It's a Good Life (The Twilight Zone)

Infobox Television episode
Title = It's a Good Life
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Billy Mumy as Anthony Fremont
Season = 3
Episode = 73
Airdate =November 3, 1961
Production =4801
Writer =Rod Serling from the story “It's a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby. First published in the 1953 collection "Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2".
Director =James Sheldon
Guests =Billy Mumy : Anthony Fremont
John Larch : Mr. Fremont
Cloris Leachman : Mrs. Fremont
Don Keefer : Dan Hollis
Casey Adams : Pat Riley
Jeanne Bates : Ethel Hollis
Music=Stock
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = The Grave
Next = Deaths-Head Revisited

"It’s a Good Life"is an episode of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone". It is based on a short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby. This episode has a sequel, named "It's Still a Good Life", whish tells the story of the town forty years later.

Opening narration

ynopsis

Six-year-old Anthony Fremont looks like any other little boy, but looks are deceiving. He is a monster, a mutant with godlike mental powers. Early on, he isolated the small hamlet of Peaksville, Ohio. In fact, the handful of inhabitants do not even know if he destroyed the rest of the world or if it still exists. Anthony has also eliminated electricity, automobiles, and television signals. He controls the weather and what supplies can be found in the grocery store. Anthony creates and destroys as he pleases, and controls when the residents can watch the TV and what they can watch on it.

The adults tiptoe nervously around him, constantly telling him how everything he does is "good", since displeasing him can get them wished away "to the cornfield", where they are presumably met by a less-than-happy ending. Finally, at Dan Hollis' birthday party, Dan, slightly drunk, can no longer stand the strain and confronts the boy, calling him a monster and a murderer; while Anthony's anger grows, Dan begs the other adults to kill Anthony from behind -"Somebody end this, now!"- but everyone else is too afraid to act. Before Dan is killed, he is shown, indirectly by his shadow, transformed into a Jack-in-the-box.

His widow breaks down, but no matter what happens, the people of Peaksville make sure to think only good thoughts and repeat "That's a real good thing what Anthony did!" and "It's a good life."

Closing narration

Preview for Next Week's Story

References

*Zicree, Marc Scott: "The Twilight Zone Companion". Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
*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

External links

*imdb title|id=0734580|title=It's a Good Life
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/its-a-good-life/episode/12658/summary.html TV.com episode page]

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode List
*Season 3
*It's Still a Good Life