The ‘Twilight Zone’ Episode That Was Too ‘Grotesque’ For TV

The Twilight Zone was known for its terrifying scenes and imagery that was not mainstream in its time, and one of them was so “grotesque” that it was considered unfit for television. Writer-producer William Froug tried to pitch for an episode featuring characters with mutated faces, however, his idea was rejected.

One would wonder how gross Froug’s suggestion was since the show is themed to be hideous. Froug wanted to depict prejudice and symbolic blindness, but the team thought the visuals would be too intense for the audience. Marc Scott Zicree discussed this episode that never aired in his book, The Twilight Zone Companion.

The ‘Twilight Zone’ episode too grotesque for television

The episode titled “Many, Many Monkeys” was inspired by a maxim from eighth-century China about three wise monkeys with one covering its ears, the other its mouth and the last its eyes to depict “hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.” Froug wanted the episode to be about a nuclear disaster-induced facial condition where flesh would melt off foreheads and blind the eyes of the world’s population.

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The actual meaning of the metaphorical creatures was to encourage only good thoughts and deeds, however today “hear no evil” is synonymous with ignoring the atrocities in the world. Froug intended the blindness to mean inner hate and inability to “see” others, and the special effects needed could have distracted people from the point. “I think they had the feeling it was too grotesque,” he admitted.

The blindness was depicted by milky contact lenses rather than melted flesh, so most people today would hardly consider it terrifying. A patient named Karen Valentine first had the bacteria that led to cataracts and eventually spread to the world; however, she assumed it was not biological but a divine punishment and ruled it as psychosomatic in the end.

More episodes like “Eye of the Beholder” and “The Masks” can easily make the cut as nightmare inspiring ones, with the former being about a young woman getting devastating results after cosmetic surgery and ends up teaching that everyone has weird facial features. “The Masks” showed four masked gold-diggers who, after they removed their disguise, realized they had mutated.