Shatterday / A Little Piece And Quiet

The Twilight ZoneShatterday: Peter Jay Novins, a businessman who is disgruntled with his lot in life, accidentally dials his own home phone number from a bar, and is stunned when he hears his own voice answering the phone. The man on the other end claims to be Peter Jay Novins – a man who is content with his lot in life. Stunned to his core, Peter leaves the bar, determined to take steps to starve his alter ego out of his life. But the harder Peter tries to force the “other” Peter away, the more he traps himself.

written by Alan Brennert
based on the short story by Harlan Ellison
directed by Wes Craven
music by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir & Mickey Hart

Twilight ZoneCast: Bruce Willis (Peter), Dan Gilvezan (Bartender), Murukh (Woman at bank), John Carlyle (Clerk), Seth Isler (Alter Ego), Anthony Grumbach (Bellboy)

A Little Peace And Quiet: A harried suburban housewife working in her garden digs up a buried box containing a sundial-like pendant. Later, as her temper reaches a boiling point, she screams “Shut up!” – and time stops. The flow of time is resumed only when she says “start talking,” and only she can move or speak in the interim. Before long, she learns to use this talisman’s supernatural ability to her advantage, but when her world comes crashing down around her, she finds it necessary to stop the clock… and never start it again.

Twilight Zonewritten by James Crocker
directed by Wes Craven
music by Merl Saunders and The Grateful Dead

Cast: Melinda Dillon (Penny), Greg Mullavey (Russell), Virginia Keehne (Susan), Brittany Wilson (Janet), Joshua Harris (Russ Jr.), Judith Barsi (Bertie), Claire Nono (Newscaster), Elma Veronda Jackson (1st Shopper), Pamela Gordon (2nd Shopper), Laura Waterbury (3rd Shopper), Todd Allen (Preppy Man), Isabelle Walker (Preppy Woman)

Notes: Bruce Willis was already hot property at this point early in his career, with Moonlighting having premiered six months earlier; his breakout movie role in Die Hard was only three years away. Melinda Dillon’s other genre credits include the lead female role in 1977’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and the 1985 miniseries Space, a dramatized account of the American space program; she was also Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story (1983). Greg Mullavey had a regular role in the 1970s soap spoof Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The marquee above the movie theater at the end of A Little Peace And Quiet name-checks two Cold War classics, Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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