The Shelter (The Twilight Zone)

2022-04-02T00:51:24Z

104.35.233.196:

{{Infobox television episode
| series = [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]
| image =
| caption =
| season = 3
| episode = 3
| airdate = {{Start date|1961|09|29}}
| production = 4803
| writer = [[Rod Serling]]
| director = [[Lamont Johnson]]
| guests ={{plainlist |
* [[Larry Gates]]
* [[Jack Albertson]]
* [[Sandy Kenyon]]
* [[Peggy Stewart (actress)|Peggy Stewart]]
* [[Michael Burns (actor)|Michael Burns]]
* [[Joseph Bernard (actor)|Joseph Bernard]]
}}
| music = Stock
| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 3)
| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
| prev = [[The Arrival (The Twilight Zone)|The Arrival]]
| next = [[The Passersby]]
}}

"'''The Shelter'''" is episode 68 of the [[American television]] anthology series ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]''. It originally aired on September 29, 1961 on [[CBS]]. It is one of the few Twilight Zone episodes to feature no supernatural or sci-fi elements.

==Opening narration==
{{cquote|What you are about to watch is a nightmare. It is not meant to be prophetic, it need not happen, it's the fervent and urgent prayer of all men of good will that it never shall happen. But in this place, in this moment, it does happen. This is the Twilight Zone.}}

==Plot==
It is a typical evening in a typical suburban community outside of [[New York City]]. 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; and 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 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: [[Pre-emptive nuclear strike|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 [[nativism (politics)|nativism]], and other suppressed emotions boil to the surface. Stockton offers his basement to the guests, but the shelter itself has sufficient air, provisions, and space for only three people (the Stocktons themselves). The once-friendly neighbors do not 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 [[satellite]]s and that no danger is present. The neighbors apologize for their behavior; yet Stockton wonders if they have destroyed each other without a bomb.

==Closing narration==
{{cquote|No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. Tonight's very small exercise in logic from the Twilight Zone.}}

==Cast==
*[[Larry Gates]] as Dr. Bill Stockton
*[[Jack Albertson]] as Jerry Harlowe
*[[Sandy Kenyon]] as Frank Henderson
*[[Peggy Stewart (actress)|Peggy Stewart]] as Grace Stockton
* [[Michael Burns (actor and historian)|Michael Burns]] as Paul Stockton
*[[Joseph Bernard (actor)|Joseph Bernard]] as Marty Weiss
* [[Jo Helton]] as Martha Harlowe
* [[Moria Turner]] as Mrs. Weiss
* Mary Gregory as Mrs. Henderson
* [[John McLiam]] as Man

==Context==
The episode aired after a summer in which the [[fallout shelter]] had loomed large in national discourse, due to the [[Berlin Crisis of 1961]]. Meeting with U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] in [[Vienna]], Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] insisted—not for the first time—that [[NATO]] troops withdraw from [[Berlin]], handing over the city to an independent, Soviet-aligned [[East Germany]]. Khrushchev explicitly threatened [[thermonuclear war]] if the United States refused to relent. Kennedy responded publicly seven weeks later in a televised address on July 25, 1961.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/TNC-258.aspx|title=Report to the Nation - Berlin Crisis, 25 July 1961|date=July 25, 1961|publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum}}</ref> During the speech, Kennedy stated his intention to ensure access to shelters in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. In the aftermath of the speech, numerous companies began producing such shelters, and products were sold with explicit reference to the shelters; for instance, [[Foam-Ettes]] toothpaste tablets boasted that they could be used "wherever you are—even in a family fallout shelter."<ref>Henriksen, Margot A. ''Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.</ref> Rod Serling saw an opportunity for urgent social commentary and "rushed into production" an episode that would comment on prevailing anxieties.<ref>Perlstein, Rick. ''Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus''. New York: Nation Books, 2009 [2001].</ref> Two weeks after the episode aired, the crisis escalated and construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] began.

