The Twilight Zone (TV Series) A Kind of a Stopwatch (1963) User Reviews

Very satisfying and suitably ironic

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 29 January 2008]

In this episode, our anti-hero obtains a stopwatch that somehow has the ability to stop time. At first, it's a cute gimmick, but later, greed sets in and the man decides to use this watch to get rich. He decides he can rob banks and stores and no one will ever catch him because all this can be done in a blink of an eye. From the moment he stops the watch until he restarts it, time is frozen and he can do whatever he wants with impunity. Naturally, being The Twilight Zone, there is a major catch, as in the twist ending, everything comes for naught.

Aside from excellent writing, this episode excels because you can't help but wonder what you'd do if ever this impossible situation actually were to happen to you! Exciting and satisfying--give this one a watch.

"Something tells me this is a very unusual watch".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 18 July 2010]

This episode recalls the ending of 'Time Enough at Last' and takes it in a decidedly different direction. McNulty's (Richard Erdman) stopwatch is the perfect Twilight Zone gimmick because it could be written with an endless variety of situations. Of course the typical scenario involves handing the priceless treasure to a veritable klutz, and so it is here. With no regard for the laws of inertia and gravity, it takes a major suspension of disbelief to accept a helicopter staying aloft in the sky without it's motor running, but that's OK. These kinds of minor annoyances could be easily explained away in The Twilight Zone.

By accident of timing, I caught this one about a week after this year's World Cup soccer tournament ended, and I found it hysterical that McNulty would be touting it as the fastest sport in the world. Almost a half century ago some folks were looking for soccer to catch on in this country and it just never made it on a professional level. In a way I find that somewhat curious, but then again, I don't watch it either. Liked to play it though.

So here again is one of those story endings that make you wonder what the protagonist could possibly do next. McNulty stops the world and now there's no going back and no way out. Did he go crazy? Try to fix the watch himself? Commit suicide? Live unhappily ever after? We'll never have an answer of course, and I don't know if Serling ever expected the viewer to take it much farther than the irony of the ending itself. I wonder about those goldfish though.

Where Do I Find One?

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 31 December 2012]

Richard Erdman acquires a stop watch that, when clicked once, stops time -- except for Erdman himself, who is free to do whatever he likes while everything else, even the goldfish, are immobilized.

It's a kind of remake of "Time Enough At Last," the one in which Burgess Meredith is the only man left alive and intends to devote his life to reading books, except that he accidentally breaks his glasses.

Yet, though it recycles an older idea, it's an enjoyable episode. Erdman is a playful character, the kind who halts time in order to stride into his boss's office at the bank and plant a huge daisy in the poor guy's collar. The ending seems desperate but not tragic.

Delightful

[jcravens42 · 10/10 · 2 July 2008]

This episode would have fit well in the very first season; it's the usual Serling winning formula (though this is adapted from another writer). Richard Erdman has a ball playing a character we all must surely have worked with at one time or another. The gift of the watch is a bit out-of-the-blue, much the same way the guy in "The Chaser" just happens to show up with a helpful, magical address. And like, like "A Most Unusual Camera", you wonder why the main character doesn't figure out the value of the gift much earlier. Still, it's a classic episode and one any real fan will enjoy, and after watching, you will start realizing how often you've seen stories like this in other TV shows and movies that came after.

A Kind of Underrating

[midbrowcontrarian · 10/10 · 9 September 2020]

When Twilight Zone was on TV thirty years ago I video taped nearly a third of them. This episode, along with Long Live Walter Jameson, are the ones I've watched most often, and I'm surprised it's not higher up the ratings list. The idea of time standing still, or at least appearing to, may not be original, see TZ episode Elegy. What for me makes Stopwatch outstanding is the witty, quick-fire repartee, especially between the tiresome McNulty and bartender Joe Palucci, in which our anti-hero invariably comes off worse.

Sneaky Concept That Pays Off

[dougdoepke · 28 August 2016]

Generally light-hearted entry, but with a jarring upshot. Erdman carries the half-hour as the irrepressible braggart, McNulty, who's always dispensing advice, want it or not. He always knows best, whatever the occasion, and it's a tribute to the actor's talent that he makes the character both humorous and not dislikable. McNulty's got nowhere to go after being fired from his job, and except for the gift of the stopwatch would end up an outcast, which ironically happens anyway.

