Design for Loving

Incredible writing on the part of Ray Bradbury, laugh out loud material, perfect for the likes of wry, deadpan Norman Lloyd, a favorite of Hitchcock. Lloyd's style was very similar to Henry Jones, another prize member of Hitch's ensemble.

Lloyd plays a depressed fellow called Charles, burdened with a wife he doesn't particularly like and he would love to escape. Under any other circumstances it would lead to a divorce, however this is the future where you could go out and purchase a "lookalike robot." And that's precisely what Charles does -- so he can be both home and AWAY at the same time. Simply Amazing.

As Hitch would have it, there's a slight catch...

Distinguished stage actress Marian Seldes plays Lydia, Lloyd's wife, and quite convincingly. Seldes was married for many years to writer Garson Kanin. Look for beautiful Barbara Baxley, who appeared six times in the series, and for good reason.

Norman Lloyd appeared in two of Hitchcock's films, later striking up a lucrative business partnership with him and becoming the show's associate producer.

Exceptionally directed by veteran Robert Stevens, who held the record for directing the most series episodes and winning an Emmy. Good trivia question.

A one of a kind gem you can't miss, and yes, I agree with the last reviewer, the story does take on a JETSONS-type cartoonish flavor.

SEASON 4 EPISODE 6 remastered dvd box set. 5 dvds. 15 hrs. 30 min. Released 2008.

The story adapted from the science fiction master Ray Bradbury seems better suited to the Twilight Zone than to Hitchcock. It's likely the producers were looking to spice up a new season with something a little different, and they succeeded.

Norman Lloyd and Elliot Reid are two average middle-age husbands going through a mid-life crisis. Unhappy with his stale marriage, Lloyd figures out a way to escape without losing either respectability or the affection of his wife (Marian Seldes in a very affecting performance). Since the episode is set in the near future, he has a number of novel options not available to audiences of 1958.

A very well-produced episode by Lloyd who both oversaw production and acted in the lead. The future is suggested by a number of low-key but effective automated devices. There're also a couple of nicely ironical developments that the series was noted for. However, the premise has probably lost some of its novelty for sci-fi drenched audiences of the new millennium. Nonetheless, the possibility of having a humanoid duplicate do all the nettlesome chores while the real person goes off and plays, I'm sure, plugs into a lot of secret desires, even 50 years later. After all, presidents may come and go while the seasons may change, but there's still something infernally eternal about the captive "work week"!

Alright, alright -- The Twilight Zone didn't *invent* sci-fi. But this is definitely an episode you'd expect to see on TZ rather than AHP! (I believe AHP has 2 other sci-fi episodes, which I haven't revisited or reviewed yet.)

You can never go wrong with Ray Bradbury, and his "Marionettes, Inc." story is such a classic that it is STILL a pop culture staple. (Of course, these days you're more likely to see it played for comedy in animation, like The Simpsons and American Dad.) The other "1965" technology is also pretty amusing.

Still, I think this episode shows exactly why we needed The Twilight Zone. AHP didn't exist to put forward ideas about technology, society, racism, paranoia, etc. It existed to tell little mystery stories where someone gets their comeuppance. Rod Serling wanted to challenge society through metaphor. He would have had some words of wisdom to drop on us before and after this Bradbury story. (Fortunately, he gets his own chance to adapt Bradbury multiple times.)

This is a really fun episode that does something completely different than we generally expect from AHP... But if you're into sci-fi, head on over to TZ!

After directing the above average if very uneven previous episode, Norman Lloyd goes from director to back in the producer's chair and starring in the lead role in Season 4's sixth episode "Design for Loving". It also sees the return of Robert Stevens, four episodes after directing one of the worst episodes of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' "Don't Interrupt". It is written by Ray Bradbury, adapted from his own short story in his first of five writing credits for the series (the previous two being the lacklustre "Shopping for Death" and the brilliant "And So Died Riabouchinska").

"Design for Loving" is a very interesting and very well executed episode with a lot to like. It is not one of the best episodes of Season 4 or the best Bradbury penned 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episode ("And So Died Riabouchinska"). It is though one of the better Season 4 episodes up to this still very early stage of it and a million times better than Stevens' previous outing "Don't Interrupt" (not that that would have been hard though). Stevens directed some great entries for the series, "Design for Loving" is close to being one of them.

For me, Lydia is rather underwritten as a character.

Everything with the airline ticket also didn't make an awful lot of sense.

However, a lot is great about "Design for Loving". It is very well acted, with a great lead performance from Lloyd (especially later on) and Marian Seldes make much with her role. The chemistry between them is very strong. Hitchcock's bookending is amusingly ironic and Stevens' direction is always confident and in full control of the material. Did like the slick atmosphere seen in the production values, which aren't lavish but still has a good amount of atmosphere.

The theme tune has yet to get old. Bradbury's work is adapted spot on here, it doesn't come over as too talky and it always intrigues and full of darkly amusing moments. The human psychology is very vivid, insightful and haunting, as well as unmistakably Bradbury, especially with Lloyd's character. The story is clever and is darkly entertaining with some nice suspense and a wonderfully strange 'Twilight Zone' feel. The ending is immensely satisfying, with the second twist being truly chilling.

Concluding, very well done. 8/10.

This is based on the Ray Bradbury story "Marionettes,Inc." which I used to teach to my students. Bradbury actually wrote the screenplay. It tells of two unhappy men. One is adored by his wife, to the point of suffocation. The other claims to be hated by his wife, although he is unwilling to give her even a modicum of affection. Mr. Brailing purchases a robot, an exact likeness of himself, so his wife will think that he is home while he is actually going to Rio. He keeps his likeness in a box in the basement and uses a dog whistle to call him. Anyway, he decides to cut his friend in on the action, knowing how insufferable his life is. Well, the problem is that this sort of knowledge isn't always exclusive to one party and the fireworks start. Of course, the story is about as sexist as can be. The women in many of these fifties things are portrayed as needy or conniving or emasculating. This is no exception. A pretty ordinary episode.