This is one of my favorite stories from the Night Gallery. It looks so ordinary on the surface - a bright sunny day and a father is checking out a military academy he might send his wayward son to. There's no spooky music here or characters screaming in terror. In fact, if you were to stumble across this episode while channel surfing you might think it was just some boring two-star family drama. When you sit and watch it, however, the horror slowly drips down on you until you're drowning in it, not knowing if you should laugh or scream.
Pat Boone plays the lead and makes for interesting casting. He's probably the ultimate Hollywood goody two-shoes and yet here his performance leaves you wondering whether the father is a good-guy faced with a gut wrenching decision, or a bad-guy simply contemplating an evil one. Very disturbing. Good directing from Night Gallery regular Jeff Corey and some creepy cinematography from Lionel Lindon add to the chills. It's a pity that smart (or at least different) approaches to horror from Hollywood, such as "The Academy", seem to have mostly died off with Rod Serling.