Robert Redford's Twilight Zone Episode Holds A Certified And Significant Record
The third-season episode of "The Twilight Zone" called "Nothing in the Dark," which first aired on January 5, 1962, is about an elderly woman living unhappily alone in a grim-looking, brick-walled basement apartment in an empty building. Wanda (Gladys Cooper) has, in recent years, become a recluse, fearing that a sojourn to the outside world will bring her face-to-face with death. By her description, however, this is literal. She once saw a man touch a woman with his finger, killing her instantly, leading her to know with utter certainty that Death is a person. Death, she also knows, can also look like anyone. So she surmises it might be best to stay away from people altogether.
When a handsome young Robert Redford knocks on her door, however, her idyll is smashed. Redford plays a young cop named Harold who was shot in the line of duty and needs immediate medical care. Wanda refuses to let him in, knowing that he may be Death and that Death is sneaky. She eventually lets him in, he touches her, and she doesn't die, so she is convinced all is well. Wanda and Harold discuss her views on death, her life of fear, and her philosophy that living cloistered is better than dying in the open air. But then, as we are living in the Twilight Zone, perhaps Harold may be Death after all.
"Nothing in the Dark" was written by George Clayton Johnson (who wrote the novel "Logan's Run, seven additional "Twilight Zone" episodes, and many other notable sci-fi stories), and the author created a wonderful miniature two-handed, one-act morality play where discussion takes precedence over action. It's a sweet little character piece with fantastical underpinnings.
In 2014, when screening "Nothing in the Dark" at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Redford revealed that his episode was the most-viewed "Twilight Zone" episode.
Now I am become Death, a handsome young actor
"Nothing in the Dark" is as close as "The Twilight Zone" ever came to Ingmar Bergman. The celebrated Swedish filmmaker famously confronted/pondered Death in many of his films, and even featured Death as a character in 1957's "The Seventh Seal" (which, if my parents are to be believed, was still circulating through American arthouse theaters when "Nothing in the Dark" was airing on CBS). In both Bergman's film and Johnson's script, Death is a dispassionate figure, someone who offers the deceased nothing more than a trip to the Great Beyond. They are also weirdly alluring in both cases. Bergman's Death is a game player, willing to converse with a medieval knight before his time comes to an end. In "Nothing in the Dark," Wanda is allured by the handsome face and friendly demeanor of a young man, perhaps here to take her away, but willing to converse with her and allow her a moment of reflection beforehand.
At 2014's SBIFF, Redford said he loved the script for "Nothing in the Dark." The actor's career was already taking off by 1962, as he had already appeared in 15 TV episodes and one feature film, but for many — for sci-fi fans, at the very least — "The Twilight Zone" was something of a breakout moment for the young actor.
Redford, naturally, had no idea of the show's lasting impact at the time. That is, until the studio gave him a note declaring "Nothing in the Dark" had broken a record. He said:
"I had no idea it was going to have the ongoing impact that it did. Until I got a note from the company that produces that show. They gave me a little certificate saying that show was the most often viewed 'Twilight Zone' there was."
Most Often Viewed
Sadly, Redford didn't elucidate as to what that certificate was called, or what he meant by "most often viewed." It seems most likely that "Nothing in the Dark" was one of several "Twilight Zone" episodes that were most frequently rerun, perhaps the episode that was most often selected to play in one of the many, many Thanksgiving Day marathons that had become an institution for many years. Fans of "The Twilight Zone" are likely more familiar with a select few "best of" episodes that networks like to replay annually during holidays more than they are with the show's full episode catalogue. It's likely Redford was referring not to high ratings in 1962, but the recurrence of "Nothing in the Dark" in subsequent decades.
The episode's title serves a twofold function. Wanda may be looking into the possibility of an afterlife and sees nothing. If there is no afterlife, then, in a Camus sort of way, the quantity of living will always outstrip quality of life. Wanda wants to stay alive because there is nothing in the dark. But then, as Rod Serling's closing narration says:
"There was an old woman who lived in a room and, like all of us, was frightened of the dark. But who discovered in a minute, last fragment of her life that there was nothing in the dark that wasn't there when the lights were on. Object lesson for the more frightened amongst us, in or out of the Twilight Zone."
We may fear the dark, but there's really nothing to be afraid of. "Nothing in the Dark" is terrifying on one level, and very peaceful on the other. Very much like Death itself.