The Trouble with Templeton

"The Trouble with Templeton" is episode 45 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone starring Brian Aherne, Pippa Scott and Sydney Pollack. The episode originally aired on December 9, 1960 on CBS.

Opening narration
Pleased to present for your consideration, Mr. Booth Templeton; serious and successful star of over thirty Broadway plays, who is not quite all right today. Yesterday and its memories is what he wants, and yesterday is what he'll get. Soon his years and his troubles will descend on him in an avalanche. In order not to be crushed Mr. Booth Templeton will escape from his theater and his world, and make his debut on another stage, in another world, that we call the Twilight Zone.

Plot
Aging Broadway actor Booth Templeton is at home, watching his much-younger wife, Doris, flirting with a gigolo by the pool. Booth notes that he hasn't achieved any contentment with his wife and reminisces about the happiness he had with his first wife, Laura, who died after seven years of marriage. Booth leaves to attend the first rehearsal of his new play, where he learns the director has been replaced. The new director, Arthur Willis, shows no respect for the experienced Booth and questions his commitment to the play.

Pressured and desperately unhappy, Booth runs out the stage door and discovers he has been transported back 30 years to the early days of his career. A stagehand informs him that his wife, Laura, is waiting for him at the speakeasy around the corner. He finds her there, flirting with a much younger man, Barney. Laura is cavalier toward Booth, and in his frustration, he snatches a script Laura uses to fan herself and implores Laura to appreciate their life together. Laura rebuffs all Booth's attempts at conversation, laughing at him with Barney, and eventually she tells Booth to leave. As he does so, everyone in the speakeasy stops and looks on with slight sadness, the music stops, and the room grows dark.

Booth runs back into the theater and the present. He fans himself with Laura's script, and notices that it is for a play titled What to Do When Booth Comes Back. Booth sees that ghosts from his past were not mocking him but actually had staged a performance for him in order to break him free from his paralyzing nostalgia and longing for the old days. Realizing that Laura loved him and didn’t want him to be stuck in the past, Booth returns to the rehearsal, asserts himself, dismisses the producer of the play and tells director Willis that he will no longer tolerate any invalidation. Commanding the respect that is his due as a distinguished actor, Booth begins to live happily in the present time with a new future.

Closing narration
Mr. Booth Templeton, who shared with most human beings the hunger to recapture the past moments, the ones that soften with the years. But in his case, the characters of his past blocked him out and sent him back to his own time, which is where we find him now. Mr. Booth Templeton, who had a round-trip ticket - into The Twilight Zone.

Cast

 * Brian Aherne as Booth Templeton
 * Pippa Scott as Laura Templeton
 * Sydney Pollack as Arthur Willis
 * Dave Willock as Marty
 * King Calder as Sid Sperry
 * Larry J. Blake as Freddie
 * David Thursby as Eddie
 * Charles S. Carlson as Barney Flueger