In 1960, The Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder” aired on CBS. It followed a woman undergoing a last-ditch operation to fix a disfigurement; if it failed, she’d be condemned to a life of exile with more of “her kind.” The entire episode leads up to the removal of her bandages. When it happens, the doctor drops his tools in disgust, saying, “No change! No change at all,” but when we finally see the woman’s face, she’s beautiful.
As it turns out, the doctor and everyone else in this world look like pig-faced aliens, meaning what we consider beautiful is ugly to them. As host Rod Serling says at the end, “The old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In this year or a hundred years hence.”