==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}}
*Henriksen, Margot A. ''Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
*Perlstein, Rick. ''Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus''. New York: Nation Books, 2009 [2001]. {{ISBN|978-1-56858-412-6}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb episode|0734676}}

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelter, The}}
[[Category:1961 American television episodes]]
[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 3) episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Rod Serling]]
[[Category:Television episodes about nuclear war and weapons]]

The Jeopardy Room

2022-04-02T00:51:00Z

104.35.233.196:

{{No footnotes|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series = [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]
| image =
| season = 5
| episode = 29
| airdate = {{Start date|1964|04|17}}
| production = 2639
| writer = [[Rod Serling]]
| director = [[Richard Donner]]
| guests = [[Martin Landau]] as Major Ivan Kuchenko <br /> [[John van Dreelen]] as Commissar Vassiloff <br /> Robert Kelljan as Boris- Vassiloff’s assistant
| music =
| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
| prev = [[Caesar and Me]]
| next = [[Stopover in a Quiet Town]]
}}

"'''The Jeopardy Room'''" is episode 149 of the [[American television]] anthology series ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'', which originally aired on April 17, 1964 on [[CBS]]. It is one of the few Twilight Zone episodes to feature no supernatural or sci-fi elements.

==Opening narration==
{{cquote|The cast of characters—a cat and a mouse, this is the latter. The intended victim who may or may not know that he is to die, be it by butchery or ballet. His name is Major Ivan Kuchenko. He has, if events go according to certain plans, perhaps three or four more hours of living. But an ignorance shared by both himself and his executioner, is of the fact that both of them have taken the first step into the Twilight Zone.}}

==Plot==
Major Ivan Kuchenko ([[Martin Landau]]), a [[KGB]] agent who is attempting to [[defection|defect]], is trapped inside a hotel room in an unnamed, politically [[neutral country]]. Commissar Vassiloff ([[John van Dreelen]]), a [[hitman]], and Boris (Robert Kelljan), his assistant, are watching Kuchenko from a room across the street. Vassiloff, who considers himself an artist, has an elaborate plan for Kuchenko's assassination. After Vassiloff tricks Kuchenko into drinking a [[sleep medicine|sleeping drug]], Kuchenko awakes to find a taped recording from Vassiloff in which he explains that he has [[booby trap|booby-trapped]] an object in the room. If Kuchenko finds and disarms the object within three hours, he will be allowed to live; if he tries to leave the room before then or turn out the lights, he will be shot by Boris, an expert [[sniper]].

Vassiloff tells Boris he has hidden a lethal bomb in the telephone, but it will be triggered only by picking up an incoming call. Thus, when Kuchenko picks up the phone without it ringing, nothing happens. Kuchenko grows increasingly nervous and desperate as the ordeal continues, even begging Vassiloff to shoot him at one point. With ten minutes of time left, Vassiloff places a call to Kuchenko's room. Kuchenko puts his hand on the [[handset|receiver]], but hesitates. When Vassiloff tries to call him a second time, Kuchenko bolts out of the hotel room, narrowly escaping a spray of bullets from Boris. Later, Vassiloff and Boris enter the room to dispose of evidence. The telephone rings, and Boris and Vassiloff are both killed after Boris unthinkingly answers it. On the other end of the line is Ivan Kuchenko, calling from a phone booth at the airport. The operator tells him she is unable to reach his party, but Kuchenko states, "It’s alright, operator. I... I have reached them.” He then leaves to board a plane flying to [[New York City]], as Vassiloff and Boris are shown lying dead amidst the rubble of Kuchenko's room.

==Closing Narration==
{{cquote|Major Ivan Kuchenko, on his way West. On his way to freedom: a freedom bought and paid for by a most stunning ingenuity. And exit one Commissar Vassiloff, who forgot that there are two sides to an argument - and two parties on the line. This has been the Twilight Zone.}}

==See also==
*''[[Payback (1999 film)|Payback]]'', a 1999 film that features a similar booby trap as a plot device and a similar twist ending.

==References==
*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)

==External links==
*{{IMDb episode|id=0734649|episode=The Jeopardy Room}}

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeopardy Room, The}}
[[Category:1964 American television episodes]]
[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 5) episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Rod Serling]]

Good Old TV Fan Wiki - User contributions [en]

The Shelter (The Twilight Zone)

The Jeopardy Room