Wordplay

Original Story by Rockne O’Bannon

Directed by Wes Craven

Original Airdate - October 4, 1985

Starring: Robert Klein

Annie Potts

Adam Raber

Robert J. Downey

Brian Bradley

Bernard Behrens

Anne Betancourt

Willard Peugh

Helene Udy

Mimi Neyer Craven

Brynji Willis

Russ Marin

Alexandra Morgan

Lee Arnone

Raye Birk

Joseph Whipp

Dwier Brown

Bill Lowery, a salesman who’s company has switched to a medical supply product line, stays up all night studying the new catalog to memorize the hundreds of pages of new medical terminology, in order to be ready to sell it in a weeks time. His wife is worried about their son, who doesn’t feel well. Bill goes off to work, but hears his neighbor call his dog an “encyclopedia” and shrugs it off. He puts in a full day of trying to cope with the new words, and the jibes from the younger salesmen about teaching old dogs new “trumpets”. He’s surprised when he begins to hear people say things that he doesn’t understand but doesn’t question it till later. At first it’s just a word or two, completely out of place and meaning something entirely different, to him, but obviously not to the other person. Then, as the next few days go by, everyone starts to speak gibberish to him, and he gets scared. When he gets home, his wife is really upset about their son, who’s got a very high fever now. But Bill can’t understand a word she’s saying. He picks up the little boy and they go to the emergency room. His wife has to explain everything to the doctors, while Bill doesn’t understand what she’s saying. He’s truly worried about his son. He sits in the waiting room with his wife, as people all around him speak a language he doesn’t know anymore. When the doctor’s come out to tell them that their son is okay, the only way he can tell is that his wife begins smiling. As the episode closes, Bill sits down in his son’s bedroom, and picks up one of the ABC books. He begins studying the basics of a language he needs to relearn.

A question trembles in the silence: Why did this remarkable thing happen to this perfectly ordinary man. It may not matter why the world shifted so drastically for him. Existence is slippery at the best of times. What does matter is that Bill Lowery isn’t ordinary. He’s one of us. A man determined to prevail in the world that was, and the world that is, or the world that will be. In the Twilight Zone.

This episode has a certain appeal to it, thanks to the remarkable performance of Robert Klein. He does a superlative job of losing his grip on the english language, and it was a good decision of the show’s creators to take us along with him. We hear what he does, and it helps the episode attain credibility. Annie Potts seems kind of washed out and feeble in this role, and since Klein has the major share of the spotlight she’s pretty much in the background. “Wordplay” is one of the “better that average” episodes, and is a delight to watch.

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Last revised: March 17, 2001

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Copyright 2001 by M. Dawes. All writings and thoughts on this page are the property of Marta Dawes. Many thanks to CBS Television and Persistence of Vision for use of the Twilight Zone name, stories and images. Any infringements of these rights and you'll be subject to attack by our most vicious cat, Adolph, and also legal proceedings from our lawyer and CBS' team of lawyers. All rights are reserved, too. So there.