A Nice Place to Visit

The most powerful morality tale ever. What happens when you're given any paradise you can invent and you're so profoundly ignorant and foul-tempered you create a hell instead of a heaven for yourself??? Look closely at this piece and consider what percentage of the planet's population would shriek in agony if they were abandoned to a paradise no better than what only they, themselves', could conceive. Rod's concise, wildly hysterical illustration of the dissolute life of Rocky Valentine carries a clear message. Rod's two principal prescriptive ethics in 'a nice place to visit', he wishes us to follow are= 'YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THE PARADISE IN WHICH WE ALL OUGHT TO LIVE' and 'MAKE HONOR YOUR LIFE'S GOAL'. When we seek the good things in life as life's ultimate goal, as rocky does, no 'good' if ever qualitatively or quantitatively enough. Rod clearly prescribes that, in order that we may elude Rocky's fate we must use life's 'goods' and pleasures as a tool to fill us with goodwill and inspire us to 'go forth' and 'give back' to the world in ways that we personally define and continually improve.

Valentine (Larry Blyden) is a thief who finds himself dead and in a realm of afterlife. Mr Pip (Sebastian Cabot) is his guide in the white suit. As all seems pleasant Valentine wonders if he might have done something good to get into heaven, but cant remember any such thing.

A light and dreamy fantasy that is one of the weaker entries of the outstanding first series, though it would have held it's own in any other season. The best asset is Sebastian Cabot, the unsung great character actor who voiced Baghera for 'The Jungle Book' and played Dr Hilyard in 'The Time Machine'. He was always a great actor to listen to.

Light fun, put across with tongue-in-cheek in an atmospheric white-looking corner of the Zone.

The title for this episode is a bit of a giveaway. "A nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there": that's how the full saying goes. This is exactly how small-time crook Henry 'Rocky' Valentine (Larry Blyden) eventually comes to feel about his particular afterlife having been chased and fatally shot by the police. Greeted by genial guide Pip (Sebastian Cabot), Rocky is given everything he has ever wanted-a swanky pad, cool threads, sexy dames-it's all his for the taking. Every pleasure and whim is catered for, whether it be the finest food, the fastest car, or winning every time at the roulette table. Heaven, it seems, is everything he ever imagined.

However, after a month of endless pleasure, Rocky becomes bored with the lifestyle, knowing that his world will never be anything less than perfect. He yearns for a little unpredictability, a touch of danger, a challenge; Pip says that can be arranged-all Rocky needs to do is tell him exactly what he wants (which makes the whole exercise pointless). Eventually, Rocky tells Pip that if he stays another day in Heaven, he'll go nuts. If you can't guess what Pip's reply is then you clearly haven't watched enough Twilight Zone.

After the dreadful disappointment of the previous episode "The Big Tall Wish", it was seriously a relief to notice that this is another good old-fashioned TZ episode with all the familiar – but nevertheless fantastic – ingredients. Within seconds, you're able to tell that things will not end very well for our protagonist Rocky Valentine, and that the mysterious Mr. Pip is a lot more than just the overly polite and chubby fella that he pretends to be, but that's exactly what we've come to expect from "The Twilight Zone". We want cynical humor, sardonic characters, mounting tension and bizarrely grotesque twists… Guess what, the massively underrated director John Brahm and the even more gifted writer Charles Beaumont have foreseen all these trademarks – and more – in "A Nice Place to Visit". Small time crook Rocky Valentine gets shot in the back whilst running from the police. When he wakes up in a luxurious mansion, with a jolly fat man by his side who instantaneously grants ALL his eccentric wishes, Rocky soon realizes that he died and ended up in paradise. Of course Rocky wonders why a thug like him deserves such a heavenly treatment, but he doesn't care even if it's a mistake and greedily enjoys the overload of lewd women, gambling profits and expensive cars. But, wait a minute, does Paradise really means getting everything you want without the slightest form of effort or challenge in return? "A Nice Place to Visit" – which is a brilliant title if you come to think of it – is a very enjoyable episode with good dialogues and impeccable performances from both lead actors. You just can't wait for Mr. Pip's character to transform from the obedient servant to the diabolical henchman that he somehow must be. Normally I would rate this episode a solid 7 out of 10, but since it's such a major improvement over the previous one, I'm giving it an 8. What the hell, I can do that!

Rod Serling often wrote stories that were more than stories, perhaps what could be, IF we didn't let our imaginations run wild. He had assistance from Charles Beaumont, another master of storytelling. He later said he got his macabre sense of humor from all the weird tales he heard as a kid from his aunts. This may be one.

Has to be the most camp TZ episode. Sebastian Cabot is genuinely gentlemanly eerie, playing MISTER PIPP, noble butler to thief Rocky Valentine. Originally, Mickey Rooney was considered for this role, but had conflicts. He would have been sensational. Actor and later game show host Larry Blyden was chosen, and he's quite good, making the most of this role.

He's plays a crook without a conscience, who wakes up --after being shot dead --in paradise, or is it? Best line dept; Mr. Pipp to Rocky, "You said you didn't need this like a hole in the head." "Ya, I did." "Well, Mr. Valentine, you do have a hole in your head!"

According to production notes, both Serling and Beaumont had to be very careful as to the "wording" and "phrases" when Rocky meets all the beautiful women in his new life. Censureship a bit more tight in 1960 than today.

According to notes, the story (or a similar concept) was originally written by playwrite and screenwriter John Balderston, who wrote a sketch called "The Other Place" for a dramatic radio show in 1935. Balderston wrote the original Broadway production of DRACULA, later bringing FRANKENSTEIN and the MUMMY to the wide screen. He was the Rod Serling of the 1930s.

Outstanding episode that will live forever in tv land. Sebastian Cabot's butler performance MAY have lead to him being cast as Mr. French (in a complete turnaround) on FAMILY AFFAIR. Yes, he was very polished and polite in both roles. That we can all agree. Cabot said he had his hair dyed white for this episode, not EZ to wash out after filming ended. He is missed by all us big kids at heart.

Blu ray dvd edition released 2016. Beautiful blue cover replacing the traditional black and white on dvd.