Way Out Episode Rating Graph

The Button referred to in the title is the button that will launch the nuclear missiles in a war. Captain Stone has the key which unlocks the control panel, giving access to the Button. Captain Stone also has nightmares about the nuclear holocaust that would result, should he ever have to push the Button; in his nightmare, his men hold him while one of the sergeants takes his key, and presses the Button, unleashing the nuclear missiles. Captain Stone wakes up, relieved it was all a bad dream. But just then, the exact same men that were in his nightmare show up-- including the sergeant who took his key and pushes the Button. Was it a nightmare, or a vision of what was to come?

Freda Mansfield (an American, age 38) is checking out of a London hotel; she is planning on eloping with her British lover George Frobisher (age 43, who already has a wife, Monica, and kids) and they are going to New York City together. But Freda keeps getting mysterious phone calls from some strange woman, who says that Freda will never run away with George-- Freda is going with her. The strange woman keeps phoning Freda; the caller says her name is Mrs. Rose Thorn, and adds that she is coming up to her hotel room to see her. Freda sees what might be a ghost (dressed in 1912 clothing), and goes hysterical, and faints. Later, a doctor examines Freda's body-- he tells George that she died of pneumonia-like symptoms: both lungs are filled with water, sort of like drowning. George says that his mother was Mrs. Rose Thorn, who died of drowning nearly half a century ago-- she was a passenger aboard the doomed Titanic. (He was later adopted by the Frobisher family; he had never mentione

Mr. Rana (latin for ""Frog"") is a strange man who has moved into the neighborhood. He gets pestered by a rascally kid named Jeremy Keeler (think: ""Dennis the Menace"") who does stuff like letting pet dogs loose, so he can get a reward from their owners for their return. Mr. Rana raises frogs, and offers Jeremy 25 cents per jar with flies, so he can feed the frogs; Jeremy balks at first, but after Mr. Rana tells him how much mischievous fun he will have knocking over peoples' garbage cans to collect the flies, Jeremy accepts. Jeremy, meanwhile, sends Mr. Tench over to Rana's house to get his dog back. Mr. Rana slips him a potion that turns Tench into a frog. Next day, Mrs. Tench is filing a missing person's report. Sergeant McGoogin reads his notes, ""Hair color: yellow. Eyes narrow and close together. Weak chin; drools."" He asks, ""Is that your dog or your husband?"" Mrs. Tench quips, ""Both."" Later, a large frog chases Mrs. Tench over to Mr. Rana's place; he slips her a potion, an

Handsome actor Michael Drake has been cast as Quasimodo in a production of ""The Hunchback of Notre Dame."" Drake goes slumming, and at a flophouse picks up a bum with an ugly face; Drake offers him $50 to come to his dressing room, so Drake can copy his ugly face via make-up. Once he has no further need of the bum, Drake dismisses him. Drake is also rude to his costar and girlfriend, Rita Singer. The play is a hit, but there's a problem: after the show, the make-up won't come off! Drake tells Rita, but since he has been so mean to her lately, she just laughs at his problem. Drake desperately retraces his steps, until he finds the bum. The bum now has Drake's handsome face. Drake offers any amount of money to switch faces with him again, but he's too late-- the bum is dead. Drake is now stuck with a Quasimodo-like face for the rest of his life.

This episode starts out with the Narrator saying, ""Most men want to kill their wives."" (did I mention ""Way Out"" is a misogynistic series?) And we meet yet another married couple that can't stand each other: George and Hazel Atterbury. They attend a funeral for one of George's coworkers. That night, TV-addict Hazel is talking to her hubby, telling him all about her favorite TV shows, for example, ""The one where they're all gangsters, except the hero... it's very authentic, it's based on official files."" (sounds like ""The Untouchables"".) George goes for a walk instead. George walks to the Petard mortuary that handled the funeral. George decides to kill his wife. Just as we hear his thoughts-- ""What do you do with the body?""-- Mr. Petard puts a sign in the window: ""Let us dispose of the body."" Inside, George talks to Mr. Petard, who is an eloquent elderly gentleman who has a giant, bald-headed assistant named Charon* (think: Tor Johnson). When George finds out they killed Mrs. H

