The Cube
- Episode aired Feb 23, 1969
- 53m
A man is trapped inside a mysterious cube.A man is trapped inside a mysterious cube.A man is trapped inside a mysterious cube.
- Straight Man
- (as Jon Granic)
- …
- Seductress
- (as Eliza Creighton)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the man in the cube watches the ending of his story on TV, the program has a Joe Raposo director's credit. Raposo was a friend of and frequent collaborator with writer/director Jim Henson.
- Quotes
Professor: [clears throat] Excuse me, I know this is, well, a bad time but I just wanted to congratulate you and shake your hand.
The Man in the Cube: Oh? On what?
Professor: Well, as I interpret what you're doing here, this is all a very complex discussion of, eh, Reality versus Illusion. The perfect subject for the television medium!
The Man in the Cube: What do you mean, television?
Professor: Well, this is a television play.
The Man in the Cube: [scoffs] What?
Professor: Oh, you don't believe that?
The Man in the Cube: Of course not!
Professor: I should have thought you'd want to. After all, there's only one other possible explanation.
The Man in the Cube: Which is?
Professor: Hallucination. That you are altogether insane.
- ConnectionsFeatured in In Their Own Words: Jim Henson (2015)
You may find this hard to view, so let me describe it. A man finds himself in a white cube, apparently imprisoned forever. For an hour, people enter and leave this cube and a large number of vignettes are played out. Each one deals with some notion of perception or reality.
Careful watchers will see that these episodes are not coherent. They do not incrementally add to a whole view or comment on being. They are, in fact, random and often contradictory. One involves sex, another race, affirmation, communication, religion, family and so on. Each little episode adopts the path of least theatrical resistance regardless of what went before or after. There is no overarching philosophy that they fit into.
I believe that is precisely the point. Henson wasn't interested in making a point. No, he never was, ever. His interest then was to create and explore a theatrical framework that could be easily read by us. And then within that, he could move small, encapsulated dramas in and out. It was essential to him that they NOT be related in any way.
You see, his goal was to design a channel, not the content of that channel. And he did, only later that year with what became the Muppets. His achievement was to create a sort of framework within which any content or message could be packaged and then delivered wholesale.
Its how he sold it to "educational" TeeVee, as a vehicle for whatever they wanted to cram in there, and to change and test however wildly they wished.
So, when you watch this, look for the deliberate dissonance among all the worldviews of the dozen or so episodes and marvel that such a wrapping framework could make them seem so unified and digestible. At least to most viewers.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
- tedg
- Feb 15, 2006