The New Twilight Zone- 'Wordplay'
Starting in 1988, The New Twilight Zone ran on CBS for three seasons. It was a classy series: each hour-long episode featured two or three stories, usually written by well-known sf writers and always well-produced.
I recently ran across an old VHS tape I had forgotten I had. It has, I think, the first six episodes of the series.
The first story of that first episode set the tone for much of what was to follow. It's called 'Wordplay' and it is clever, spooky, and funny. Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and directed by noted horror film director Wes Craven, it tells the story of a salesman, Bill Lowery (played by Robert Klein) who notices over the course of a day that everyone around him has begun speaking a twisted form of English that he can't comprehend. It starts off slowly, just an odd word here and there but by the end of the day, nothing makes sense anymore... even signs and the dashboard indicators of his car have changed, as well as his name apparently (the much more memorable 'Hinge Thunder.')
It's a variation on the feeling we've all had at one time or another- is the whole world crazy or is it just me? Robert Klein (whom I've never cared for as a comedian) is very good as Bill/Hinge, as is Annie Potts as his wife. Before the language becomes completely unfathomable to him, they have this exchange-
Bill- Can't you hear what you're saying? You're saying 'dinosaur' instead of 'lunch!'
Kathy- 'Dinosaur' instead of 'lunch?' Bill, what on earth are you talking about?
The last shot is of Bill/Hinge picking up a child's primer in his young son's room and opening it to a picture of a dog. The caption reads 'Wednesday.'
And then you hear the familiar Twilight Zone theme...
I recently ran across an old VHS tape I had forgotten I had. It has, I think, the first six episodes of the series.
The first story of that first episode set the tone for much of what was to follow. It's called 'Wordplay' and it is clever, spooky, and funny. Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and directed by noted horror film director Wes Craven, it tells the story of a salesman, Bill Lowery (played by Robert Klein) who notices over the course of a day that everyone around him has begun speaking a twisted form of English that he can't comprehend. It starts off slowly, just an odd word here and there but by the end of the day, nothing makes sense anymore... even signs and the dashboard indicators of his car have changed, as well as his name apparently (the much more memorable 'Hinge Thunder.')
It's a variation on the feeling we've all had at one time or another- is the whole world crazy or is it just me? Robert Klein (whom I've never cared for as a comedian) is very good as Bill/Hinge, as is Annie Potts as his wife. Before the language becomes completely unfathomable to him, they have this exchange-
Bill- Can't you hear what you're saying? You're saying 'dinosaur' instead of 'lunch!'
Kathy- 'Dinosaur' instead of 'lunch?' Bill, what on earth are you talking about?
The last shot is of Bill/Hinge picking up a child's primer in his young son's room and opening it to a picture of a dog. The caption reads 'Wednesday.'
And then you hear the familiar Twilight Zone theme...
posted by gbj at 12:34 PM
3 Comments:
This weirds me out because I can really vividly imagine it happening. I agree that it plays on the fear we've all had to some degree or other that we're out of step with everyone else. I have that feeling a lot, come to think of it, but I kind of like it.
My own personal Twilight Zone scenario, one that I'd often ruminate over during Mass, was suddenly finding myself occupying another body. I'd look around, spot my family sitting in the pew and my own body just sitting there as if nothing had happened. I would wonder how I'd make everyone aware of what had happened. What if no one believed me?
I should probably get some therapy, huh?
No, you should just write a 'Twilight Zone' episode.
I had a dream last night that I was a ghost. Not a cartoon, Casper-type ghost... I could look in a mirror and see through myself, that kind of thing. It was very freaky.
As far as your scenario goes, the first thing I'd want to do is find out who was in my body!
Well, that was the weird part. It would have been too easy if I saw the person in my body staring back in horror, and knew that I'd just switched places with someone. Then I'd have another person in the same fix and it wouldn't be so bad; we'd figure out something together. But I knew it was much worse than that and I might never get back inside my body.
This was years before I saw "Freaky Friday" which, I was surprised to find out, was based on a Victorian era story. It may well be true that Hollywood never had an original idea.
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