The Twilight Zone
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Score:
9.1
Superb
93 votes
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Shadow PlayEpisode Number: 62 Season Num: 2 First Aired: May 5, 1961 Prod Code: 173-3657 |
Trapped in a recurring nightmare, a man tries to persuade those who are sentencing him to death that the whole scenario is not real.
| Writer: | Charles Beaumont |
| Director: | John Brahm |
| Star: | Rod Serling (Narrator/Host), Dennis Weaver (Adam Grant), Harry Townes (Henry Ritchie) |
| Guest Star: | Wright King (Paul Carson), William Edmonson (Jiggs), Anne Barton (Carol), Bernie Hamilton (Coley), Thomas Nello (Phillips), Mack Williams (Father Beaman), Gene Roth (Judge), Jack Hyde (Attorney), Howard Culver (Jury Foreman), John Close (Guard) |
See all Shadow Play Cast & Crew »
This episode was remade for the '80s version
(edit)
Included on volume 7 of Image-Entertainment's DVD collection.
(edit)
Ritchie: If you're a success you're bound to think it's a dream. If you're not it's a nightmare.
(edit)
Jiggs: Grant, let me give you some advice. Don't think about it. You think about it, you'll crack up like Phillips there. Listen to him. Phillips! Shut your face! A month ago he was a human being. Now what is he? An animal, a thing. Why? Because he couldn't stop thinking about it.
Adam: I know it. It's just different with me.
Jiggs: You mean you want to die?
Adam: No.
Jiggs: Well, it ain't different with you, so don't kid yourself. Sometimes I wonder, too, what it's gonna be like.
Adam: I'll tell you what it's like. You walk out of your cell, pass two grey doors, seventy-eight steps to the final door. It's painted green. There's a guard that opens the door for you and you go into a room. It's tan. It's all tan. There's nothing in it except one chair. It's like a chair you used to sit in when you were a kid. It's hard and soft.
Jiggs: Now, cut it out! Cut it out!
Adam: They strap your arms and legs. Then they attach the electrodes. It's funny. They always feel cold to the touch at first.
Jiggs: Ah, Grant. You talk like you've been through it already.
Adam: Then they drop the mask. It's musty. Smells like an old sofa. Then you wait. Every muscle tense and straining. Any second. Any second. Then you can almost hear it. They pull the switch... (edit) Adam: Well, Jiggs, don't you think that all of this is just a little bit too much the way it should be?
Jiggs: I don't get you.
Adam: Well, I mean it's so pat. I got tried and sentenced the same day. It doesn't work like that! But you see, that's the way that I saw it in my mind, and so that's the way it is! Or you take this place here, you and Coley and his harmonica or Phillips and his mother. It's like a movie. Real death houses aren't like that, but you see I've never been in a real death house, so that's my impression of it!
Paul: Fifteen more minutes. That's another thing. Why does this always happen around midnight?
Henry: Because that's when it happens!
Paul: Yeah, but why?
Henry: You tell me why.
Paul: According to Grant, he doesn't know anything about these matters except what he sees in the movies, and in the movies it always happens at midnight.
Henry: Because movies are technically accurate.
Paul: Yeah, that's strange too when you come to think of it. (edit) (Closing Narration)
Narrator: We know that a dream can be real, but who ever thought that reality could be a dream? We exist, of course, but how, in what way? As we believe, as flesh-and-blood human beings, or are we simply parts of someone's feverish, complicated nightmare? Think about it and then ask yourself, do you live here, in this country, in this world, or do you live instead in the Twilight Zone? (edit) (Opening Narration)
Narrator: Adam Grant, a nondescript kind of man found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Like every other criminal caught in the wheels of justice he's scared, right down to the marrow of his bones. But it isn't prison that scares him, the long, silent nights of waiting, the slow walk to the little room, or even death itself. It's something else that holds Adam Grant in the hot, sweaty grip of fear, something worse than any punishment this world has to offer, something found only in the Twilight Zone. (edit)
Adam: I know it. It's just different with me.
Jiggs: You mean you want to die?
Adam: No.
Jiggs: Well, it ain't different with you, so don't kid yourself. Sometimes I wonder, too, what it's gonna be like.
Adam: I'll tell you what it's like. You walk out of your cell, pass two grey doors, seventy-eight steps to the final door. It's painted green. There's a guard that opens the door for you and you go into a room. It's tan. It's all tan. There's nothing in it except one chair. It's like a chair you used to sit in when you were a kid. It's hard and soft.
Jiggs: Now, cut it out! Cut it out!
Adam: They strap your arms and legs. Then they attach the electrodes. It's funny. They always feel cold to the touch at first.
Jiggs: Ah, Grant. You talk like you've been through it already.
Adam: Then they drop the mask. It's musty. Smells like an old sofa. Then you wait. Every muscle tense and straining. Any second. Any second. Then you can almost hear it. They pull the switch... (edit) Adam: Well, Jiggs, don't you think that all of this is just a little bit too much the way it should be?
Jiggs: I don't get you.
Adam: Well, I mean it's so pat. I got tried and sentenced the same day. It doesn't work like that! But you see, that's the way that I saw it in my mind, and so that's the way it is! Or you take this place here, you and Coley and his harmonica or Phillips and his mother. It's like a movie. Real death houses aren't like that, but you see I've never been in a real death house, so that's my impression of it!
Paul: Fifteen more minutes. That's another thing. Why does this always happen around midnight?
Henry: Because that's when it happens!
Paul: Yeah, but why?
Henry: You tell me why.
Paul: According to Grant, he doesn't know anything about these matters except what he sees in the movies, and in the movies it always happens at midnight.
Henry: Because movies are technically accurate.
Paul: Yeah, that's strange too when you come to think of it. (edit) (Closing Narration)
Narrator: We know that a dream can be real, but who ever thought that reality could be a dream? We exist, of course, but how, in what way? As we believe, as flesh-and-blood human beings, or are we simply parts of someone's feverish, complicated nightmare? Think about it and then ask yourself, do you live here, in this country, in this world, or do you live instead in the Twilight Zone? (edit) (Opening Narration)
Narrator: Adam Grant, a nondescript kind of man found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Like every other criminal caught in the wheels of justice he's scared, right down to the marrow of his bones. But it isn't prison that scares him, the long, silent nights of waiting, the slow walk to the little room, or even death itself. It's something else that holds Adam Grant in the hot, sweaty grip of fear, something worse than any punishment this world has to offer, something found only in the Twilight Zone. (edit)
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Community Reviews (1)
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8.6
Shadow PlayGreat "Well written" a man claims to be living in a nightmare where he dreams the same one every nite and is stuck in his nightmare. he is sentanced to the electric chair each night, and each night he fights his best to prove he is living in a dream...sadly nobody listens Continue » Posted May 9, 2006 8:40 pm PST |
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Episode Vital Stats
Episode: Shadow Play
Season Number: 2
Episode Reviews: 1
Season Number: 2
Episode Reviews: 1
Episode
Score: 9.1 Superb 93 votes
Score: 9.1 Superb 93 votes
perfect: 34 (36.6%)
superb: 28 (30.1%)
great: 18 (19.4%)
good: 7 (7.5%)
Other: 6 (6.4%)
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