50 Years of The Twilight Zone: A Stop At Willoughby
The Twilight Zone Original Series Episode 30
A Stop At Willoughby
Original airdate:6 May 1960
Written by: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Parrish
Producer: Buck Houghton
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Music: Nathan Scott
Cast:
Gart Williams: James Daly
Jane Williams: Patricia Donahue
Mr. Misrell: Howard Smith
Hello Ghouls and Boils,
Thank you for joining us one last time for our 50-year anniversary of The Twilight Zone celebration. I realize there has been a gap between articles. The last two months of 2009 have been quite tumultuous for me. Thankfully it hasn’t all been bad… but I have experienced some big life changes that have kept me from my writing. No worries, I am back and SNS will be in full swing once again. Thank you all for your patience and understanding. Today I am going to talk about another favorite episode of mine – second only to “Time Enough at Last” – “A Stop At Willoughby“. Please feel free to discuss in the comment section, we welcome your opinions. I won’t keep you waiting any longer! Enjoy my fiends!
Abstrusely,
Sarah L. Gerhardt
Brief Synopsis:
“This is Gart Williams, age thirty-eight, a man protected by a suit of armor all held together by one bolt. Just a moment ago, someone removed the bolt, and Mr. Williams’ protection fell away from him and left him a naked target. He’s been cannonaded this afternoon by all the enemies of his life. His insecurity has shelled him, his sensitivity has straddled him with humiliation, his deep-rooted disquiet about his own worth has zeroed in on him, landed on target, and blown him apart. Mr. Gart Williams, ad agency exec, who in just a moment will move into the Twilight Zone— in a desperate search for survival.”
To say that Gart Williams is an unhappy man might be an understatement. He is at the end of his rope. He is an ad executive who is overworked and underappreciated. After losing a major account, he is distraught. When he falls asleep on the train home and hears the call for Willoughby. The conductor tells him it is a place where a man can “slow down to a walk and live his life to full measure”. He doesn’t get off the train. He awakes and is at his normal stop. When he tells his wife she merely laughs it off and ridicules him for believing such a place could even exist. When the pressures of his job push him over the edge he phones his wife to tell her he is quitting, but she hangs up on him. On the train ride back home he falls asleep again and hears the call for Willoughby… will he take the stop this time?
“Willoughby? Maybe it’s wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man’s mind, or maybe it’s the last stop in the vast design of things, or perhaps, for a man like Mr. Gart Williams, who climbed on a world that went by too fast, it’s a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is a part of the Twilight Zone.”
Full episode recap and thoughts:
WARNING SPOILERS (I will talk about the ending of the episode. If you have not seen it and you would like to be surprised come back after viewing. See the full episode on CBS >here< !)
Gart Williams is an overstressed New York advertising executive. But the stress doesn’t stop at work for poor Gart, his wife is a shrew and not at all supportive. He is just one step away from falling over the edge.
The opening scene takes place in a board room. A group of balding, chain-smoking white men look angrily at Gart, awaiting the arrival of a promised pitch for a major account. Mr. Williams paces back and forth reassuring the men that the young exec he had handling the account would be along any moment. Just then the secretary comes in with a note from the young man; he left the firm and took the client with him. This obviously displeases Mr. Misrell (his boss) and he doesn’t hesitate to tell him about it. He lectures him on how this is a “push-push-push” business. Eventually Gart has enough and says a thing or two of his own, storming out of the boardroom and leaving the others shocked. I love the way this scene is setup. There is a long, typical boardroom table with overflowing ashtrays and a large window showing the skyscrapers that surround the office building. It is beautifully shot.
James Daly does a fantastic job playing a man on the verge of losing it. You don’t doubt for one second that the slightest thing could tip the scales in the worst possible way. You may remember him from Planet of the Apes (He played Honorious) or his appearance in Star Trek (one of my favorite episodes Requiem for Methuselah he played the character Flint). His TZ performance as Gart will always be the way that I remember him though.
In the next scene Gart is on a commuter train headed home. Since his home life is not much better than his work life he rarely sleeps. The commute seems to be the best time for him to rest. As he drifts off he is suddenly awoken by a call for Willoughby. When he looks around he notices the train itself has changed. It no longer looks modern. Confused, he asks the conductor where he was. To which he replies: “”a peaceful, restful place, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure.” Mr. Williams looks out to see a wondrous site… children playing, people out for a leisurely stroll… a paradise. Yet, he does not get off the train. He is once again jolted awake and is home. The train has reverted to the same modern train he boarded. When he asks the conductor about Willoughby he says he never heard of such a place.
When Gart returns home he tells his wife of his dream. She laughs at him and says he was born too late. She ridicules him by saying she married a man “whose big dream in life is to be Huckleberry Finn”.
The next time Gart is on the train he falls asleep again and once more he hears the call for Willoughby. Just as he is about to get off the train, briefcase in hand, it begins to roll away and he is brought back to present time. He swears to himself that he will get off the next time he stops at the village.
He finally reaches his breaking point at work. He calls his wife for comfort and to tell her he is leaving his job. She simply hangs up on him. Her abandonment is the last straw for poor Gart. When he is commuting home again he falls asleep. The train stops one more time in Willoughby and the conductor smiles warmly, waving him to the door. Gart discards his briefcase, steps off the train and is greeted by the townsfolk who all know him by name. They are happy he has arrived.
In the final scene we are back in the present. The conductor is standing above the body of Gart Williams and says that “shouted something about Willoughby”, just before jumping off of the train, and was killed instantly. His body is loaded into a hearse, and as the back door closes, we see the words Willoughby & Son Funeral Home.
Is Willoughby heaven, a place in the mind of a sick man, another dimension… ??? Oh the possibilities are endless. But I do know, in this modern world where everything is push-push-push and rush-rush-rush it would nice to have a place where one could “slow down to a walk and live his life full measure”. I think as hectic and stressful as life can be, we all can understand Gart just a little bit. It is one of many reasons this is a favorite of mine.
If haven’t seen this episode (and you read through anyway because you don’t care about spoilers), give it a watch. It is available on CBS for free (with commercials) or on Netflix watch instantly. I highly recommend it. And yes, this one will someday be in my permanent collection as well!
Fun Facts:
* The lead actor in this episode, James Daly, is the father of Actress Tyne Daly.
* Rod Serling said this was his favorite episode of Season One.
* The town square used to represent Willoughby still looks much as it did over a hundred years ago, right down to the statue honoring local Civil War soldiers.
We hope that 2010 is spooktacular for everyone. Happy New Year from the Staff at She Never Slept!