A Kind of a Stopwatch
- Episode aired Oct 18, 1963
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
A man is given a stopwatch that halts time.A man is given a stopwatch that halts time.A man is given a stopwatch that halts time.
Dick Wessel
- Charlie
- (as Richard Wessel)
Ray Kellogg
- Fred
- (as Ray Kellog)
Sam Balter
- Game Announcer
- (uncredited)
Roy Damron
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Rudy Germane
- Office Worker
- (uncredited)
Stuart Hall
- Banker
- (uncredited)
Robert McCord
- Man in Bar Doorway
- (uncredited)
Ray Pourchot
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Paul Power
- Banker
- (uncredited)
John Roy
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Rod Serling
- Narrator
- (uncredited)
- …
Al Silvani
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAn early draft of the script featured an alternate closing shot: One of the "frozen" people, whom McNulty has just run past, turns to face the camera after McNulty vanishes around a corner. It's Potts, who smiles and winks at us...indicating that, as with the watch he gave McNulty, there's a lot more to him than meets the eye.
- GoofsWhen the helicopter is shown frozen in flight the blades are shown as a blur, the result of the rotor moving too fast to be caught by the camera's slower frame rate.
- Quotes
McNulty: [early draft; later revised] Say, uhm... You wouldn't be interested in having dinner, would ya?
Secretary: If the world as we know it was about to end, if you were its most prominent restauranteur, and if I weren't very happily married already, I *might* be. But it isn't, you aren't, and I am; so *drift*, McNulty.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Twilight-Tober-Zone: A Kind of A Stopwatch (2023)
Featured review
You think about that now!
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.
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.
helpful•30
- Coventry
- Sep 20, 2022
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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