Static (The Twilight Zone)
"Static" | |
---|---|
The Twilight Zone episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 20 |
Directed by | Buzz Kulik |
Written by | Charles Beaumont |
Story by | Ocee Ritch |
Production code | 173-3663 |
Original air date | March 10, 1961 |
Guest appearances | |
"Static" is episode 56 of the
Opening narration
No one ever saw one quite like that, because that's a very special sort of radio. In its day, circa 1935, its type was one of the most elegant consoles on the market. Now with its fabric-covered speakers, its peculiar yellow dial, its serrated knobs, it looks quaint and a little strange. Mr. Ed Lindsay is going to find out how strange very soon when he tunes in to the Twilight Zone.
Plot
Ed Lindsay, an embittered
Ed has a confrontation with Vinnie Broun, who has lived in the same boarding house with him for two decades. In an earlier era, they had intended to marry, but other things interfered until too much time had passed. She tells him that the past cannot be recovered and he should let it go, and that he is simply having a delusion. Ed is furious and he throws Vinnie out of his room. His obsession with his radio continues to grow.
Worried about Ed's mental state, Vinnie and the other residents have the radio hauled away by a shopkeeper. Ed rushes out and buys it back for $10. He takes it back to his room and, to his great relief, finds it still operational. He loses himself in
Closing narration
Around and around she goes, and where she stops nobody knows. All Ed Lindsay knows is that he desperately wanted a second chance and finally got it, through a strange and wonderful time machine called a radio, in the Twilight Zone.
Cast
- Dean Jagger as Ed Lindsay
- Carmen Mathews as Vinnie Broun
- Robert Emhardt as Professor Ackerman
- Arch W. Johnson as Roscoe Bragg
- Alice Pearce as Mrs. Nielson
- Clegg Hoyt as Shopkeeper
- Stephen Talbot as Boy
- Bob Crane as Disc Jockey (uncredited)
Production
As The Twilight Zone's second season began, the production was informed by
A "modern day" adaptation of this story (set at the present time in England and with the 1930s radio switched out for a television of a type contemporary with the time of the original episode) was written as a short story of the same name by Robert Shearman. It was first published by Comma Press in Shearman’s 2007 anthology Tiny Deaths, and won a World Fantasy Award. The story itself was then adapted into a short film, which took the action back to the United States, but kept the present day setting. The themes of loss and longing for a simpler romanticised past are prevalent in all three versions.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1879505094
External links
- "Static" at IMDb
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media; ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing; ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0