Twilight Zone episode w/Billy Mumy...

[bliss_eternal]

would you or would you not have tried to kill the little bastard? Making three headed gofers and wishing people into the corn field... Seriously, there had to be a way they could have snuck up on him and well you know...

;)

Sorry to speak this way about a child--but in the episode, he wasn't a child as much as he was an evil monster that controlled the entire town. Other children won't even play with him because he does such frightening, evil things.

[terrya]

1. I think he was able to read people's minds.

Anthony would have caught on to anything like that. At least that's what I reemember.

Let's face it...the kid WAS evil. He had no inkling of right and wrong...and coupled with the powers he had....he should have been "taken care of"

[bliss_eternal]

4. It was a hobby of my brother's

when we were kids and that episode aired, to sit and think of ways they could have killed him. I think that episode just does that to people.

He WAS evil. But what if they thought good thoughts, while sneaking up on him and beaning him with a bat...?

[Left Is Write]

5. I think he'd still know their intentions.

I think it would be impossible to sneak up behind someone with the intent of bludgeoning them to death while thinking of something else.

[bliss_eternal]

9. LOL! You're right...

which is part of why that episode is so interesting. They are all so horribly trapped, by the whims of an evil child--who everyone obviously wants to do away with, but they can't dare even think it. You can see it in their eyes and all over their faces, but as long as they dare not think it, they get to continue to live their trapped existence.

Interesting trade off, isn't it?

[Left Is Write]

2. Ol' Jack-In-The-Box Dan tried to get someone to do just that.

I suppose they were all afraid of what he would do before they could actually do away with him...being he could read their "bad" thoughts and all.

Cloris Leachman was so young and slim and pretty in that episode.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. I thought it was clever that Cloris appeared in the remake too

Anthony was a scary little monster.

[bliss_eternal]

7. Poor Dan--

at the very least, they could have thought good thoughts of how they would all be free if they beat the livin' crap out of him.

You almost don't recognize Cloris Leachman, she's so pretty. Other then maybe her role as Phyllis on Mary Tyler Moore, she's made a career of playing old, funny women.

[LaurenG]

6. That was a scary kid. nt

[bliss_eternal]

8. Which is the briliance of the episode--

it's horrible to think of ever doing harm to your child, no matter how bad they are--it's horrible. How can something that should be guileless and innocent be so completely evil? It's hard to watch that episode and not think it about how miserable all the people in the town appear to be, living under the whim and will of a child with unbelievable powers.

The clever thing is that they constantly have to say 'how good' everything is even when it is absolutely not good. Though they all have their lives, how good are their lives really when this child is running everything in the town, unchecked, unchallenged because of the power he wields. Creating monstrous creatures and turning humans into jack o lanters, making it snow and ruining the crops and their source of food.

Makes one think of a lot of situations in life, of unchallenged power gone wrong doesn't it?
;)

[EstimatedProphet]

11. That's the point too

He wasn't "evil" in the way people think of evil-he was just a kid.
Any kid would turn into that with no rules and infinite power. They don't know right from wrong yet, because they haven't learned it.

[bliss_eternal]

12. Great point!

I hadn't thought of it, quite that way but you bring up another level of the episode to be considered.

Everyone's afraid of him, so they can't discipline (punish or reprimand) him or risk being turned into something awful and wished off to the corn field. Really interesting, isn't it?

[REP]

19. Oh Yes He Was - Read The Short Story

It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby. He was evil.

[Yollam]

10. That kid reminded me of Dumbya big time.

Obnoxious, egotistical, surrounded by brown-nosers scared to tell him the truth, throws deadly tantrums...

If the adults around him had kept repeating "But he's a good CHRISTIAN boy", it would be exactly like America, circa 2001~2005.

[bliss_eternal]

13. LOL! Totally!

Part of why I love the episode. When you really think of it, the little boy could be a metaphor for a various aspects of society... government, religion, authority figures, etc.

But he does seem a lot like * , trying to wish away all the gays to take attention away from the war he has created, or three headed gophers--same thing. ;)

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I don't think he was evil at all - his actions, maybe, but not the child.

I don't thinnk he did anything with evil intent - he simply did not know right from wrong; did not understand that power has an ethical rubric to its use.

He was every bit a child, with too much power. I think any child with power like his would be substantially the same.

Just like Fuckstick McAWOL; except that Fuckstick actually IS evil since I think he DOES know right from wrong.

The best description for the child would be that he is psychotic, which is a mental condition, not an ethical or moral condition.

[bliss_eternal]

15. This is why I love this board--

intelligent discussion about the most varied of subjects. :D

I LOVE that you don't see him as evil, and that you've opened my mind to another possibility--Very cool!

You're right, Fuckstick McAwol is indeed evil. I sometimes wonder how much of his evil is organic and how much is inspired by trying to impress his father? That in addition to pure avarice... Well, you know...

[EstimatedProphet]

16. Anyone see the latest one that just aired?

It was new to me. Plotline followed a man scheduled for execution, and how the sun doesn't come up that day. It turns out that hatred was generating darkness. the townspeople wanted him executed for murdering a racist, and he hated them all in return as much as they did. Eventually darkness took over after he was hanged. Powerful story.

[bliss_eternal]

18. EstimatedProphet--

forgive me for responding to this so late--I didn't see this until now.

I actually missed that episode when it aired tonight, but I've seen it before. From what I remember about it, you're right it is a powerful story.

Isn't it interesting that so many Twilight Zone episodes have so much relevance today?

[NMMNG]

17. Basically he was a little sociopath with magical powers

Sort of what GWB would love to be, but isn't. Pretty creepy. :scared: