What You Need (The Twilight Zone)
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| "What You Need" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 12 |
| Directed by | Alvin Ganzer |
| Story by | Lewis Padgett |
| Teleplay by | Rod Serling |
| Featured music | Original score by Nathan Van Cleave |
| Production code | 173-3622 |
| Original air date | December 25, 1959 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"What You Need" is episode 12 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is based on the short story of the same name by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore).
Opening narration
You're looking at Mr. Fred Renard, who carries on his shoulder a chip the size of the national debt. This is a sour man, a friendless man, a lonely man, a grasping, compulsive, nervous man. This is a man who has lived thirty-six undistinguished, meaningless, pointless, failure-laden years and who at this moment looks for an escape—any escape, any way, anything, anybody—to get out of the rut. And this little old man is just what Mr. Renard is waiting for.
Plot
Pedott , a peddler, has the curious ability to give people exactly what they need before they need it. He enters a coffee shop where he first gives a woman a vial of cleaner. Then, he gives a down-on-his-luck ex-baseball player a bus ticket to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Moments later, the ball player receives a phone call at the cafe with a job offer in Scranton. The ball player then notices a spot on his jacket, for which the woman just happens to have cleaner, and the two are attracted to each other.
Fred Renard, a small-time thug, asks Pedott to give him what he needs, and the peddler gives him a pair of scissors, which saves Renard's life when his scarf later gets caught in an elevator's doors. Renard shows up at Pedott's apartment, asking for another thing he "needs", and the peddler comes up with a leaky fountain pen that predicts a winning racehorse when a drop of ink lands on a newspaper racing column.
Renard continues menacing Pedott for more and then helps himself to a pair of new shoes from Pedott's peddler case. When a car suddenly heads toward Renard, he tries to run, but the new leather soles are so slippery he cannot escape on the wet pavement. He is struck and killed. The shoes, Pedott explains to Renard's corpse, were what Pedott needed, because he foresaw that Renard would eventually kill him. At the end of the episode the peddler gives a couple a comb, which they use to groom themselves just before they are photographed as witnesses for a newspaper story covering the "hit and run" accident that killed Fred Renard.
Closing narration
Street scene, night. Traffic accident. Victim named Fred Renard, gentleman with a sour face to whom contentment came with difficulty. Fred Renard, who took all that was needed—in The Twilight Zone.
Production information
The original story featured a machine that could foretell an individual's probable future. This version of the story aired on a 1952 episode of the anthology series Tales of Tomorrow. Serling replaced this science-fiction element with a street peddler who could magically perform the same function. In the original story the man owns a shop where he has such a machine, and then gives people what they need to provide the best possible outcomes. Also, the Renard character is killed not by a car, but by falling off a subway platform while a train is coming into the station.
The final shot before the first commercial (while Serling is concluding his narration) is actually played backwards; looking carefully, one can see smoke returning to Renard's cigarette.
During the scene in Mr. Renard's hotel room, a bellhop brings him a newspaper. Renard then opens it and spreads it out on the floor. The movement is quick, but the front page of the newspaper is visible, indicating that it is the same front page used in another Twilight Zone episode, "Time Enough at Last". The headline reads "H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction". Once Renard opens the paper and looks at the racing page, several in-jokes are apparent in the names of the listed jockeys, which include "Serling", "Clemens" (referencing director of photography George Clemens), "Houghton" (referencing producer Buck Houghton), "Butler" (referencing set decorator Rudy Butler), and "Denault" (referencing assistant director Edward Denault).
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 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