A woman wakes up one morning in a strange bed; beside her is a stranger. He swears he's her husband Bill Clayton, and her name is Norma. She gets hysterical, says her name is not Norma; she must be having another nightmare, and she starts to pack The Overnight Case, which is always a part of this bad dream. She is taken to a psychiatrist. She meets with Dr. Sandham, but when she sees the man she knows is her husband, he doesn't recognize her. Again, she grabs the overnight case and starts to run. One morning, she finally wakens in her own bed. But the man who says he is her husband is a stranger. She grabs her overnight case to run again, swearing she must still be dreaming. [this ""loss of identity"" was used in a few Twilight Zone episodes, such as ""A World of Difference"" (3/11/1960) a year before this ""Way Out"" episode, and ""Person or Persons Unknown"" (3/23/1962) broadcast a year after this episode.]

Dr. Ernest Lydecker just wants peace and quiet, and prefers to putter around in his laboratory. His nagging wife Bernice is a constant source of noise. Dr. Lydecker decides to make his wife the guinea pig for his latest experiment: using special sound waves, he has made mice and chimps docile, so he tries it out on his wife. It seems to work, Bernice becomes quiet and docile. But there is a side effect; now Bernice cannot stand loud noises. She destroys a ringing phone, a chiming clock, a barking dog, and finally a loud neighbor. Dr. Lydecker figures he must reverse the experiment with an antidote-like sound treatment. But Bernice does not want to revert. She is happy and docile, unless some loud noises irritate her. Dr. Lydecker keeps ordering her, in a loud voice, to get the treatment-- and Bernice destroys anything that irritates her. [a typical ""married couple hate each other"" episode, only here the twist is that the hubby turned his wife into a killer.]

Meek Harold Potter is a bookkeeper with a nagging wife Edna, and no life. One night, he goes to a sideshow at a carnival. They show a guillotine, and appear to cut off a woman's head. The main attraction is Cassandra, a headless lady strapped into an electric chair; only the chair is not a method of execution, but the opposite-- 10,000 volts ""keep her alive."" Somehow, telepathically, the headless Cassandra pleads with Harold to stay. Later, the carnival closes for the night. But Harold comes back to see Cassandra night after night. Harold falls in love with Cassandra; he even promises to help her escape the carny life. He is convinced that she is a normal girl, and the ""headless"" routine is just a carny trick; he thinks the only reality is that she is strapped into the electric chair, being held a virtual prisoner. Late one night, Harold sneaks into the sideshow, and using some pliers he starts to cut the metal straps that hold Cassandra. Later, Edna comes looking for her miss

Peter Pell is a photographer who has made an amazing discovery: a special chemical that not only retouches photos, but then magically changes the faces of the people in the photos. For example, Peter removes the scars on a portrait of a once-famous actress, making her beautiful again. Peter knows that his wife Louise is having an affair with his assistant Bill Fontaine. So Peter starts working on Louise's photo, using the magic retouching fluid, adding wrinkles until she looks very old. Peter, the whole time, has been working on his own photo, making himself look younger. But one night Louise discovers what he's up to in his studio; she splashes the bottle of the magic retouching fluid on Peter's photo -- erasing half the face on the photo, and half of his face! [A truly scary episode. It seems to draw some inspiration from the classic story: ""The Picture of Dorian Gray"".]

Harvey Cartwright is a timid little man with a shrew of a wife; he is an encyclopedia salesman. Since he can't see well with his new eyeglasses, he accidentally goes to the wrong address: the Jellifers had not asked about a free trial offer of encyclopedias. Their line is taxidermy, they keep stuffed animals-- like Mahatma, a stuffed viper. At home, nagging wife Stephanie harps that she was better off with her previous husband Stanley, before he died. Harvey only wishes to escape from his awful life-- whether at work or at home, he is miserable. Harvey finds out that his new eyeglasses have magical powers: by putting them on, he is reunited with the Jellifers at their place. The Jellifers tell him their stuffed animals can come back to life and kill people; Harvey offers them money to have Mahatma the viper kill his nagging wife Stephanie at 3:00 a.m. But at 3 o'clock in the morning, it is Stephanie who is wearing the magical eyeglasses. It seems she was friends with the Jellifer