A Kind of a Stopwatch
| "A Kind of a Stopwatch" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 McNulty realizes he's frozen time permanently. |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 124 |
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| Directed by | John Rich | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling (based on an unpublished story by Michael D. Rosenthal) |
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| Featured music | Nathan Van Cleave | ||
| Production code | 2609 | ||
| Original air date | October 18, 1963 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Richard Erdman: Patrick Thomas McNulty |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"A Kind of a Stopwatch"[1] is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Star Pulse ranks this as the best episode of the series.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Patrick McNulty is in his 40's and is the biggest bore on the planet. He holds a ten year record for the most meaningless things said. One day McNulty is asked to go to his boss's office. Who fires him for putting meaningless suggestions in the suggestion box. McNulty goes to a bar, where everyone leaves because of being annoyed by McNulty. At the bar, a drunken man gives him a stopwatch for buying him a drink. Thinking of it as an odd gift, McNulty uses it and realizes that it actually stops time.
McNulty goes back to the office, to try to show his former boss who fired him, the power of the stopwatch. McNulty says if he figures out how it works, they would be the biggest company on the planet. His boss, Mr. Cooper doesn't even let McNulty speak. McNulty leaves but messes things up in the office before he goes.
McNulty realizes that with the stopwatch, he can get a ton of money. McNulty goes to rob a bank, but while time is frozen, McNulty drops the watch breaking it and thereby freezing time permanently. McNulty runs off trying to fix it.
[edit] Adaptation
The television episode was later adapted as an episode of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas series—under the title "A Kind of Stopwatch"—featuring Lou Diamond Phillips in the lead role.[3]
[edit] Parodies, pastiches, and allusions
Several parodies and pastiches of the original plot device are identified in the article on The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything.
"A Kind of Stopwatch" in particular is parodied in the following episode of The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XIV" (2 November 2003), in the segment, "Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off."[4]
In addition, ideas from this episode were used in "A Little Peace and Quiet", an episode in the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone.
In one of the Time Warp Trio books by Jon Sciezka (Summer Reading Is Killing Me), Fred mentions that the town's emptiness reminds him of "a Twilight Zone episode where this guy gets a stopwatch that can stop and start time, and then it breaks when it's stopped and he goes crazy!" which is met with a less than enthusiastic response.
[edit] References and further reading
- ^ "A Kind of Stopwatch" is the title on the script, two versions of which were published in As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Volume 3, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2007). The original scripts (both versions) are part of The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College.
- ^ http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/07/03/top_ten_twilight_zone_episodes
- ^ The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: "A Kind of Stopwatch"
- ^ The Simpsons, Episode 1501
- 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
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College, The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Script 124, "A Kind of Stopwatch"
- "A Kind of a Stopwatch" at the Internet Movie Database