The watch has a magical power to stop time and freeze everything in motion. Press the button again, and everything continues as though nothing happened. I'd never thought of that phenomenon, so right away I'm thinking what I'd do with that power. Anyway, it takes McNulty some time to figure out what he will do, but then there's that ironical upshot. I really liked the episode, though the latent humor is not typical of the series' appeal. But most of all, I'm wondering how they got all those people to freeze in motion while McNulty moves among them. Of course, digital wasn't available, so I'm still wondering. Anyway, kudos to that fine unsung actor Richard Erdman.

The Usual Idiot with an Amazing Gift

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 11 December 2008]

This is yet another story of a man given an amazing gift. Because he is such a knucklehead, he can't figure out a way to use it to some advantage. He is an insufferable bore who goes from place to place, driving people to distraction with his stupid comments. He has no off switch. For whatever reason, a barfly gives him a stopwatch. When you push the stem down, it literally stops everything. There is no thought process with this guy. He uses it to play a few tricks. He tries to get his former boss to reproduce it. He has no credibility. Eventually he does what every Twilight Zone bozo does. He figures a way to get rich. He never protects the watch. He goes right into a bank and takes a load of money from the safe. This lack of imagination and stupidity is typical, and, of course, is what the episode is really about.

The original freeze frame

[lbowdls · 9/10 · 8 April 2024]

The original and best story that spawned 100s of copies, variations and similar scenarios in countless episodes of tv shows and movies!

This is a fantasy but the emotions and people and situations, especially of the main character is definitely seeped in reality. And then the extraordinary reality of something always going wrong when you've thought you've got it made forever!

It's touching and frightening and unfortunately its twist provides us with no happy ending. I feel sorry for the protagonist as he wasn't even an evil bad guy.

I'm surprised this episode doesn't get the famous classic scenario as much as others do, because as I said it spawned so many scenarios!

What Now, McNulty?

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 5 November 2014]

Richard Erdman stars as Patrick Thomas McNulty, a most talkative and opinionated man who drives everyone he meets crazy with his endless suggestions and ideas. One day, after losing his job, he meets a mysterious foreign man named Potts in a bar, then buys him a beer. Out of gratitude, Potts gives McNulty a most unusual stopwatch that somehow has the ability to stop time, freezing in place all people(except the holder of course!) This gives McNulty many ideas on how to get ahead(and get revenge) in his life, but after deciding to rob a bank, a disaster occurs... Erdman is most amusing as McNulty, who isn't really that bad, but it has a memorable premise with a most effective payoff.

To the writers of this episode: You should've made Mcnulty less annoying. You think about that. Will you just think about that?

[richspenc · 6/10 · 30 April 2016]

Yes, McNulty is very annoying. I don't blame the other characters of this episode one bit. The other characters and the idea of the stopwatch is what gave positive points to this episode. I enjoyed some of the other characters in their reaction to McNulty such as the secretary at his job: "you have any more suggestions? Well I have one for you, go jump off a bridge". One of the bar customers: "my apartment is hot, miserable, and tiny, but it has one good thing, no McNulty". Mcnulty's boss Mr. Cooper after he calls him Coop: " Coop!!?" Bartender to McNulty after he runs everyone out again: " the hot weather, my business recession and you are more than I can handle right now". Bar customer to McNulty after he explains that the watch can stop everything: "can it stop your mouth?" Yes, the other people in this episode were funny. Not McNulty though, and once he discovers the time stopping watch that the only guy in the episode that liked him (some old drunk guy) gave him, he then was never able to think of anything that good to use time stopping for. Then he decided to use it to rob a bank where he knew no one could possibly ever see him do it. Then McNulty accidentally does something that bears some similarity to the accident Bergus Merideth does at the end of "Time enough at last". I sorta liked that connection. But the episode as a whole, there are better ones.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 10 April 2024]

Outstanding dark comedy by Rod Serling, certainly a story all of us have thought about at one time or another... What if time could stand still? Even for just a minute or two? Fascinating.

Popular actor Richard Erdman is perfect for the role as the frustrated, everyday guy who happens to meet a strange man in a bar -- who gives him a unique watch for his kindness. The watch STOPS time, but don't click it too much OR ELSE.

One probing question. Where do all these brainiac guys with these bizarre inventions come from?

What a terrific story, and with a familiar cast, namely Roy Roberts (as Mr. Cooper), the dutiful boss not too fond of Erdman, same with sarcastic secretary Doris Singleton. Comedian Herbie Faye (as Joe) is a great addition, who could play both comedy and drama roles.

