Monster of the Day #18

Updated on April 30, 2010 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

“This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge.”

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  • Well, you knew I was going to get to the Mummy sooner or later.

  • brandywine

    Why didn’t they just run away when he wasn’t around? Or clobber the little bastard with a hammer while he was sleeping?

  • He teleported his whole town into some alternate, otherwise empty dimension. So there was nowhere to run to. And since he could read thoughts, it was hard to make any plans to kill him. People tried, but eventually everyone was so terrified of him that they couldn’t act fast enough.

  • TongoRad

    This episode was scarier than a Barnes & Barnes record ;) It was always featured on those Twilight Zone marathons on local TV (how I miss those sort of things, you don’t see too many marathons these days…) and for good reason, definitely a classic.

    Of course, The Simpsons spoof was also right up there in terms of classicosity: “it’s good that you made that horrible creature, Bart.”

  • BeckoningChasm

    I remember reading the original short story and finding it utterly terrifying. In the story, there was literally a blank nothingness at the edge of town, so there was nowhere to escape to.

    And I seem to recall one of the reasons they couldn’t kill him was not because he was telepathic (which he was), but because he literally controlled all of reality.

  • The original short story by Jerome Bixby can be found here: http://nickelkid.net/docs/greats/its_a_good_life.html

  • KeithB

    This is one of the few cases where the short story and the TV version are both excellent. As I recall, the update in the New Twilight Zone was not so bad either, and presented an interesting coda.

  • Rock Baker

    Sadly, this is an episode I’ve never seen! Considering how much of the show I watched whenever I got the chance, I don’t know how I missed it. Closest I’ve seen was the adaptation for the Movie, and its been a while since I’ve watched it either. The concept stays with you though. One thing I did see was a Johnny Bravo episode where they spoofed Twilight Zone episodes. I remember they did a parody of this episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, and, was it called ‘The Doll’? The one with Talking Tina chasing Telly Savalis. I remember laughing pretty hard at the cartoon with the doll, but I probably remember the least of that segment. I also recall getting a big chuckle from Johnny being wished into the corn field.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Ken, next time the mega-ultra-super-lightning Twilight Zone set goes on sale, make sure Rock is aware of it. (Rock, it’s worth the money!)

  • The Rev. D.D.

    I heartily second that. It is really the pinnacle of television series DVD sets.

    Of course, we got really lucky, in that we got it free; a bunch of friends chipped in and got it for us, those crazy wonderful nots them.