In Praise of Pip

This one always gets better and more meaningful over time. A splendid, much more succinct, and meaningful variation on the other 'golng back' Zones. At the heart of this story is a message that the most important and rewarding role in life is as a parent. Something that can become all too apparent too late. For Max Phillips (Jack Klugman) his son Pip is the only redeeming part of his life. When he hears that Pip is near death in an army hospital in Vietnam Max quickly turns against his squalid life of working for a despicable bookie. This scene is played wonderfully well by Klugman. It is a portrait of a man waking up and being true to himself at last. But is he too late where it really matters ? Rod Serling was serving overseas in WW2 when he lost his father. I don't know how much that may have been an emotional spur for this truly fine story of love between a father and son. This is undeniably written from the heart, and for me it ranks among the best three of all ventures into The Twilight Zone.

In 1963, Most Americans were barely aware of our increasing involvement in Vietnam. However, three TV shows pioneered in Using it as a theme. Many people forget that the character who replaced Buzz Murdock on Route 66 was a Vietnam veteran. Several of the episodes allude to his experiences in Vietnam. That forgotten, under-rated, college drama, Channing, had an episode called A Window on The War, in which Don Gordon enrolled at Channing, in part to "get back" at a pro-war Professor.Finally, there was this wonderful episode of the Twilight Zone. Jack Klugman plays a slightly sleazy bookie, who cares about one thing, his son "Pip" ( Imagine! A bookie who reads Dickens!) Klugman learns that his place has been wounded in battle in some place called "South Vietnam' So, these sadly washed up man decides to offer God his life in exchange for that of his son. A moving morality tale.

Jack Klugman stars as Max Philips, a small-time bookie who is in a frantic state upon learning that his son Pip was wounded while fighting in Vietnam, which inspires him to give a second chance to a young bettor his son's age. This angers Max's bosses. who put a bullet in him, but only wounded, Max goes to an old amusement park to see Pip(played by Bill Mumy) young again, which gives him a second chance to be a better father, and offer God a deal to swap one life for another... Heartfelt episode to begin the fifth season sees a welcome return to the half-hour format, and an excellent performance by Klugman, leading to a satisfying end.

Small time bookie Jack Klugman has little to show for his life, but a son played by Bobby Diamond, late of the Fury series, who is now serving as one of our first combat troops in Vietnam. Diamond is wounded and on the operating table fighting for his life.

Halfway around the world Jack Klugman who is an reflective mood returns money that some poor young schnook bet and lost with him which doesn't please his bosses. That leaves in a crisis of his own after he's wounded by those selfsame bosses.

This episode though the title character is that of Diamond belongs to Jack Klugman who gives an impassioned performance as Max Phillips the bookmaker who makes one last bet with the forces of the universe. And those forces collect. Also note young Billy Mumy who even with black and white photography disguising his red hair and freckles doesn't quite look like a kid who would grow up to be Bobby Diamond.

Klugman really shines in this episode, especially in his scenes with Mumy who comes to him while he's wounded as his son when he was a child whom he never was a proper dad for.

Jack Klugman's fans should not miss this one.

One of Rod Serling's strengths as a writer was his ability to relate to the underachiever, and his desire for redemption. These teleplays -- "Requiem for a Heavyweight", "Mr. Denton on Doomsday", "The Big Tall Wish" -- shy clear of the pedantic tone many of his "message" scripts would take. In many ways, "In Praise of Pip" ranks with them at the top of Serling's work because (1) the redemption is earned by the underachiever's standing up for what is right, (2) the redemption is not without cost, and (3) the story is grounded in superb writing and a heartbreaking performance from Jack Klugman -- the definitive portrayer of good-hearted underachievers.

Bookie Max Phillips, who has essentially sacrificed his life to booze and to being a shill for a sleazy boss, takes pity on one of his clients, a young man who has embezzled the money to bet on a nag recommended by Max. At the same time his boss confronts him, Max learns his son is dying in Vietnam, and decides to take a stand. His actions give him an hour with his son as a 10-year old boy in a nearby amusement park -- the best memories of his life. Max's self-awareness of how he has screwed up this relationship makes the moments in the amusement park poignant without being cloying, and the finale makes its point gently, noting that we remember those who taught us by the small lessons, rather than the grand plans.

Serling's teleplay -- one of his last great ones -- is as good as anything he had written for the series. It is clear he knows Max Phillips, and that he's less interested in making a grand political point than in telling a story about a man's love for his child, and the awareness that we sometimes sacrifice the importance of these relationships for our own petty wants and needs. Likewise, Joseph Newman's direction and the cinematography shifts from the spare, desolate shooting of Max's roominghouse and his boss' lair, to the warm light bathing his son (Billy Mumy) and the amusement park, beautifully realizing what each of these means to Max. Newman also wonderfully cites Orson Welles' "The Lady from Shanghai" and an elegantly spooky final shot of Max.

Above all, however, is Klugman's superb performance. He is utterly believable as the jaded bookie, and equally believable as the father desperate for reconciliation with his son. He was clearly one of the favorite actors on "The Twilight Zone", delivering four great lead performances (only Burgess Meredith would provide as many). "In Praise of Pip" shows why Serling and the shows producers held him in such regard.