The Shelter (The Twilight Zone)
| "The Shelter" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Frank and the others are trying to break into the shelter with a long piece of pipe. |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 68 |
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| Directed by | Lamont Johnson | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling | ||
| Featured music | Stock | ||
| Production code | 4803 | ||
| Original air date | September 29, 1961 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Larry Gates: Dr. Bill Stockton |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"The Shelter" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
It is a typical evening in a typical suburban community. At the residence of physician Bill Stockton, he enjoys a birthday party being thrown for him by his wife Grace and their son Paul. Also at the party are: Jerry Harlowe, Bill's brother-in-law; Frank Henderson and Marty Weiss, Bill and Jerry's former roommates; the wives and children of Jerry, Frank and Marty. Bill is well-known and liked by this gathering; he attended the State University with Marty, Frank and Jerry. Moreover, Bill has repeatedly administered to the health and well-being of each and every one of said guests, and/or delivered their children. Everyone is especially friendly and jovial, even when mention is made of Bill's late-night work on a fallout shelter which he has built in his basement. Suddenly, a Civil Defense (CONELRAD) announcement, overheard by young Paul, is made that unidentified objects have been detected heading for the United States. In these times, everybody knows what that means: nuclear attack.
As panic ensues, the doctor locks himself and his family into his shelter. The same gathering of friends becomes hysterical and now wants to occupy the shelter. All of the previous cordiality is now replaced with soaring desperation; pent-up hostility, searing racism and other suppressed emotions boil to the surface. The end is moments away, and everyone's mind is now vehemently poisoned by the clawing desire to survive at any cost: the feelings of a friend; the sanctity of another friend's home; the raw submission to violence. Stockton offers his basement to said guests...but the shelter itself has sufficient air, provisions and space for only three people (the Stocktons themselves). The once-friendly neighbors don't accept this; they break down the shelter door with an improvised battering ram. Just then, a final Civil Defense broadcast announces that the objects have been identified as harmless satellites, and that no danger is at all present. The neighbors apologize for their behavior; yet Stockton wonders if they have not destroyed each other - and themselves - even without a bomb, if things will ever be quite the same between them.
[edit] Short story
In its anthology form, the nuclear attack is actually real. The people of the town gather around the shelter, begging to be let in. One woman cries out, "At least take my children." Finally, the parents in the shelter can stand it no longer. They open the door and let two children in, in exchange for them.
This was an unusual episode of The Twilight Zone as it contains no supernatural or science-fiction elements, and instead, focused on a real-world danger (the possibility of a nuclear holocaust). Similar episodes include "Where Is Everybody?", "The Silence", "The Jeopardy Room" and "Shelter Skelter" from The New Twilight Zone.
[edit] Popular references
- This episode was parodied in the Simpsons episode "Bart's Comet", where everyone in town crams themselves into Ned Flanders' bomb shelter. When the building is one person overfull, Flanders is voted out of his own bomb shelter. Everyone soon feels guilty, however, and leave the shelter to join him. However, the comet burns up and hits only the shelter, causing it to be the only thing actually destroyed. A similar twist on this theme was used in an episode of Gilligan's Island when the castaways took refuge in a cave to ride out a hurricane.
[edit] References
- 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 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
[edit] External links
- "The Shelter" at the Internet Movie Database
- TV.com episode page
- Full video of the episode at CBS.com
