# Looking for tv anthology episode
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582 "2019-09-20T19:33:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/1 "2019-09-20T19:33:04Z")
I think it was on some anthology series, at least.
A man finds out that he is going to die of some horrible disease, and goes to this organization that promises that they will not only arrange for him to die without suffering for a long time, they will also ensure that he will achieve great joy before it happens. The only stipulation is that once he signs the contract, he cannot back out.
He signs it…then he gets a call from the hospital stating they mixed up his diagnosis with someone else’s and that he isn’t terminal at all. He pleads, but they won’t release him. He teams up with a young woman who also wants to escape, and through elaborate planning and split-second timing they manage to escape. he is feeling more alive and joyous then he ever had been before…and that’s when they kill him. The call from the hospital was faked, and the young lady that helped him escape worked for the corporation-contract fulfilled.
Did I see this, read this…or somehow thought it up myself?
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/2 "2019-09-20T19:37:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Did I see this, read this…or somehow thought it up myself?
If you thought it up yourself, sell it to a studio, or Netflix. I want to watch this!
Can it be Clive Owen and Emily Blunt?
(I mean, unless you’re positive you need me for lead, I could work that into my schedule…)
ETA: It’s got a very Phillip K. Dick feel, or from an anthology of short speculative fiction, but I’ve read lots of those, and don’t recognize it.
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### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/3 "2019-09-21T04:07:09Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> If you thought it up yourself, sell it to a studio, or Netflix. I want to watch this!
>
> Can it be Clive Owen and Emily Blunt?
> (I mean, unless you’re positive you need me for lead, I could work that into my schedule…)
>
> ETA: It’s got a very Phillip K. Dick feel, or from an anthology of short speculative fiction, but I’ve read lots of those, and don’t recognize it.
Sounds like a 70s movie of the week. Given the downer ending…it can’t be a repeating lead character show like The Sixth Sense. Sounds like something Glenn Corbett or Monte Markham would star in.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/4 "2019-09-21T05:53:26Z")
I have not seen the one. But it does sound like how[Gillespie described a humane execution in the TV series version of In The Heat of the Night.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnZCsIvbj-M) One sounds like it was inspired by the other. But which way?
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### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/5 "2019-09-21T05:58:00Z")
There is an Alfred Hitchcock episode- the Thanatos Palace Hotel.
> **["The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" Thanatos Palace Hotel (TV Episode 1965) - Plot -...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394093/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl)**
>
> "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" Thanatos Palace Hotel (TV Episode 1965) - Plot summary, synopsis, and more...
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/6 "2019-09-21T16:43:43Z")
It reminds me of the plot for [“The Game”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2) with Michael Douglas.
> [@](#):
>
> Nicholas Van Orton is a very wealthy San Francisco banker, but he is an absolute loner, even spending his birthday alone. In the year of his 48th birthday (the age his father committed suicide) his brother Conrad, who has gone long ago and surrendered to addictions of all kinds, suddenly returns and gives Nicholas a card giving him entry to unusual entertainment provided by something called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Giving in to curiosity, Nicholas visits CRS and all kinds of weird and bad things start to happen to him.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/7 "2019-09-21T17:27:39Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> Sounds like a 70s movie of the week.
Or an episode of Black Mirror.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/8 "2019-09-21T21:56:57Z")
> [@kitap](#):
>
> There is an Alfred Hitchcock episode- the Thanatos Palace Hotel.
>
> ["The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" Thanatos Palace Hotel (TV Episode 1965) - Plot - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394093/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl)
It sound a lot like what I remember-is there any chance it was remade in the 70’s or 80’s?
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### Author:  [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2019, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-tv-anthology-episode/840582/9 "2019-09-22T05:58:51Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> It sound a lot like what I remember-is there any chance it was remade in the 70’s or 80’s?
I honestly couldn’t tell you; I just happened to catch it one night on METV or something.