling standards.”
• When Mr. Peckinpaugh berates Mr. Bevis, he complains that Bevis keeps a ledger like an ape, his desk is an affront to any concept of orderly symmetry, his eccentricities are beyond any kind of understanding, he brings in phonographs of zither music to play during the afternoon, and he hired Christmas carolers to serenade the office during its busiest hour.
• Zither is a kind of German stringed music.
• Among the many trinkets on Bevis’s desk is a replica ship of “Old Ironsides, the Constitution.” He was building it for one of the kids. The USS Constitution first set sail in 1797 after initially being commissioned by President George Washington. She is the world’s oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat today.
• Another object on Bevis’s desk is a clock he won at a carnival.
• The only job Mr. Bevis has ever held for more than six months is when he served in the Navy during World War II. His ancestors include intrepid explorer Magellan Bevis, Parnell Bevis, a member of the British Parliament who fought for home rule against insurmountable odds, and Gunner Lou Bevis, the first marine to hit the beach in Nicaragua.
• Mr. Bevis’s office is located in the “Walker Building.”
• The office door Mr. Bevis walks out of with his box of possessions is the exact same door used for the talent agency that Joe and Jerry go into in Billy Wilder’s classic film Some Like It Hot (1959).
• The skyline backdrop was reused from A Stop at Willoughby (1960).
• Mr. Bevis’s car is a “late ’24” Rickenbacker. It was manufactured by a short-lived auto company established in 1922 by World War I fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker –the first Amercan production cars to feature four-wheel braking. The Rickenbacker Motor Company ceased production in 1927. Mr. Bevis offers to sell it to a nearby Police Officer. The Officer sarcastically replies he wants to wait for the newer models of ’27 Maxwells.
• The number on Mr. Bevis’s Rickenbacker at the end of the episode reads 4A-99919.
• Mr. Bevis brand new sports car appears to be a 1958 Austin-Healey 100/6 two-seater.
• When Mr. Bevis arrives late for work, the clock on the wall reads shortly before 9am.
• Mr. Bevis works for the Peckinpaugh Corporation.
• Ben-Hur is alluded to several times in this episode –Hempstead reveals to Mr. Bevis that he helped Ben Hur win the famous chariot race. And in the final scene of the episode, a movie theater marquee advertises Ben-Hur (1959).
• As the camera pans upward at the end of the episode, a storefront window called “Dan E. Alberts Finance Company” can be seen.
• The street outside Mr. Bevis’s apartment is the same as featured in “A Penny For Your Thoughts” in which Dick York pays for a newspaper. The stairway in Mr. Bevis’s apartment is the same as featured in “Nightmare as a Child” and “Cavender is Coming.” And the organ grinder and monkey that were initially paid to appear in “Walking Distance” actually appear in this episode.

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