Uncle Simon

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The Twilight Zone original series Season five (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) Fall 1963 – Summer 1964 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: In Praise of Pip Steel Nightmare at 20,000 Feet A Kind of a Stopwatch The Last Night of a Jockey Living Doll The Old Man in the Cave Uncle Simon Probe 7, Over and Out The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain Ninety Years Without Slumbering Ring-a-Ding Girl You Drive The Long Morrow The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross Number 12 Looks Just Like You Black Leather Jackets Night Call From Agnes—With Love Spur of the Moment An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Queen of the Nile What's in the Box The Masks I Am the Night—Color Me Black Sounds and Silences Caesar and Me The Jeopardy Room Stopover in a Quiet Town The Encounter Mr. Garrity and the Graves The Brain Center at Whipple's Come Wander With Me The Fear The Bewitchin' Pool

“Uncle Simon” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 128
Season: 5
Production code: 2604
Original air date: November 15, 1963
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Don Siegel
Music: Stock

[edit] Cast

Simon Polk: Cedric Hardwicke
Barbara Polk: Constance Ford

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Barbara Polk has lived with her uncle, Simon Polk, for 25 years—even though she hates him—simply because she is his only heir. She becomes so frustrated with him that she murders him, looking forward to inheriting his wealth (as well as some peace and quiet). However, a stipulation in his will causes her to have to look after his last invention, which is a robot that acts and sounds just like him.

[edit] Trivia

An excerpt from Hal Erikson's article “Censorship: Another Dimension Behind the Twilight Zone”, published in the October 1985 edition of The Twilight Zone Magazine

Concerning the origin of Simon's obsession with hot cocoa:

The most significant scene in Serling's teleplay was the first indication that the robot was Simon reincarnate. The introductory scenes in the script established Simon as an habitual pipesmoker, prompting the niece to complain about the smelly old pipes and tobacco ashes ruining the decor of the house. When the robot inherits Simon’s pipe-smoking prowess, it becomes obvious that the rest of Simon's “bad habits” will resurface. The only problem was that Twilight Zone’s sponsor at that time was the American Tobacco Company.

Here, in part, is the letter sent to Twilight Zone producer Bert Granet by American Tobacco’s advertising agency:

...(T)he episode “Uncle Simon” has several references and scenes which make tobacco the pipe smoking appear most unsavory. Lines like “get rid of your ugly-smelling pipe ashes...” in scene 7; doing things like back-handing the pipes off the desk, stamping on them and breaking them into pieces and flinging the ashtray against the wall in scenes 28 and 29; the robot’s kicking used tobacco on the floor in scene 61...We hope that you will make every effort to alter those so that American Tobacco will have no objection.

Perhaps open books, scientific papers, and manuscripts strewn around the room could be substituted. Or various bits of wire, tubes, and electronic gear. Even smelly, dirty, open, and spilled chemical bottles and jars. Or how about apple cores, banana peels, and grape stems? Even old clothing thrown around might help...

Bert Granet’s reply to this letter was a masterpiece of tact:

...It seems to me that there is a misinterpretation of the meaning of the pipe and tobacco in this story...It is Barbara, [Simon’s] niece, a partial psychotic, who objects to his smoking, which is obviously a joy to him, since there are so many pipes present. Barbara, then, of course, is averse to a symbol that gives him constant pleasure.None of your suggestions to replace the pipe has its personal nature. It would be distasteful for me for someone to be munching and strewing fruit through a show. Nor would these fruit peels have a reason to be there when the robot supplants Uncle Simon, whereas the pipes serve as a positive reminder of what he loved and she hated.

To sum up, I do not think this story says that pipe smoking is unsavory. What it does say is that a neurotic girl begrudged a pipe smoker his enjoyment.

But American Tobacco won out. As filmed, “Uncle Simon” had us believe that the joyful habit which Simon passed on to the robot was not tobacco, but hot chocolate. Although the episode is acceptable as entertainment, it does seem rather ridiculous that a complicated piece of electronics like a robot would want to partake of a hot liquid which might well be dangerous to its circuitry, although Simon may have programmed and built it to withstand and drink hot liquids, as he programmed it with the craving.