3

 
Story by Anne Collins
 
Directed by John Hancock
 
Original Airdate - March 28, 1986
 
Starring:    
 
Uta Hagen - Gloria
Frances Conroy - Ellie Pendleton
Lori Petty - Lori Pendleton
Joe Santos - Doug Kelleher
Candy Azzara - Carla Mollencami
Alan Blumenfeld - Edwin Dewett
Jay Gerber - Man
Mimi Monaco - Woman

 

  
Story:
     

Ellie arrives at a modest-looking one-story building, answering a job ad. She's given the job as a librarian, by Gloria, who manages the business, but when Gloria shows her around, Ellie is astonished to find that the building stretches off to infiniti inside, and could not possibly be that big, since it looked so small outside. She supposed to refile the books on the shelves, but Ellie becomes suspicious when she sees that each book has a person's name on it. Eventually she discovers that a person's life is being recorded inside each book. She makes one change, to address a problem in her life, to one person's book, and eventually her entire life spirals out of control because of that one change.

  

 

"The Library" is not one of the best episodes, but it's cleverly written and takes many twists and turns as it tells its story. It really does make you think that if one thing in your life had been changed, how might your life have been better, or maybe even worse? Anne Collins wrote the story; she has written for many TV programs in the past, like "Buck Rogers" and "Matlock," and most recently seemed to be writing for the Nancy Drew video game series, which I've heard were excellent.

Frances Conroy plays the hapless Ellie, and Lori Petty plays her sister, who gets caught up in Ellie's changes in both good and bad ways. Conroy is good in the role, and Petty is all over the place as her sister, which is a compliment since she plays so many different lives. Conroy has gone on to Broadway and has been nominated for a Tony. Uta Hagen, who spent a lot of time on Broadway before trying some film and TV work, is adequately grand as the myserious Gloria. Hagen is one of the legends of the acting world, having starred in many of the signature plays of the 20th century, such as "The Seagull," and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." It was rather a coup' for the Twilight Zone to get her for this segment, since she had rarely done much TV.