Title: “A World of Difference”
Original transmission date: March 11 1960
Written by: Richard Matheson
Directed by: Ted Post
Starring: Howard Duff as Arthur Curtis/Gerald "Gerry" Raigan
Eileen Ryan as Nora Raigan
David White as Brinkley
Gail Kobe as Sally
Peter Walker as Sam
Susan Dorn as Marian Curtis
Frank Maxwell as Marty Fisher
Bill Idelson as Stagehand
Thomas Martin as Technician
Robert McCord as Camera Crew
Setting: Earth
Timeframe: Present (at the time)
Theme(s): Madness, despair, obsession, hope, parallel universes
Parodied? Not to my knowledge, no
Rating: A+
Serling’s opening monologue
You're looking at a tableau of reality, things of substance, of physical material: a desk, a window, a light. These things exist and have dimension. Now this is Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six, who also is real. He has flesh and blood, muscle and mind. But in just a moment we will see how thin a line separates that which we assume to be real with that manufactured inside of a mind.
Arthur Curtis is looking forward to his first holiday in years, and the birthday of his daughter. As he makes a call though, or tries to, the phone in his office is dead. As he walks outside to ask his secretary to call the phone company someone growls “Cut!” Suddenly one wall of his office has disappeared, to reveal a camera crew, director, a whole film studio all watching him. One of the men, presumably the director, irritably asks him how hard can it be to make a phone call, using the name Gerry, not Arthur. He introduces himself as Marty, and he is the director, and it seems Arthur, or rather Gerry, is in a movie. Gerry is playing the part of Arthur, except Gerry thinks he is Arthur, and has no memory of any film, does not know the director, does not realise or believe this is a movie. Up until a few moments ago, this was his life, his real life, not some role being played by an actor.
A man purporting to be his agent, Sam, tells him he’s on his last chance and not to blow it. Marty tells one of the crew to phone for an ambulance, while Gerry - or Arthur, or whoever he is - goes to make his call. Suddenly though he can no longer remember his own number, and when he rings directory assistance they tell him there is no telephone registered at the address he has just given. Confused, scared, he leaves the studio - which moments before had been an office block, he remembers it; his own office, where he has worked for years - and is almost run over by a woman in a car, a woman who snarls that she is his wife. Ex-wife, actually, and he had better make sure she gets her alimony payments. Gerry/Arthur doesn’t recognise her at all, and while Marty tells “Mrs. Raigan” that her “husband” is having a nervous breakdown and they are awaiting the arrival of an ambulance, Gerry/Arthur jumps into the car and drives off with his “ex-wife”.
On the way he tries to convince her that he is not who she says or thinks he is, but she thinks he’s just trying to get out of his divorce commitments, and when they drive to where his home should be, and even the road isn’t there, she remains unconvinced. After all, he is an actor. Well, to her anyway he is. When he tries to ring his office and is told, again, no such place exists, he breaks down and passes out. When he comes to, his agent shows him the script for the movie he has been acting in, in which his character is called Arthur Curtis, and his wife, and his child, and the address he thinks he lives at, all match up. However that movie, he is told, has been cancelled due to the unacceptable behaviour of the lead actor - him - and they are at the moment tearing down the set.
Frantic to get back there, knowing somehow that if he can get back into that office, onto that set, things might be all right again, Arthur/Gerry drives at speed back to the studio where he sits in the empty chair at a desk which now contains two blank frames which used to house pictures of his wife and daughter. “Don’t leave me here” he begs, hiding his face in his hands, and when he looks up he sees the photo frames have been again filled with the pictures of his family. Jumping up, he sees his wife - his real wife, not the divorced, money-grasping harpy he left behind at an unfamiliar place he was told was his home - and grabbing her, taking the airline tickets from his secretary, he hurries her out of the office, as a ghostly voice calls “All right! Let’s get these tables and chairs broken down!”
Some short time later the agent appears, asking if anyone has seen Gerry, but nobody has.
And nobody ever will again.
Gerry Raigan is dead. Long live Arthur Curtis.
Serling’s closing monologue
The modus operandi for the departure from life is usually a pine box of such and such dimensions, and this is the ultimate in reality. But there are other ways for a man to exit from life. Take the case of Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six. His departure was along a highway with an exit sign that reads, "This Way To Escape". Arthur Curtis, en route to the Twilight Zone.
The Resolution
In many ways, this is very like “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine”, where Barbara, the fading actress, longed for a life on screen, while here Arthur Curtis, who is in fact (apparently) Gerry Raigan, wishes for his screen persona to be his real one. Both get their wish, in slightly different ways.
The Moral
I’m not entirely sure here. Maybe there’s always a way out, or a way back?
Themes
Madness and obsession are here, large as life. Everyone thinks “Gerry” has gone mad, insisting he is the character he is playing in the movie, and he is obsessed with getting “home”, though when he does reach the street where his house is supposed to be, there’s nothing there. A sense of loss too, as “Gerry” fears he has lost his wife, his child, his job, his very existence, and sees it replaced with that of a drunken actor on his last chance, shackled to a harridan who only cares about getting her pound of flesh out of him. And then hope rises. He hopes, prays that if he can just get back to his “office” everything will be all right, everything will go back to how it was. And it does.
Tentatively, the idea of parallel universes is probably touched on here too. Perhaps in another dimension, the movie is about Gerald Raigan and he is rushing around telling everyone he is not Arthur Curtis…
And isn’t that…?
Howard Duff (1913 - 1990)
Famed for his role as the attorney in the Dustin Hoffman movie
Kramer vs Kramer, with Kevin Costner in
No Way Out, he also appeared in
Dallas, Charlie’s Angels, Flamingo Road, East of Eden, Knot’s Landing and
Magnum, PI
Eileen Ryan (1927 - )
Appeared in many series of the 70s, 80s and 90s including
Cannon, Matlock, CSI, Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, ER, Grey’s Anatomy and
Prime Suspect, but arguably her greatest claim to fame is being the mother of the Penn brothers, Sean, Chris and Michael.
David White (1916 - 1990)
Best known for the series
Bewitched, in which he played Darrin’s boss. Also appeared in the 1960 Jack Lemmon classic
The Apartment as well as the later Richard Pryor vehicle
Brewster’s Millions.
Iconic?
Marginally. Again, I doubt this was the first time this idea was used, but in the future the theme of someone living a life that turns out to be, or seem to be, false would be used a lot. You could probably link the likes of
The Truman Show to this idea.
Parallels
As mentioned above, this episode is very close to the idea in “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine”, with both characters seeking, and finding (in Raigan/Curtis’s case, re-finding) sanctuary in a better life in what is a fantasy world. No explanation is given for either, but that has become and will continue to be par for the course with this series.
Personal Notes
This is only the fourth (check) episode so far not written by Serling, and the third I think written by Matheson.