I agree with the last reviewer. This story is very much (in style) like "A Most Unusual Camera," all about a camera that could take pictures of the future. However, once again, the main character did NOT figure out it's value! If you're an OUTER LIMITS fan, the idea was also used, but in a far more dramatic, life and death situation. Another take on a wild idea.

Richard Erdman, often seen in episodes of PERRY MASON, was a popular voice actor for cartoons for years. He passed in 2019.

Not to be missed, especially for the performances.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 4 remastered. Thanks again to METV for running this classic.

Lightweight time-passing comedy.

[darrenpearce111 · 6/10 · 3 January 2014]

Lightweight but pleasant entry sees Richard Erdman as McNulty, a nomination for the world's most boring man who's only good at filling suggestion boxes and emptying bars. Fortunately the episode manages not to become boring as there's usually a pleasing, if slightly silly, moment just when needed.

I don't think McNulty is as appealing as Mr Dingle (played by Burgess Meredith in series two) or Frisby (played by Andy Devine in series three), although this one doesn't meet aliens like those other oddballs of Serling's comedy entries. Still he's infinitely better than the grisly bores in 'The Mind and the Matter', 'A Thing About Machines', and 'Sounds and Silences'. McNulty is a loser who just cant win and you wouldn't want him to.

Perhaps best watched as light relief after one of the heavier-going Zones.

The Twilight Zone - A Kind of Stopwatch

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 1 January 2015]

I think there are certain Twilight Zone episodes that fall right at the bottom if just because they are average and lack anything particularly noteworthy besides perhaps the novelty of the device used to guide them. "A Kind of Stopwatch" features a lead character so hated by everyone (including Serling who opens with a monologue to get the episode started that considers him a bore with little use in our world, as if he should be exterminated because he lacks anything remotely unpredictable or unique to offer his fellow man) that I wonder how we are supposed to even watch him without disliking him ourselves. McNulty (Richard Erdman) is always talking. He's a lively conversationalist but what he has to say drives everyone crazy. He considers all he says as accurate truth much to the disagreement of those around him. He works at a company with a specific item sold to the public yet in the suggestion box he offers ideas for everything but what his work sells. He hangs around a bar, and what he has to say is so annoying to the customers that they flee in droves just to escape McNulty's presence! Some drunkard likes McNulty and gives him a stopwatch. It freezes time and McNulty carries it around, stopping traffic and people in action. He tries to talk his former boss (who finally fires him because he just can't take McNulty anymore) into using the stopwatch as a device to sell in the company and is quickly disregarded. Finally, McNulty decides to steal from a bank, drops the watch which breaks, and time remains frozen…possibly forever. In a nutshell, we are told right from the beginning we are not supposed to like this guy and sadly nothing helps McNulty gain support by those watching this episode. Instead of feeling bad for the guy's fate (like Burges Meredith in "Time Enough at Last"), there's apathy. Because if those writing a treatment about McNulty have apathy towards him, why wouldn't we? Is there an incentive to invest in McNulty's misfortune? Erdman does wonders with a part that is considered a pariah to the outside world, alone and disregarded, because he is likable with a spirit to him. Sadly he will be even more alone after the twist of the episode as those people who would tell him they wanted nothing to with him he will no longer be able to aggravate. Frozen bodies stuck in position, a watch no longer useful, and McNulty moving among them without their knowledge…bad for him, but good for them. The man who gave the stopwatch to McNulty should have a magic to him, you'd think, but the writers seemed to have little interest in developing him whatsoever. I will say that this turned out to be entertaining somewhat if just because Erdman gives it all he has, but after the episode was over, I don't think it will be in the conversation (or even remotely close) regarding Twilight Zone greats. It belongs in the "middling affair" category of a "Black Leather Jackets" or "The Fear", but Erdman's work here would perhaps encourage a future viewing, I must say.

The Chronometer

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 11 October 2023]

McNulty is an annoying and talkative man hated by everybody he knows. His boss Mr. Cooper cannot support him anymore and fires McNulty. Now he spends his spare time in the bar of Joe Palucci, scaring away his costumers. One night, McNutty meets an old man and buys him a beer; in return, the man gives a stop-watch to him. Soon McNutty finds that the stop-watch is capable to stop the time, and he decides to brag to his acquaintances. However, nobody believes him and McNutty decides to go further with the stop-watch, with serious consequences.

