# I fail to see the Twilight Zone in this Twilight Zone episode. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908 "2012-04-05T13:45:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/1 "2012-04-05T13:45:30Z")
It’s the one with a bunch of rich old men sitting around in an aristocratic men’s club. One younger man there is talking a mile a minute annoying all the other patrons. Finally, one old codger gets fed up and tells the young punk “If you can shut up and not speak for one year, I’ll give you $500,000!” The guy accepts the wager. They then throw him in a glass room so they can keep an eye on him. Much to everyone’s surprise, the guy does it. Too bad for him though because the man who made the wager can’t afford to pay. So what was the big Twilight Zone reveal? The dude cut his tongue out. Because ya’ know, that could never happen in real life. Just thought it was a strange episode. It seemed more Alfred Hitchcock to me. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/2 "2012-04-05T13:48:22Z")
Yeah, I agree, that’s not Twilight Zone so much as “horrifying.” For what it’s worth, the [Wikipedia entry for this episode](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_(The_Twilight_Zone)) says: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > It is one of four Twilight Zone episodes containing no supernatural or science fiction elements; the others are “Where Is Everybody?”, “The Shelter” and “The Jeopardy Room”." ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/3 "2012-04-05T13:49:15Z")
Haven’t seen this (well, just the last five minutes) but I know of it, and you’re right. When someone explained the set up to me, I remember thinking it was kind of lame. They’re going to the trouble of keeping a man in a glass room for a year and yet the guy never brings up the fact that he can’t pay till the very end? No one noticed the tongue thing till now? It seemed so forced. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/4 "2012-04-05T13:54:23Z")
Yeah it seemed more like an Alfred Hitchcock Presents than a Twilight Zone. I think the Twilight Zone Companion (which is a great book if you like the show BTW) says as much. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/5 "2012-04-05T14:01:24Z")
First, I remember the episode. The man didn’t have his tongue cut out- he had his vocal cords severed. Still not a supernatural episode, but a LOT of \*\*\*Twilight Zone \*\*\*episodes weren’t supernatural! Some were science fiction, while others were just human dramas with an element of fear, suspense or horror. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several Twilight Zone episodes that have absolutely no supernatural or sci-fi elements. What about Martin Landau’s “The Danger Room”? Or William Shatner’s “Nick of Time”? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/6 "2012-04-05T14:05:37Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Just off the top of my head, I can think of several Twilight Zone episodes that have absolutely no supernatural or sci-fi elements. What about Martin Landau’s “The Danger Room”? Or William Shatner’s “Nick of Time”? There are four. Look up-thread. “Nick of Time” has a mystic fortune-telling device in it, which I would think counts as supernatural. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/7 "2012-04-05T14:09:34Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > There are four. Look up-thread. “Nick of Time” has a mystic fortune-telling device in it, which I would think counts as supernatural. But there was no evidence that the device was actually telling the future. It just spat out ambiguous messages when you put a coin in. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/8 "2012-04-05T14:10:43Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > But there was no evidence that the device was actually telling the future. It just spat out ambiguous messages when you put a coin in. Oh, hm. I think you’re right. I watched it when I was a kid and definitely thought that the machine had some kind of mysto future-telling powers. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/9 "2012-04-05T14:13:05Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Oh, hm. I think you’re right. I watched it when I was a kid and definitely thought that the machine had some kind of mysto future-telling powers. Yeah, and William Shatner’s character definitely thought it did, too. But then he and his wife decide to take control of their life and just leave the town. (And then I guess the twist is that another couple has been here for a long time because the device keeps giving them messages that they can’t go yet.) I always privately wondered if they ended up dying in a car accident because they disobeyed the little bobble headed fortune telling machine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/10 "2012-04-05T14:18:07Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > There are four. Look up-thread. They apparently missed Perchance To Dream. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/11 "2012-04-05T14:19:51Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > They apparently missed Perchance To Dream. Are you impugning the high quality of Wikipedia’s Twilight-Zone-related research, sir?! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/12 "2012-04-05T14:24:23Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Are you impugning the high quality of Wikipedia’s Twilight-Zone-related research, sir?! Your post is intolerable to me; if this were Europe, or if the present company were more sophisticated, I would be compelled to invite you outside for what you’ve just written! Instead, I offer you a wager: my word will have to suffice as to whether I actually have the dollars, as this is not a fish market or a pawn shop… ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/13 "2012-04-05T14:45:03Z")
