An eternity spent listening to Phyllis Diller harangue you…even with two billion of us, could this be any man’s idea of heaven? “Pamela’s Voice” reviewed here.
Season 1 Episode 5—aired 1/13/71
“Pamela’s Voice” *
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by Richard Benedict
Phyllis Diller as Pamela
John Astin as Jonathan
The best thing that can be said about the first installment in episode 5 is that it’s mercifully brief (nine minutes).
Jonathan (John Astin), alone in a funeral parlor, lights a cigarette in a kind of relieved celebration over the death of his wife Pamela, whom we hear in his spoken aloud narration was quite the annoying nag, with a voice the opposite of honey.
Suddenly, that leather-lunged voice is heard in the flesh, belonging to Jonathan’s late wife. In casting Phyllis Diller in this role, the “perfect” actor has been hired, but to what end? Pamela/Diller demonstrates to us exactly what drove Jonathan to push his spouse down the staircase to her death and I suppose Serling wrote this script intending it to be a comedy, but director Richard Benedict simply gives us two unpleasant people (one with a braying voice) arguing with each other.
Jonathan expects the funeral home will be taking Pamela away soon but she points out that she was buried months ago. She has him open the casket and look inside and he sees himself in it. He realizes that they are both ghosts. She is in heaven so she can do whatever she pleases and he is in hell, and so she will annoy and harangue him forever.
Did I mention how mercifully brief this episode is?
We’ve had a number of dogs reviewed in the last few but they are going to get better soon, I promise.
wanderer2575 said:
Too bad you didn’t like it. I think it’s a great story, Phyllis Diller was perfectly cast, and she and John Astin play off each other well.
djuhl22 said:
I will admit Diller does a great job playing a super annoying person.
Trish said:
This is a wonderfully- written episode,utilizing two actors who play their roles well. It’s one of my favorites, for its uneasy, cringe-inducing mood.
Mary Burrell said:
I was a young teenager when this aired and this episode has always been in my memory and I thought it was funny.
David Juhl said:
Thanks for making a comment, Mary. Maybe it would have been funnier to me if I was older and had seen it when it had aired. Thanks also for reading!
Joe said:
I do not think you understood the irony of the story. She was his wife and her constant talking and loud voice drove him to want to kill her. Now he has died doing the things she told him he should not do or it will kill him, and he has gone to hell because he killed a person. And she is in heaven, able to do what she loves the most, talk loudly and tell her husband things over and over, and his hell is having to hear her for eternity. His hell is her heaven, forever.
David Juhl said:
I did understand the irony; I noted at the end of my review: “She is in heaven so she can do whatever she pleases and he is in hell, and so she will annoy and harangue him forever.” I just found this segment too irritating to be delighted by the irony. Agree to disagree. Thanks so much for reading and for commenting!
Steven said:
I always liked this episode myself, but I respect the opinion. Loved the atmosphere and the monologue from Jonathan. One can always tell when Serling is the writer. This one works best around Halloween…
Thanks for the review…
Greg said:
This episode was my first viewing of NG when I was 14, and is one of my favorites, the dialogue, the actors and the vibe of the set. Maybe I’m weird but I just like it, I even got to see the original painting at Universal.