"A Kind of a Stopwatch" is a great episode of "The Twilight Zone". McNulty is indeed an irritating man that likes to give opinion and brag to everybody he knows. But he will certainly regret of his stupid action with the stop-watch. At least in the Twilight Zone. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Cronômetro" ("The Chronometer")

Classic

[leoocampo · 7/10 · 6 January 2023]

One of the most classic episodes. It's not necessarily among the best, but it's really good and is certainly among the ones that is most well remembered by posterity. This is one of those ones that really rides an interesting premise, but it also features an interesting main character, a really fun stereotypically-sarcastic NY bartender, and one of the more ironic of the classic twist endings. This one has a more light-hearted, silly tone to it than maybe is befitting for the topic... not to mention the ending. But it still works well enough to hold up well today. Definitely one of the stories that went on to influence more than a few other storywriters and stories ever since. As far as I know, this was the first.

You think about that now!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 21 September 2022]

Your humble reviewer is a tremendous fan of "Twilight Zone" episodes in which the protagonists are utterly insane, megalomaniacal, and hyperactive... And preferably all three at the same time! The best examples I can give are Oliver Crangle in "Four O'Clock" and Somerset Frisby in "Hocus Pocus and Frisby", both featuring in the third season. McNulty, the (anti-)hero in "A Kind of Stopwatch", would form the perfect trio with these other two loonies.

McNulty the type of guy who never - literally never - stops talking about his own opinions and ideas to improve the world, while constantly using irritating stop-phrases like "isn't that something?" or "you think about that now!". His mania costs him his job and all his friends at the local bar. What do you expect when you make suggestions such as making hotdogs flatter, so they look more like hamburgers, when you actually work for a company that sells women's underwear? I love this man! McNulty's life changes when he comes in possession of a stopwatch that literally freezes the world around him.

The plot itself is of lesser importance, especially because McNulty doesn't do anything useful with his magical device and ruins it as soon as he figures out the true power of it, but the episode is more than enjoyable if only for Richard Erdman as the hopeless McNulty. I sure hope he improvised most of his lines, otherwise it would have been a tough job memorizing everything.

"A Kind of a Stopwatch" ....a less-remembered entry in the series

[chuck-reilly · 29 February 2008]

The 1963 "A Kind of a Stopwatch" is definitely not up to Rod Serling's usual high standards. The plot is overly simplistic and the sudden ending is predictable. An obnoxious and irritating barfly named McNulty (Richard Erdman) is given a seemingly ordinary stopwatch as a gift from a stranger passing through a local dive. It's far from a usual device, however, as McNulty soon finds out that when he stops the watch, all of humanity stops with it. Even helicopters are left hanging in the air as all motion and time ceases to exist. When McNulty clicks the stopwatch back on, everything goes back to normal. There are endless possibilities to a story like this, but Serling takes the easy way out and falls back on one of his familiar themes: too much of a good thing always turns into a disaster. As soon as McNulty realizes that he can become rich in a matter of minutes by stealing every dollar in a nearby bank, the bottom falls out from under him.

Richard Erdman does what he can with this somewhat thankless role. He made a career out of playing McNulty types after a brief fling with stardom in "Stalag 17" alongside William Holden. The rest of the cast is average with the exception of Doris Singleton. She plays Erdman's disbelieving secretary with some vigor and enthusiasm. But like the story itself, she unfortunately ends up on "permanent hold."

You reap what you sew

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 21 June 2021]

A perpetually annoying main character gets more than he bargained for and a life of insanity. It's hard for me to enjoy the episodes centered around unlikeable characters. However, decent effects and an unexpected ending.

Character did too many things a regular person wouldn't do

[michaelk-65398 · 5/10 · 3 March 2022]

I liked the idea of this episode but found the main character too annoying to really get into it. He spends most of the episode after he discovers what the watch does doing really dumb things no one would do. For instance, he tries to sell the watch to his boss. He also messes people's hair and puts flowers into his boss' jacket pocket. He eats a donut and then puts half of it back on the cart. This is what he does with a watch that can stop time. It's not until the very end of the episode that he finally figures out he could rob a bank by stopping time. I just couldn't believe it would take anyone that long to figure out a way to make money with it. Like I said the idea of a watch that stops time was cool but the character was just too stupid for me to get into it.

A terrific premise almost botched.

