Episode
number: 178
Network broadcast date: Wednesday,
April 7, 1965
Mirror,
Mirror on the Wall
Genre: Fantasy melodrama
Author: Albert G. Miller
Production number: 178
Production date: Monday,
March 15, 1965
Director: Ted Bell
Producer: not announced
Plotline: On her 39th birthday, Emily starts a conversation with her mirror who explains she’s about to go through changes that will last the rest of her life. As the years go by and the mirror presents her with gray hair then wrinkles, Emily fights against aging, insisting on dressing like a teenager and barring her granddaughter from calling her grandma.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+650407+178+Mirror%2C+Mirror+on+the+Wall.flac
Cast: Martha Scott, Joan Lorring, Court Benson, Paul McGrath, Peter Fernandez
Notes:
No opening tease.
The age 39 was popularized as a turning point in age by Jack Benny.
This episode is a striking example of how in just 19 minutes of drama the storyline can travel over 35 years in chunks of time using a combination of sound effects or music (or both). This is an exceptional script about how the obsession with time and age changes over a lifetime. In this case, the main character begins at turning 40. In the beginning of the story, you can hear a clock ticking the moments away. By the end of the story, the main character embraces the aging process, and the ticking clock is no longer heard. Using Paul McGrath voicing a character that might be best described as "Father Time" with a voice from beyond might remind some listeners of his work as the host of Inner Sanctum. His character is not one with a "creepy" persona, but is other worldly, and fits the story well. Considering how short a T5 episode is, the execution shows how powerful audio drama can be.