Pat Boone plays a widower on a tour of a military school for his wayward son in the Night Gallery story “The Academy,” reviewed here.
“The Academy” ***1/2
Teleplay by Rod Serling, Story by David Ely
Directed by Jeff Corey
Pat Boone as Mr. Holston
Leif Erickson as the Academy Director
Larry Linville as Cadet Sloane
Ed Call as the Drill Instructor
Stanley Waxman as Bradley
Robert Gibbons as Simmons
E. A. Sirianni as the Chauffeur
John Gruber as the Cadet in Reception
Wealthy widower Holston (Pat Boone) steps out of his chauffeured limousine amidst marching drills at the entrance of Glendalough Military Academy. Walking up the stairs toward the building, he passes a by statue which would seem to serve as a sort of welcome, but oddly, the two figures depicted, a man in military dress seeming to show the way to a young boy, are facing toward the building rather than away from it. This produced quite a chilling effect on me; simple, yet disturbing.
Holston is there to meet with the Academy Director (Leif Erickson, very good). He explains that his son is “not a bad kid,” but he “lacks motivation” and is “undisciplined.” Surveying the boy’s transcript, the Director asks Holston about his wife’s death. She drowned when she and the son, who was ten at the time, were in a rowboat. The director’s questioning of Holston has creepy undertones, seeming to insinuate that the boy may have had some role in his mother’s “accidental” death.
As the Director takes Holston on a tour of the academy, we see that some of the “cadets” are clearly adults, including Sloane (Larry Linville, who was brilliant as Major Frank Burns on M*A*S*H* beginning the following year). Holston vaguely recalls from news reports years ago a teenaged Sloane who was involved in an assault case. “If that’s the same Sloan, he’d have to be in his thirties.”
Holston asks the Director about the inward-facing statue and the Director explains, “All that a boy needs is to be found right here. And for that reason, the statue symbolizes welcome—not farewell. For us, the most important thing is the academy. This is our world.”
Holston seems to have misgivings, even seems alarmed at this, and this is where the casting of Pat Boone is quite clever. We assume that anyone played by Pat Boone is going to be a good guy, so we are now set for Holston to conclude that this is not the place for his son.
Outside we see a cadet fall and a drill instructor yells at him to “get up and run three more miles!”
Asking the Director how long his son will stay, he responds, “I assumed you understood that. Indefinitely. Most of the parents prefer it that way.”
Again, a chilling moment as we realize that this academy is a place where parents can dump their problem children forever.
What happens next is perhaps even more chilling. Pat Boone (as Holston) nods and says his son will arrive tomorrow.
On his way out, he discovers that the late-middle aged gatekeeper is also a cadet. “I was fifteen when I arrived, sir. I’ll soon be fifty-five.” As he steps into his limousine, he remarks to his driver, “my son’s a rotter. This’ll be just the place for him,” and it’s surprisingly cruel to hear coming from the lips of Mr. Nice Guy Pat Boone.
Written by David Juhl 
I remember this episode, and that’s not how I remember it ending. I don’t remember the Directors last comments, but the “chilling” moment (realization) is when the father asks the older gate guard how long he’s worked there. The guard responds, “Worked here?” “Sir, I’m one of the Cadets.” That’s when the father realizes that there’s no leaving the Academy. Cadets are there for life. It ends with the father telling his chauffeur to bring his son there tomorrow.
Hmmm, I wonder if the first time you saw it, it was the edited version put out for syndication. That could explain the different ending, and that would be a good way to end it if you had to edit it down. Often the editing on the syndicated version was quite detrimental to the story. Anyway, thanks for commenting and for reading!
This was produced during the time of Vietnam. The military was portrayed as bad as well as the military draft. This episode is a reflection of that time period.
We just saw the edited version (15min) on METV, and even on there we did see the end where he said his son is a rotter. We both liked Boone’s part in this short version.
Saw this on METV the other night . Was a short one –15 min. I confused Leif Erickson with Leif Garrett? LOL I thought he was going to be playing the son.
You have to watch this on the DVD box set, as the episode are the full ones as originally broadcast and not the edited ones.
A few weeks after seeing this episode (I was 16), I was visiting LA and touring Universal Studios…………and saw this statue amidst some other props! Still one of the weirdest things that’s ever happened to me!
Wow, cool! Thanks for reading and for commenting, Martin.
Scariest NG in my opinion!
One thing that makes this premise very sinister to me is how much is left unexplained. I mean, what’s the point of having a life-long “education” at this military academy (or anywhere for that matter)? If it was something like that SOLDIER movie with Kurt Russell, where it leads to a lifelong military career, that holds some logic, but the director’s words would indicate that, no, once a cadet, always a cadet, constantly going over the same lessons and drills until the day one dies. And indeed, are there platoons of elderly men in wheelchairs having to run drills somewhere out of camera shot?
Agreed, it’s a pretty chilling one when you take it to its logical conclusion for sure. Thanks for commenting and for reading.
@astrocitizennuyZy8: In the original story
upon which this segment is based, it’s explained that this place is for children who are psychotic from birth (think of the children in The Bad Seed, The Good Son and We Need To Talk About Kevin) and who are already doing things that will result in them committing more serious crimes in the future; this place is a place where they can be sent to where they won’t ever grow up to be serial killers, rapists, etc.-the reason why there are older people as cadets at this place (said older people being kept here under a unceasing military regimen focuses their anti-social behaviour away from society, until they die.) There is nothing like what’s going on in Solider, period.
Boone’s character realizes this about his son in the episode, considers it, and then agrees to send his son there, because (as per the above mentioned original story), he might have already figured out that his son murdered his mother, is already acting in an anti-social manner at school, and so wants nothing more to do with him, at all (some historical context here; around the time this episode was made and aired, many institutions were places to send troublesome family members [those who were/are intellectually disabled or mentally ill] until they died, just to keep them away from the family and to keep said family from having to endure any more ‘shame’ of having said person as a family member [the very thing mentioned in the opening of the 2016 version of Ghostbusters having happened to the female ghost shown at the beginning when she was alive] or in the case of the military academy in this story to make them behave and be less unruly); that’s why he said that his son is a ‘rotter’ and was glad to be sending his son here.
Thanks for the link to original story. Watched on tv today.
Might you still have the link to the original story, please?
This is an excellent and chilling story–the statue facing toward the school, the cadets in their thirties and up, etc.
I’ve always loved these anthology series of fantasy/supernatural/science fiction, etc.–The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery. I appreciate Mr. Juhl’s reviews of Night Gallery–they add a lot to my viewing of the episodes.
Thank you for your comment, Carl, and thanks for reading!
Couldn’t the 55 year old cadet at the gate escape?
Maybe the cadet had been at the Academy for so many years, and had been so thoroughly conditioned–I guess one could say brainwashed–that he could no longer imagine life outside the Academy.
^Pretty much that, and also said cadet can’t function normally outside the Academy either.