Season 1, Episode #5
Are There Any More Out There Like You?
Original Air Date - November 7, 1963
Setting/Time - Present-day small towns in California.
Plot/Review/Discussion -
The plot of this episode was similar in an important way with Hero for Our Times. The main character faced a choice - a choice between right and wrong. We suffer with him as he agonizes over that choice. His final decision resolves the plot.
The main physical action of the plot takes place in the beginning, when four college students are involved in a car accident that kills a pedestrian on Christmas Eve. All of them had been drinking. Afterward, they won't reveal to the police which one was driving. The father of one of them is the main character. He faces the choice as to whether to cross a legal line in order to protect his daughter and her friends. He does not know who the driver is any more than the police do, but he is tempted to break the law to keep the police (and himself) from finding out.
The father's agony is made worse by his revulsion at the carefree attitude of his daughter and their friends. They make wisecracks, they wear smug expressions, enjoy playing their flutes and show no respect for the law, the victim or anything else. The father wants to help them, but their attitude makes him very reluctant.
The title of the episode is a question the father asks one of the students when he realizes how little they care about what they have done and the man who died. The student's answer indicts an entire generation. That exchange brings the subsequent five decades of U.S. history suddenly into focus. That exchange turns this episode's writer into a prophet.
Cars - The students drive a 1963 Ford Galaxie as they hit and kill the pedestrian. The father drives a 1963 Chrysler Imperial. As in Hero, the action scene with the car does more than simply provide action. It sets the stage for the larger plot to follow.
Actors -
One of the students is played by Katherine Ross, in her second role (according to IMDB.com). She remains active today. Her most famous roles came in The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which she took part in one of the most famous musical scenes in movie history (with Paul Newman).
The father was played by Robert Ryan, who acted from 1940 through his death in 1973. Ryan was a veteran of Zane Grey Theater, Alcoa Theatre, Goodyear Theatre and Playhouse 90. He played John the Baptist in King of Kings (with future KST star Jeff Hunter).
Peter Helm played another student. He later starred in the KST episode "Operation Greif," during KST's second season.
Star Trek connection -
This episode's Star Trek connection is Adam Roarke, who played another of the four students. About a year after this episode aired, Star Trek's original pilot episode, "The Cage," was filmed (the film would finally air as part of another episode in 1966). Roark played part of the bridge crew for KST actor Jeff Hunter's Captain Pike.
Standard issue "troubled teen" entry. It feels very like a time capsule. Some good acting, unoriginal storytelling. There were many stories like this one that appeared on earlier live anthology series of the Fifties. Robert Ryan's middle class angst seemed wrong to me. For the actor, I mean, not the story.
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