"The Jar" is an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" that is sure to rile up some rural Southern Americans. Why? Because it sure makes them look like a whole bunch of idiots...sort of like the folks from "Li'l Abner"! Yes, they appear that foolish and stereotypical.
The story begins at some traveling carnival in the South. Charlie (Pat Butram) has spent most of his evening there staring at a 'jar of mystery'....some weird thing placed in a huge jar for the locals to gawk at and wonder. Charlie is so taken by staring at 'it' that he actually buys it from the carny boss (Billy Barty). Then, he returns home and places it on display in his shack....and invites all the local rubes to stare at it. And, oddly, they do this for hours and hours on end....and I suppose it's because they don't have TV nor radio. But there's a problem...and it's Charlie's wife. She is much younger and seems to care nothing for him...and she hates the jar and wants to destroy Charlie's curio. What's next?
As I already said, the folks in this episode sure don't make rural Southern Americans look good. They are uniformly either jerks or stupid...or both. I do wonder how this would play for folks in places like Tennessee or Arkansas or Georgia! Now I am not saying it's a bad episode....just one that plays on some negative stereotypes. Worth seeing despite its being very broadly written and played.
The story begins at some traveling carnival in the South. Charlie (Pat Butram) has spent most of his evening there staring at a 'jar of mystery'....some weird thing placed in a huge jar for the locals to gawk at and wonder. Charlie is so taken by staring at 'it' that he actually buys it from the carny boss (Billy Barty). Then, he returns home and places it on display in his shack....and invites all the local rubes to stare at it. And, oddly, they do this for hours and hours on end....and I suppose it's because they don't have TV nor radio. But there's a problem...and it's Charlie's wife. She is much younger and seems to care nothing for him...and she hates the jar and wants to destroy Charlie's curio. What's next?
As I already said, the folks in this episode sure don't make rural Southern Americans look good. They are uniformly either jerks or stupid...or both. I do wonder how this would play for folks in places like Tennessee or Arkansas or Georgia! Now I am not saying it's a bad episode....just one that plays on some negative stereotypes. Worth seeing despite its being very broadly written and played.