In Praise of Pip

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.

I really like Jack Klugman. I loved Quincy and The Odd Couple. But on this episode of The Twilight Zone I think he does his absolute finest acting. He was on several episodes of The Twilight Zone, those were pretty good shows. But "In Praise of Pip" he really shows how great an actor he was. If a person does not feel emotion while watching this episode they must be a Sociopath or something. The emotion in this episode simply pours out of the television. I am currently watching a New Year marathon of The Twilight Zone and this is the only one I have written a review of. And of course fabulous child actor Billy Mumy is good too. He was on several episodes also. He was a good kid.

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.

I can't watch it. It's so well done and affecting that it brings me to tears every time as I am reminded of my own failings as a parent. Just reading the reviews and composing my own right now bring me right back to the heavy emotional state that this beautiful, but heart wrenching episode elicits. To me there are two equally compelling storylines here, the explicit one and the one only to be revealed over time and indicating Mr. Serling's prescience.

First, Klugman is a tour de force as the aging bookie, weighed down by a lifetime of bad decisions, who gets and takes his last shot at redemption. No one could play this kind of character as well as him as he - along with Burgess Meredith - crystalizes his legacy here, effectively as one of the TZ's actors in residency. He is so powerful, yet vulnerable, an absolute master of his craft working some Sterling's best, most poignant writing.

The second story line speaks to, what might be seen as Mr. Serlings' foresightedness. The release date was 27 September 1963. JFK had a little less than two months to live. The American public knew, and cared very little at that point in time about our nation's latest proxy war with communist forces and ideology ... the "conflict" in Vietnam. Kennedy, by his own admission was ambivalent about his intentions for the conflict with many, to this day, claiming that, had he lived, he would have withdrawn after the 64 election. We were still in the phase of sending "advisors" there, not actual combat troops. By years end, we would have over 16,000 advisors there with a little less than 200 total deaths since the beginning of our involvement. The first actual combat troops would arrive in March of 1965 under LBJ. At peak, by 1968, we would have over 550,000 troops deployed and by wars end, in 1975, over 58,000 American deaths. Estimates of "enemy" deaths range from 1 to 3 million people.

What is initially remarkable here is that it was one televisions earliest mentions of Vietnam, if not the very first. References to Vietnam anywhere, other than on the news were so rare and actually jarring to see and hear, even later on in the war and especially on entertainment TV. I know that on Route 66, one of the lead characters was called out as a Vietnam vet and, perversely, on the Munsters, when Herman was being given a baseball tryout, Manager, Leo Durocher, so awed by Herman's strength power, exclaimed that he didn't "know whether to sign him with the Dodgers or send him to Vietnam". To this day, given the polarizing tendencies of Vietnam, those sorts of references can actually be disturbing or at least disquieting.

Klugman's exasperated line: "There isn't even supposed to be a war going on there" might not have carried a lot of weight during the first broadcast in 1963, but given what Vietnam would become in less than two years and the fact that the overwhelming number of episode views would come later in syndicated reruns, that line would come to have both agonizing and ironic gravitas.

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.