Mr. Bevis

Eccentric young man has chance to mend errant ways when guardian angel pays a concerned visit.

The role of Bevis is pivotal to this half-hour and calls for the acting skills of someone like the late Hans Conreid, who specialized in humorous eccentrics. Unfortunately, Orson Bean's performance demonstrates all the skills of an earnest teenager placing second in a high school audition. You would think with a name like 'Bean", he could bring off a nutty character who likes 'zither music' and broken-down old cars. But he doesn't, and with him goes the episode. There are two possible redeeming features-- Henry Jones as the delightfully smug guardian angel, and the story's subtext, which appears to be an unflattering comment on businessman conformity during the button-down 1950's (a recurring concern of Serling's). With better central casting, this could have been a whimsical and revealing half-hour, instead of the flat-liner it is.

O-oh, perhaps it's only my imagination, but I'm noticing an alarming trend towards the end of the first season of "The Twilight Zone". The stories are becoming more sentimental and even moralistic rather than sardonic and unsettling! I certainly hope this will change soon, as I personally like my Sci-Fi and Cult series dark, scary and depressing, with unhappy endings and preferably lots of casualties. That being said, however, I can't deny that I did enjoy "Mr. Bevis" until a certain level, even though the sappy messages like "be true to yourself" and "live life to the fullest" are shoved down our throats a bit over-enthusiastically. Mr. Bevis is a rather eccentric thirty-something single man with simple philosophies in life. Most people would call him a loser, because he dresses funnily, wastes time playing football with the kids in the street, can't ever pay the rent for his apartment in time, drives a ridiculous and ramshackle old car and never succeeds to keep the same job for longer than six weeks. After getting sacked for the umpteenth time, Mr. Bevis is approached by a strange individual who calls himself J. Hardy Hempstead and claims to the guardian angel for the Bevis bloodline since many centuries already. In the simple blink of an eye, Hempstead arranges that Mr. Bevis suddenly wears fancy suits and drives a macho sports car! Suddenly his rent is paid for several months in advance, and rather than getting fired from his job, he gets promoted! But in spite the theoretical progresses in his life, Bevis doesn't feel comfortable at all… His successful new life doesn't allow for him to act silly, play with the kids or decorate his desk with hideous little gadgets … and those things made him the happiest person in the world. Much like its protagonist, this episode of "The Twilight Zone" is harmless and fairly insignificant, but it definitely brings a smile on your face and provides from distraction from life's harsh realities.

This is the most light hearted episode so far in the show, nearly a comedy oriented story that could not have been used in ONE STEP BEYOND tv show, for instance, not the proper spirit and atmosphere. No déjà vu or paranormal, eerie or fantasy scheme. Just the irrational, unexplained and of course totally unlikely tale that leads you to think about the way to approach life, using the example of a character who looks like many other ones, a simple man, common, "transparent", lame, a character in whom many folks could recognize themselves. Not the best, I would put it in thhe lower batch, not the episode that I will remind the most.

Mr James BW Bevis is an eccentric young man, a scatterbrain with odd hobbies, fashion sense, tastes and habits. But he is also incredibly warm, generous and well-liked. Then one day everything goes wrong.

A change of pace for The Twilight Zone. No great twists, no great intrigue but instead we have a heart-warming story. A story that makes you examine your own priorities and what matters in life.

Wonderfully understated, engaging, warm and profound.

When oddball James B.W. Bevis (Orson Bean) loses his job, his car and his apartment all in one day, his guardian angel, J. Hardy Hempstead (Henry Jones), offers to help, starting the day over with some changes to ensure success. Beavis must dress like a career man, put aside his more playful pursuits (no playing football with the kids on the street), and be serious about his job (keeping a clean, functional desk at work).

As Hempstead promises, Beavis' new life is certainly different, but it is at the cost of his happiness. Beavis tells his guardian angel to change things back to how they were, and is the better man for it.

Rod Serling's moral in Mr.Bevis is that it is better to be yourself, no matter how eccentric you might appear, than to try and pretend to be something you're not, especially if it means being unhappy. It's not the most profound of messages, but it probably rings true for many avid sci-fi/fantasy fans (myself included) for whom being successful and trendy comes second to being content.