I remember walking into our family room one day to see my brother watching our TV. The TV had a small, round, black-and-white screen. On the screen was this strange movie where a man was inside a cell made up of translucent white squares. Sometimes the squares would open and people would come through the doors thus made. The man would interact with the people. The interaction was often around the notion that the man wished to escape the cube but could not.
At one point, someone said the the man “this is your door, you can leave.” He said “yeah, and probably a couple of gorillas in pink tutus would appear and throw me back inside.” After much persuasion, he leaves through the door. Naturally, two men in gorilla suits with tutus (presumably pink) toss him back inside.
It was strange and surreal and I never knew what to make of it. I remembered it, though, and would search for it at video stores when that became a thing. I checked movie databases at libraries but couldn’t find it. When the World Wide Web became accessible, I searched for it. No luck. I began to think I must have imagined it.
Finally, in the early 2000’s, I found a DVD on eBay. It turned out to be a crude recording made by pointing a video camera at a TV screen. It was pretty much unwatchable. It gave me enough information, though, to discover that The Cube wasn’t a movie but an hour-long experimental television program that aired only twice in the 1960’s. It was created by Jim Henson, who would go on to become famous for creating The Muppets.
There are now Wikipedia and IMDb articles on The Cube, and there appears to be a version on YouTube. In color!
I’ll have to give it a watch and see how well it has held up over half a century.
—2p