Rod Serling, Playhouse 90, and In the Presence of Mine Enemies”
In an earlier posting about the Playhouse 90 presentation of Judgement at Nuremberg, television censorship was noted.
Now, thanks again to the UCLA Film Archive Department, here is the backstory
on Rod Serling's Holocaust-themed teleplay entitled “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” (1960).
It was not only Serling’s final Playhouse 90, but the final Playhouse 90 ever produced. Starring a young Robert Redford as a conflicted Nazi soldier and Charles Laughton as an elderly rabbi, the play dramatizes the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto with striking intensity. It is a surprisingly frank and brutal portrayal of the atrocities of the Holocaust, surprising especially because it aired only a year after “Judgment at Nuremberg” had been so famously censored. Notably, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” did not suffer the same prohibitions about references to the gas chambers, even though the American Gas Association remained as a sponsor.
However, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” was still a hugely controversial and contested teleplay. It garnered a series of angry letters from viewers who objected to seeing the play’s horrifying themes on television or who were outraged at, among other things, the sympathetic portrayal of Redford’s Nazi soldier. Author Leon Uris, whose 1958 novel Exodus chronicled the plight of Jewish refugees and the founding of the state of Israel, wrote an inflammatory telegram to CBS executive Frank Stanton denouncing the play and demanding that the negatives be burned. Stanton stood by the play, pointing out the irony that an eminent writer and chronicler of the Holocaust would suggest an act of censorship comparable to Nazi book burning.
Nonetheless, despite these battles, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” received effusive praise from a large number of critics and audience members. Many specifically lauded the play, its author, and the network for managing to defy the standards of censorship that so often prevented challenging drama from ever seeing the airwaves. As the final episode of Playhouse 90, then, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” represents both a perceived triumph and an acutely felt defeat for the program.
The demise of Playhouse 90 in 1960 marked, for many, not only a blow to quality television drama, but also a blow to national culture at large. It represented one of the last nails in the coffin of what had even then been thought of as a dying “Golden Age” of anthology drama. Very few anthologies remained as the 1960s moved forward. Figures like Serling considered this a tragedy for American television and for an American audience that was rapidly being deprived of a national dramatic forum. CBS executive Charles M. Underhill later mourned “the golden age of television…which ‘Playhouse 90’ began to tap and which was cut off.” Author and playwright Gore Vidal would refer to the end of Playhouse 90 as “television’s last gasp.”
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Rod Serling is probably best known for The Twilight Zone tv series, and to a lesser degree, Night Gallery, but many forget that he wrote Requiem For A Heavyweight, and produced the adult western series The Loner, starring Lloyd Bridges.
Now, thanks again to the UCLA Film Archive Department, here is the backstory
on Rod Serling's Holocaust-themed teleplay entitled “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” (1960).
It was not only Serling’s final Playhouse 90, but the final Playhouse 90 ever produced. Starring a young Robert Redford as a conflicted Nazi soldier and Charles Laughton as an elderly rabbi, the play dramatizes the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto with striking intensity. It is a surprisingly frank and brutal portrayal of the atrocities of the Holocaust, surprising especially because it aired only a year after “Judgment at Nuremberg” had been so famously censored. Notably, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” did not suffer the same prohibitions about references to the gas chambers, even though the American Gas Association remained as a sponsor.
However, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” was still a hugely controversial and contested teleplay. It garnered a series of angry letters from viewers who objected to seeing the play’s horrifying themes on television or who were outraged at, among other things, the sympathetic portrayal of Redford’s Nazi soldier. Author Leon Uris, whose 1958 novel Exodus chronicled the plight of Jewish refugees and the founding of the state of Israel, wrote an inflammatory telegram to CBS executive Frank Stanton denouncing the play and demanding that the negatives be burned. Stanton stood by the play, pointing out the irony that an eminent writer and chronicler of the Holocaust would suggest an act of censorship comparable to Nazi book burning.
Nonetheless, despite these battles, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” received effusive praise from a large number of critics and audience members. Many specifically lauded the play, its author, and the network for managing to defy the standards of censorship that so often prevented challenging drama from ever seeing the airwaves. As the final episode of Playhouse 90, then, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” represents both a perceived triumph and an acutely felt defeat for the program.
The demise of Playhouse 90 in 1960 marked, for many, not only a blow to quality television drama, but also a blow to national culture at large. It represented one of the last nails in the coffin of what had even then been thought of as a dying “Golden Age” of anthology drama. Very few anthologies remained as the 1960s moved forward. Figures like Serling considered this a tragedy for American television and for an American audience that was rapidly being deprived of a national dramatic forum. CBS executive Charles M. Underhill later mourned “the golden age of television…which ‘Playhouse 90’ began to tap and which was cut off.” Author and playwright Gore Vidal would refer to the end of Playhouse 90 as “television’s last gasp.”
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Rod Serling is probably best known for The Twilight Zone tv series, and to a lesser degree, Night Gallery, but many forget that he wrote Requiem For A Heavyweight, and produced the adult western series The Loner, starring Lloyd Bridges.