[fedor8 · 10 April 2022]

It takes a very long 9 minutes of utterly boring, corny, old-school chitter-chatter BS 50s farce until the fantasy aspect of the plot finally starts. It's one of those episodes that is better remembered than it actually is - simply due to the fact that its premise is so good, one of the best in fact.

Serling botched the episode with his lame gags and stupid dialog, but the story - or at least its vast possibilities - is too good to be completely ruined by Serling's writing and broad acting by the cast. Imagine the kind of incompetence exhibited by Serling, when he wastes an entire third of screen time on introductory nonsense in a 25-minute episode - that should have been a feature-length movie. Serling actually believed that this dull character was as important as the premise itself. Should have been made in the 4th season as a 50-minute episode.

I find it a little annoying that the twerp tries to get his measly job back - as if that would be a priority to anyone but a complete and utter fool, right after finding a gadget that makes a person quite literally master of the world. It takes him way too long to realize how much power he'd obtained.

Also, there is no connection between the main character and the magic. Usually in TZ a character gets involved in a supernatural situation that is suitable to them specifically. For example, a misanthrope should have broken the stopwatch, then realized how he misses people: that would be typical TZ irony hence a point to be made. But WHY a "loudmouth" gets this power over time, isn't explained. There is no moral to be had, except "don't steal", and this man was never a thief in the first place.

What would YOU do with a magical stopwatch? Think about that!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 14 April 2022]

Colossal bore McNulty (Richard Erdman) finds himself in possession of a stopwatch that can stop time.

McNulty is probably the Zone's most insufferable character after Horace Ford (Season 4, Episode 15) -- but that only goes to make the ironic payoff to this episode all the more enjoyable. Admittedly, the twist is very reminiscent of Time Enough at Last (Season 1, Episode 8), but that's not necessarily a bad thing, the difference here being that, where Burgess Meredith's character was likeable and we sympathised with his situation, McNulty is hugely irritating, so his fate seems rather fitting.

The story does leave one wondering how best to put such a device to use; I can't say that I would be any better than McNulty -- the temptation to use it for mischief would be hard to resist -- but having seen this episode, I'd make damn sure not to be a butterfingers.

It doesn't have to be that magical stopwatch...

[TheManWhoKnewTooMuch1111 · 7/10 · 17 September 2023]

...in modern day and age when we can have everything we want, this magical stopwatch could be substituted for 1. Wishful thinking law of attraction; 2. Marijuana and psychedelics; 3. Or even food or junk food; 4. If not to keep the modern theme in mind, AI like ChatGPT.

Although I gave it a weak 7, but the message still remains intact. Human folly is such that the moment it gets some magical gift, its greed instantly spoils it - be it medicinal plants or impending from artificial intelligence in the future. We don't know moderation and overindulge in junk food or for that matter people who do ayahuasca use it to as a money making hack if not those law of attraction manipulators.

That was my main takeaway. As far as the story itself, I mainly watch these for the side-characters. Whether it be a charismatic angel or an omniscient omnipotent devil or a street swindler with special gifts - I love how those deus-ex-machina type of fourth-dimensional characters make brief appearance. Probably my own wish fulfilment to live lives like that...

Here we have a barfly who is raving mad. This was different twist than other characters with god-like powers such as the old guy with long flowing beard who also granted all wishes.

Back to the main topic, give an inch to humanity and we want to take a mile. This episode is the pat example.

McMulty, ahead of his time!

[Wes54 · 1/10 · 2 January 2019]

I may be drunk. I may be the only guy who likes McNulty and abhorred everyone else.

I think McNulty had great ideas, and everyone else WAS stuck in a rut. A rut so deep, it made them look like they were standing still, and McNulty was the only one moving.

You think about THAT now!

One of the five worst episodes in the whole series

[aviblack · 1/10 · 17 December 2020]

Must be a matter of taste, given other reviews I see here; but I find McNulty's character so irritating and dim-witted I simply cringe at the idea of ever watching this lame entry again. This from a person who NEVER turns aside an episode, even those I've watched literally dozens of times. Terrible dialogue (egregious example of Serling's too-frequent habit of overusing a phrase, which became worse in year 5 as he was kinda sleepwalking through), unexplainable actions (is the guy really so dumb as to try to restart the watch as he's walking out of the bank with loads of stolen cash, even given he's in a panic?), a telegraphed ending you could see coming from miles away... Ugh. To be missed.