One of Diane Keaton’s first film or television roles, reviewed below.

Season 1 Episode 2—aired 12/23/70

“Room With A View” **1/2

Written by Hal Dresner
Directed by Jerrold Freedman
Joseph Wiseman as Jacob Bauman
Diane Keaton as Nurse Frances Nevins
Angel Tompkins as Lila Bauman
Larry Watson as the Chauffeur

Jacob Bauman (Joseph Wiesman) is a bedridden invalid, played largely as a stereotype of the late-middle-aged Jewish man. Think a slightly more restrained version of Eugene Levy’s Sid Dithers character on SCTV. Through his bedroom window, with his ever-present binoculars, he spies two young lovers kissing by a car. The man is his wife’s chauffeur and the woman, we find out in a moment as she enters his room, is his nurse, played by a young Diane Keaton.

This was one of her very first film or television roles and she plays her character in a slightly less-polished manner than she would later play the title character in Annie Hall—optimistic, friendly, flighty, and trusting. The segment is worth watching if just for her interesting early performance.

Bauman surprises her by asking what her plans are with the young man. She says they plan to marry. Bauman suspects his much younger wife is also romantically involved with the chauffeur. We then see from his binoculars’ point of view that his wife is touching the bare chest of the driver. Keaton’s character confesses her tendency to fly into jealous rages by recounting a time when she caught her chauffeur boyfriend kissing another woman in a bar and beat the woman up.

Bauman then sees his wife and the chauffeur climb a flight of stairs together, which is the building where the chauffeur resides. Inside a window we see them kissing.

Bauman gives his nurse a gun and asks her to have the chauffeur look it over to make sure it works. He adds he just saw him go up the stairs to his apartment. “Why don’t you go surprise him,” he suggests. She does and we hear shots fired.

A servant enters with Bauman’s breakfast and offers to butter his toast. He refuses, saying “there are still some things I can do for myself.” This whimsical final note to the story recalls many similar endings on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.