The 25 Best Twilight Zone Episodes...#17 - "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"

"Clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and an army major - a collection of question marks," Rod Serling narrates. "Five improbable entities stuck together into a pit of darkness. No logic, no reason, no explanation; just a prolonged nightmare in which fear, loneliness and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows."

Exquisitely written and performed, "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" is number 17 on this "best of" list, the result of an unscientific poll of 250 people in the New York metropolitan area who were asked to rank their favorite Twilight Zone episodes based on writing, performance, and compelling subject matter. The historic television series, The Twilight Zone, turns 50 this year, and to commemorate Rod Serling's groundbreaking effort, the 25 best episodes are being chronicled here.

William Windom, one of our most successful and enduring character actors spanning an extraordinarily busy career covering more than 60 years, plays the star role of the major. He is joined by four other eclectic people who seem to be imprisoned in a circular room with absolutely no way out. They occasionally hear a deafening bell, but that is their only connection to anything they recognize.

The tension newcomer Windom feels is palpable. The rest seem resigned to their fate and unwilling to think boldly about escape...until the major hatches a scheme that might free them. If they build a human tower, standing on each other's shoulders, one of them could climb the "ladder" and...get out?...call for help?...who knows, it's a chance.

After some missteps, the major reaches his destination atop this circular jail, but the vibration of the cacophonous bell compels him to fall off the edge. We are then introduced to the denouement, as a little girl notices the inanimate major lying outside the Salvation toy bin whence he came. The bell? From the Salvation Army volunteer seeking donations. She places him back inside, and the viewer gets the distinct impression that's how this all started...a doll's life indeed.

The stark surroundings in "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" provide a fairly common barren Twilight Zone backdrop for Serling that allows his brilliantly written teleplay to proceed uncluttered by distractions, as if taking place on a prop-less stage in an off-Broadway, off-Main Street theater. Each character has his or her moment with a scene, and Windom serves as the central focus, clearly depicting the fear and anxiety any of us would feel in similar circumstances.

"Just a barrel, a dark depository where are kept the counterfeit, make-believe pieces of plaster and cloth, wrought in the distorted image of human life," concludes Mr. Serling. "But this added, hopeful note: perhaps they are unloved only for the moment. In the arms of children there can be nothing but love. A clown, a tramp, a bagpipe player, a ballet dancer, and a major. Tonight's cast of players on the odd stage known as the Twilight Zone."