A World of His Own
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| "A World of His Own" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Scene from "A World of His Own" |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 36 |
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| Directed by | Ralph Nelson | ||
| Written by | Richard Matheson | ||
| Production code | 173-3634 | ||
| Original air date | July 1, 1960 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Keenan Wynn: Gregory West |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"A World of His Own" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, and is the last episode of the show's first season.
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[edit] Plot
Coming home, Victoria West (Phyllis Kirk) spots her husband, playwright Gregory West (Keenan Wynn), through the window sharing a drink in his study with Mary, an attractive blonde. When Victoria barges into the room, Mary is nowhere to be found.
Gregory explains to his wife that if he describes anything into his dictation machine, he can cause that thing to suddenly appear in his study. To make it disappear, all he has to do is throw the tape into his fireplace. He demonstrates this, first with Mary and then with an elephant in the hallway. Gregory discovered this talent when a male character he had put a great deal of effort and attention into approached him as a real, flesh-and-blood person, shook his hand, and thanked him.
Believing none of this (despite seeing the elephant with her own eyes), Victoria tells Gregory that he is insane and she is going to have him committed. In response, Gregory takes a tape from his safe and explains that it contains her description. Victoria snatches the tape away from him and throws it on the fire to prove he is insane, and promptly begins to feel faint. "You don't mean you were telling the truth?! You were right!" she cries, and disappears. Frantic, Gregory rushes to his dictation machine and begins to re-describe Victoria, then reconsiders, and instead describes Mrs. Mary West. Mary reappears and mixes her husband a drink.
Serling appears on the set and says, "We hope you enjoyed tonight's romantic story on The Twilight Zone. At the same time, we want you to realize that it was, of course, purely fictional. In real life, such ridiculous nonsense could never—"
"Rod, you shouldn't!" interrupts Gregory, who walks over to his safe and pulls out a tape marked "Rod Serling". "I mean, you shouldn't say such things as 'nonsense' and 'ridiculous'!" he continues as he throws the tape into the fire.
"Well, that's the way it goes," replies Serling, in a resigned tone as he fades away.
Nevertheless, Serling's voice comes in at the epilogue, as usual, and describes Gregory West as once again happy, and apparently in complete control of the Twilight Zone.
[edit] Production notes
This is the only episode in the first season in which Rod Serling appears on-screen and breaks the fourth wall (in a rare humorous scene). This is also the only episode of the entire series where Serling appears on camera at the conclusion of the episode, not at the beginning. (He did appear in sponsor spots at the end of some episodes, but these were not part of the episodes proper.) From the second season onward, Serling began to appear on-screen at the start of each episode.
At the end of the first season, Kimberly-Clark discontinued their alternate sponsorship of the series. A new sponsor began alternating with General Foods that summer, Colgate-Palmolive, primarily on behalf of Colgate Dental Cream, as well as some of their other products (including "Veto" deodorant).
[edit] Other Twilight Zone credits
Mary La Roche also starred as Annabelle in the Twilight Zone episode, "Living Doll", in which a doll kills a man because he is mean to her. The doll, Talky Tina, threatens Annabelle at the end of the episode that unless she is nice to her, the same thing will happen. Annabelle drops the doll in shock.
[edit] Further readings
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
- 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
[edit] External links
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