A Thing About Machines

Infobox Television episode
Title = A Thing About Machines
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Scene from "A Thing About Machines"
Season = 2
Episode = 40
Airdate =October 28, 1960
Production = 173-3645
Writer =Rod Serling
Director =David Orrick McDearmon
Guests =Richard Haydn : Bartlett Finchley
Barbara Stuart : Miss Rogers (secretary)
Barney Phillips : TV repairman
Jay Overholts : Intern
Henry Beckman : Policeman
Lew Brown : Telephone repairman
Margarita Cordova : Girl
Music =
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
Next = The Howling Man

"A Thing About Machines" is an episode of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone".

Opening narration

ynopsis

An ill-tempered writer who reviles and constantly abuses machines starts to think machines are conspiring against him. The people he tells about this write him off as paranoid, but eventually every machine in his house (including his car) turns on him. His typewriter types, "GET OUT OF HERE FINCHLEY." The TV shows the same message, as does the phone. Finchley runs from the house to be confronted by his car. The car chases him to his pool and pushes him in. He sinks to the bottom and drowns. When the police pull him out of the water, they can not explain how he could sink to the bottom when he was not weighted down (normally, a body would float). They figure he may have had a heart attack.

Closing narration

Trivia

There is a display case in the exit hallway of the Tower Of Terror attraction at Disneyland that contains two items relating to this episode. One is a typewriter (with the GET OUT OF HERE FINCHLEY message); the card next to it reads "Almost Writes By Itself". There is also an electric razor; its card reads "Has A Long Cord - Can Follow You Everywhere".According to the book "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic" by Martin Grams, the finale in the original teleplay was to have Finchley cornered against the wall inside his garage. The ending was rewritten to feature a drowning sequence instead.

Preview for Next Week's Story

External links

*
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/a-thing-about-machines/episode/12624/summary.html TV.com episode page]

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). "Trivia from The Twilight Zone". Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
*Grams, Martin. (2008). "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic". Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode List
*Season 2