Person or Persons Unknown
| "Person or Persons Unknown" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Richard Long in "Person or Persons Unknown" |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 92 |
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| Directed by | John Brahm | ||
| Written by | Charles Beaumont | ||
| Featured music | Stock | ||
| Production code | 4829 | ||
| Original air date | March 23, 1962 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Richard Long: David Gurney |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"Person or Persons Unknown" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
David Gurney wakes up to find that nobody knows him, and all evidence of his identity had disappeared. He is placed in an insane asylum; however, he manages to escape, after a doctor named Koslenko tries to tell him that David Gurney doesn't exist, yet Gurney thinks that someone or something wants to block him out. He finds a photograph of himself and his wife together. However, when the police arrive with a psychiatrist, the picture has somehow changed and portrays Gurney alone. He throws himself to the ground and wakes up in his bed. The whole adventure was a bad dream. His wife gets up from the bed and talks to him from the bathroom, where she removes cream from her face. When she emerges, Gurney is horrified to discover that, even though she acts and talks the same way, his wife does not look at all like the wife he knows.
[edit] Legacy
Reference is made to this story in the Seinfeld episode "The Van Buren Boys" when Jerry says "This is like that Twilight Zone where the guy wakes up, and he's the same - but everyone else is different!"[1]
This episode may also be the inspiration for Season 4 of FRINGE where Peter Bishop has returned after disappearing in the Season 3 finale but no one remembers him.
[edit] See also
- The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
- Episode List
- Nowhere Man (TV series)—a one-season TV series with a similar premise.
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0-553-01416-1
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
