The Bewitchin' Pool

"The Bewitchin' Pool"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from "The Bewitchin' Pool"
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 156
Written by	Earl Hamner Jr.
Directed by	Joseph M. Newman
Guest stars	Kim Hector : Whitt Dee Hartford : Gloria Sharewood Mary Badham : Jean Louise "Sport" Sharewood Jeffrey Byron (as Tim Stafford) : Jebediah "Jeb" Sharewood Georgia Simmons : Aunt T Harold Gould : Radio Announcer Tod Andrews : Gil Sharewood June Foray : Sport Sharewood (voice)
Production no.	2619
Original airdate	June 19, 1964
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List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Bewitchin' Pool" is the final episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

Second narration

Synopsis

Sport Sharewood and her brother Jeb are neglected emotionally by their parents. They live in a lavish estate, where they are treated by their parents like bothersome annoyances. Their mother is cruel and mean, and preoccupied with resurrecting her life as a fashion model. Their father is a well paid businessman. While sitting beside their well appointed pool in their backyard, a young boy in a Huckleberry Finn straw hat pops up from the deep end of their pool and invites them to follow him. The children follow him by diving underwater only to come back up in a lake bordering a rustic, simple homestead. All around them are children swimming, fishing, and playing. In contrast to their lavish home of neglect and insults, they are welcomed and loved from the moment they arrive at this children's paradise. There is only one adult there named "Aunt T", a sweet and kind elderly woman who loves children; she explains she has many children there who came from parents who didn't deserve them. When Sport and Jeb decide to go home, because they fear their parents are worried, they find out that their parents have decided to divorce and haven't even missed them while they have been gone. When they tell the children the news, they give them the choice of either living with their mother or their father and berate them for not deciding quickly enough. The children seem to have an epiphany that their parents do not genuinely love or care for them and never will. Ignoring their parents' shrieks to know what they are doing, the children race to the backyard pool, dive in, and disappear as they dive and try to escape back to Aunt T. Soon the parents realize that the children are not returning. The children, meanwhile, are happier living with Aunt T whose love is undemanding and genuine, and whose home is a far more fit place for the children to grow up. Sport hears the voice of her mother begging her to come back, but she ignores it and continues to have cake with Jeb and Aunt T.

Closing narration

Episode notes

This was the final original episode of the original Twilight Zone series to be broadcast, though not the last to be filmed. The last episode filmed was "Come Wander With Me", while, according to Marc Scott Zicree's "The Twilight Zone Companion", the reediting of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (including the addition of new footage of Serling) was the last episode "produced" before cancellation. The last episode broadcast during the original run — as a repeat — was "The Jeopardy Room".

Mary Badham's voice was deemed unintelligible in the outdoor scenes, so June Foray dubbed Sport Sharewood's lines. The change in Sport's voice is noticeable when she moves indoors and Mary's own deeper voice and more authentic accent are heard.

References

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

External links

• The Bewitchin' Pool at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com episode page