I thought it was a good episode. Just swell. Not as good as “It’s a Good Life” of course. That was a good episode, a real good episode. And the rest of the episodes were good too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/14 "2012-04-05T15:02:59Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Yeah, and William Shatner’s character definitely thought it did, too. But then he and his wife decide to take control of their life and just leave the town. (And then I guess the twist is that another couple has been here for a long time because the device keeps giving them messages that they can’t go yet.) I always privately wondered if they ended up dying in a car accident because they disobeyed the little bobble headed fortune telling machine. The intent of “Nick of Time” (one of my favorites) was that people do ridiculous things because of their belief in supernatural forces. It was left ambiguous was to whether the fortune telling machine had any supernatural powers, or people were just fooling themselves into believing it did. But the message – clearly stated by Shatner’s charater’s wife – is that we should not let our lives be guided by superstition. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/15 "2012-04-05T15:05:25Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > There are four. Look up-thread. “Nick of Time” has a mystic fortune-telling device in it, which I would think counts as supernatural. It WOULD be supernatural if the machine were really predicting the future. But in reality, it’s just giving out random, often meaningless messages that William Shatner CHOOSES to interpret as supernatural prophecies. Richard Matheson’s wrote the story as a meditation on the way people let superstition rule and ruin their lives. It’s a victory when Shatner and his wife leave the diner and the town forever. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/16 "2012-04-06T23:52:22Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > No one noticed the tongue thing till now? [even though we know it was a vocal chord thing now] They did notice, but they didn’t realize what they were seeing…one of the men comments that the imprisoned fellow didn’t seem to have much of an appetite at first. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/17 "2012-04-07T00:57:34Z")
Two more episodes that have no supernatural or science fiction elements?: \*Perchance to Dream Time Enough at Last \*(Does surviving a nuclear explosion make it Science Fiction?) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/18 "2012-04-07T01:34:04Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Haven’t seen this (well, just the last five minutes) but I know of it, and you’re right. When someone explained the set up to me, I remember thinking it was kind of lame. They’re going to the trouble of keeping a man in a glass room for a year and yet the guy never brings up the fact that he can’t pay till the very end? I think his financial status took a nosedive in the year that elapsed, plus he never thought it conceivable that the guy could actually win. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/19 "2012-04-07T02:19:47Z")
Most of the ones dealing with nuclear war didn’t have science fiction or supernatural elements. I’m sorry, I don’t have the titles to some of these: The one where four families that are friends are having a bridge party at one family’s house. The radio announces a pending nuclear attack, and the party hosts lock themselves in the family’s fallout shelter in the basement. The friendships dissolve as the other three families try to force their way into the shelter. Of course, the all clear is sounded, and nothing can be the same again between them. The one with Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery as the only survivors of a worldwide war. Turns out they’re Adam and Eve. (I guess) One title I do remember is _The Last Pallbearer_. Super rich douche guy rigs up his basement to fool some people he has a grudge against into believing there’s going to be a nuclear war. He hopes to get them to beg for their lives. They refuse. He goes nuts with the disappointment. That said, for those of you who get MeTV, _The Twilight Zone_ episode playing tonight at 10pm Central Time is that one with Bill Mumy as the little kid with creepy mental powers who holds everyone hostage by turning them into mutants and wishing them into the cornfield. It’s one of my favorites. That’s supernatural though. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908/20 "2012-04-07T02:25:12Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > The one where four families that are friends are having a bridge party at one family’s house. The radio announces a pending nuclear attack, and the party hosts lock themselves in the family’s fallout shelter in the basement. The friendships dissolve as the other three families try to force their way into the shelter. Of course, the all clear is sounded, and nothing can be the same again between them. It was mentioned in the OP- _The Shelter_ > [@](#): > > One title I do remember is _The Last Pallbearer_. Close. It’s _One More Pallbearer_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fail-to-see-the-twilight-zone-in-this-twilight-zone-episode/617908.md?page=2)