Description: Season 5, Episode 33
Air Date: May 15, 1964
Plot Summary: A businessman is determined to replace his workforce with machines.
Review: This might not be one of the better episodes, but TZ was never one to shy away from controversial topics. Essentially, Mr. Whipple is the current boss of his father's company. Intending to drastically increase profits, Whipple plans to install various machines to replace his human workers around the factory. Of course the employees do not want this, but, more than that, the employees feel betrayed that their decades of loyalty go unrewarded. After some time, Whipple has replaced virtually all employees with the exception of a few techies used for upkeep on the various machines. For whatever reason, Whipple loses his shit one day as the machines go apeshit. Shortly thereafter, Whipple appears to be fired from his own company by the shareholders. All Whipple can do is complain in a similar fashion to his former employees as an actual robot is tasked to replace Whipple's position. A fitting end I suppose, but it felt rushed overall.
What I like about this episode is that TZ tries to be fair to both sides of the argument. Putting people out of the job feels wrong, but should we impede human progress over feelings? Or is this even a path we should take? As one techie alludes to, if everyone is out of work, who will be left to buy the products being sold? See, at least people in the '60s still had principles and understood what was being taken away. Nowaday, the drones that comprise society embrace hopelessness with a positive spin since they're too busy being distracted by the nearest flashing light. Pitiful. Regardless of whether it's right or wrong to replace humans with machines, one thing is absolute: a society based on exponential growth cannot be sustained. Be wary, lest you become a slave to your own creation.
I felt like this episode unintentionally made Whipple extremely sympathetic while making all of his critics look like bizarre creatures who apparently despise money and love work. It almost feels like something that, a few decades down the line, will be criticized the way people criticize Song of the South for supposedly depicting slavery as something that uplifted and pleased the happy slaves by giving them work to do.
ReplyDeleteI mean, he offers Hanley a generous severance, and gets a slap in the face... a face whose smile doesn't leave afterwards. No malice, just glee at explaining another technological wonder. Who is this old man who'd rather spend his few remaining years at work instead of retired?
I don't know if Whipple was necessarily sympathetic, but TZ was fair to both sides of the argument. Whipple really was engaging in good business and, you're right, he was not shafting his workers by any means. However, I think the thing here is a matter of work ethic. The workers for Whipple felt that their loyalty was betrayed. It's not that they want to keep on working but more a matter of principle--they were being replaced by machines. It's complicated because we're looking at things from a perspective 50+ years later.
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