Wordplay (The Twilight Zone)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Wordplay
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Robert Klein as Bill Lowery
Season = 1
Episode = 2, Segment 1
Airdate = October 4, 1985
Production =
Writer = Rockne S. O'Bannon
Director = Wes Craven
Guests = Robert Klein : Bill Lowery
Annie Potts : Kathy Lowery
Robert J. Downey : Mr. Miller
Adam Raber : Donnie
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = A Little Peace and Quiet
Next = Dreams for Sale

"Wordplay" is the first segment of the second episode of the television series "The New Twilight Zone". An overworked businessman (Robert Klein), pressed to learn his company's new product line, is surprised when the entire world starts speaking gibberish.

ynopsis

Bill Lowery is a salesman whose company has switched to a medical supply product line forcing him to stay up all night memorizing medical terms in order to be ready to sell the line in a week's time. His wife tells him that she’s worried about their son who’s ill. As Lowery leaves for work, his neighbor refers to his dog as an "encyclopedia" but Lowery shrugs it off, thinking he heard wrong. Lowery puts in a full morning of trying to cope with the new terms, the jibes from the younger salesmen (about teaching old dogs new "trumpets"), and the surprising usage of words completely out of place.

As Lowery leaves for lunch at home, a subordinate asks for a referral to a good place to go for "dinosaur". Lowery tries to find out why the co-worker is not using the correct word ("lunch"), but the co-worker walks away annoyed. Lowery arrives home where his wife says their son is feeling worse. When she complains that he didn't eat his "dinosaur", Lowery thinks his wife and co-workers have been pulling a practical joke. He soon realises, however, that he is the one out-of sync.

The next day, Lowery becomes frustrated by the increasing level of gibberish. He goes home to find his son suffering from a very high fever. Bill picks up the boy and takes them to the emergency room, where his wife has to handle everything because Lowery cannot make himself understood. The doctors finally come out to tell them that their son is okay.

At the end of the episode, Bill sits down in his son's bedroom and picks up one of his ABC books, studying the basics of the language that he needs to re-learn. Under the picture of a dog, the word is "Wednesday."

Closing narration

Themes

An exaggerated portrayal of a world that is changing faster and faster, and the ordinary man's struggle to keep pace with it.

References/external links

* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone-1985/wordplay/episode/34358/summary.html/ TV Tome episode page]

Back to: The New Twilight Zone, Episode List, Season 1