A Kind of a Stopwatch

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The Twilight Zone: A Kind of a Stopwatch

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Plot

First telecast October 18, 1963, the pedestrian Twilight Zone episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch" was scripted by Rod Serling from a story by Michael D. Rosenthal. Richard Erdman stars as McNulty, a nonstop talker and crashing bore. Unable to engage anyone in conversation, McNulty decides to manufacture a few "pregnant pauses" of his own with the aid of a magic stopwatch, given to him by a batty barfly named Potts (Leon Belasco). Though essentially a comedy, "A Kind of a Stopwatch" boasts an unusually unsettling denouement. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Kind of a Stopwatch

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"A Kind of a Stopwatch"

The Twilight Zone episode

McNulty realizes he's frozen time permanently.

Episode no.

Season 5
Episode 124

Directed by

John Rich

Written by

Rod Serling
(based on an unpublished story by Michael D. Rosenthal)

Featured music

Nathan Van Cleave

Production code

2609

Original air date

October 18, 1963

Guest actors

Richard Erdman: Patrick Thomas McNulty
Roy Roberts: Mr. Cooper
Leon Belasco: Potts
Herbie Faye: Joe
Doris Singleton: Secretary

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"

Next →
"The Last Night of a Jockey"

List of Twilight Zone episodes

"A Kind of a Stopwatch"^[1] is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Star Pulse ranks this as the best episode of the series.^[2]

Contents

1 Plot
2 Adaptation
3 Parodies, pastiches, and allusions
4 References and further reading
5 See also
6 External links

Plot

Patrick McNulty is in his 40's and is the biggest bore on the planet. He holds a ten year record for the most meaningless things said. One day McNulty is asked to go to his boss, who fires him for putting meaningless suggestions in the suggestion box. McNulty goes to a bar, where everyone leaves after being annoyed by McNulty. At the bar, a drunken man gives him a stopwatch for buying him a drink. Thinking of it as an odd gift, McNulty uses it and realizes that it actually stops time.

McNulty goes back to the office to try to show his former boss the power of the stopwatch. McNulty says if he figures out how it works, they would be the biggest company on the planet. His boss, Mr. Cooper, doesn't even let McNulty speak. McNulty leaves but messes things up in the office before he goes.

McNulty realizes that with the stopwatch, he can get a ton of money. McNulty goes to rob a bank, but drops the watch, breaking it and thereby freezing time permanently. McNulty runs off trying to fix it.

Adaptation

The television episode was later adapted as an episode of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas series—under the title "A Kind of Stopwatch"—featuring Lou Diamond Phillips in the lead role.^[3]

Parodies, pastiches, and allusions

Several parodies and pastiches of the original plot device are identified in the article on The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything.

"A Kind of Stopwatch" in particular is parodied in the following episode of The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XIV" (2 November 2003), in the segment, "Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off."^[4]

In addition, ideas from this episode were used in "A Little Peace and Quiet", an episode in the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone.

In one of the Time Warp Trio books by Jon Sciezka (Summer Reading Is Killing Me), Fred mentions that the town's emptiness reminds him of "a Twilight Zone episode where this guy gets a stopwatch that can stop and start time, and then it breaks when it's stopped and he goes crazy!" which is met with a less than enthusiastic response.

References and further reading

^ "A Kind of Stopwatch" is the title on the script, two versions of which were published in As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Volume 3, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2007). The original scripts (both versions) are part of The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College.
^ http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/07/03/top_ten_twilight_zone_episodes
^ The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: "A Kind of Stopwatch"
^ The Simpsons, Episode 1501

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

The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College, The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Script 124, "A Kind of Stopwatch"
"A Kind of a Stopwatch" at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Twilight Zone (1959) episodes

Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgement Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"

Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "The Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble With Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"

Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"

Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"

Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander With Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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A Kind of a Stopwatch

The Twilight Zone: A Kind of a Stopwatch

Plot

A Kind of a Stopwatch

Plot

Adaptation

Parodies, pastiches, and allusions

References and further reading

See also

External links

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