It's a Good Life

"It's a Good Life"
The Twilight Zone episode
Billy Mumy as Anthony Fremont
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 73
Written by	Rod Serling from the story "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. First published in the 1953 collection Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2.
Directed by	James Sheldon
Featured music	Stock
Production no.	4801
Original airdate	November 3, 1961
Guest stars
Billy Mumy: Anthony Fremont John Larch: Mr. Fremont Cloris Leachman: Mrs. Fremont Don Keefer: Dan Hollis Casey Adams: Pat Riley Jeanne Bates: Ethel Hollis Alice Frost: Aunt Amy
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List of Twilight Zone episodes

"It's a Good Life" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is based on a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby. This episode has a sequel, named "It's Still a Good Life", which tells the story of the town forty years later.

Opening narration

Synopsis

Six-year-old Anthony Fremont looks like any other little boy, but looks are deceiving. He is a monster, a mutant with godlike mental powers. Early on, he isolated the small hamlet of Peaksville, Ohio. In fact, the handful of inhabitants do not even know if he destroyed the rest of the world or if it still exists. Anthony has also eliminated electricity, automobiles, and television signals. He controls the weather and what supplies can be found in the grocery store. Anthony creates and destroys as he pleases, and controls when the residents can watch the TV and what they can watch on it.

The adults tiptoe nervously around him, constantly telling him how everything he does is "good", since displeasing him can get them wished away "to the cornfield", where they are presumably met by a less-than-happy ending. At one point, a dog is heard barking angrily. Anthony thinks the dog is "bad" and "doesn't like him." He casts a spell, to his father's horror. But he dare not show it.

Finally, at Dan Hollis' birthday party, Dan, slightly drunk, can no longer stand the strain and confronts the boy, calling him a monster and a murderer; while Anthony's anger grows, Dan yells for the other adults to kill Anthony from behind - "Somebody end this, now!" - but no one has the courage to act. Anthony points to Dan, "You're a very bad man! And you keep thinking bad thoughts about me!" Before Dan is killed, he is shown, indirectly by his shadow, transformed into a jack-in-the-box with his human head, causing his widow to break down.

Because he is angry at what has happened, Anthony causes snow to begin falling outside. His father observes that the snow will kill off at least half the crops and that they may not have enough food to make it through the winter and people may starve to death. But as the adults look on, worried smiles on their faces, his father smiles and tells Anthony in a horror-tinged voice, "...but it's a real good thing you did. A real good thing. And tomorrow....tomorrow's gonna be a-- real good day!".

Closing narration

Preview for next week's story

Announcer: "And now, Mr. Serling."

Production notes

A variant of or sequel to this episode became the third segment of 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie.

The first sentence and a half of the Opening Narration from this episode is used in Disney's The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions, in the Pre-Show Video. The shot of Serling is cut short, and impersonator Mark Silverman does the voice-over. The original shot of Serling that is used reads "Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a m..." it then cuts away from Serling to a "maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you." The shot of Serling is cut out of the original environment, and onto a shot of one of the Tower of Terror's Maintenance Service Elevators.

References in other media

"It's a Good Life" was parodied on the season three Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II," in the segment, "Bart's Nightmare." In the parody, Bart plays the "monster" character who turns Homer into a jack-in-the-box when Homer goes to kill Bart after Bart sends Homer flying into a goal post during a football game. The segment ends on a more upbeat (though ultimately sarcastic) note, where Marvin Monroe advises Homer to spend more time with Bart (whose omnipotence is diagnosed as a cry for fatherly attention) and, after a day of bonding, Bart turns Homer back to a human and the two share a hug (which is interrupted when Bart wakes up screaming from the dream).

This episode was also parodied in the Johnny Bravo episode "Johnny Real Good", in which Johnny, in order to gain money for a new car, babysits a young boy with godlike powers, and is tormented when he doesn't speak to the boy nicely, including being sent to a literal cornfield outside the boy's house whenever he tries to discipline him.

The opening narration features as the introduction to Michael Jackson's Threatened, from his 2001 album, Invincible.^[1]

Time Magazine named this the second-best Twilight Zone episode, behind "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street".^[2]

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 978-1593931360
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
• Michael Jackson's Threatened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ydpNBwF64

External links

• "It's a Good Life" at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com episode page