A Kind of a Stopwatch

"**A Kind of a Stopwatch**"
"A Kind of a Stopwatch"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 4
Directed by	John Rich
Story by	Michael D. Rosenthal
Teleplay by	Rod Serling
Featured music	Van Cleave
Production code	2609
Original air date	October 18, 1963
Guest appearances
	Richard Erdman ; Herbie Faye ; Leon Belasco ; Doris Singleton ; Roy Roberts ; Richard Wessel ; Ray Kellog ; Ken Drake
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"	Next →; "The Last Night of a Jockey"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
	List of episodes

"A Kind of a Stopwatch"^[1] is a 1963 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a man acquires a stopwatch which can stop time.

Opening narration

Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: one Patrick Thomas McNulty, who, at age forty-one, is the biggest bore on Earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it's very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence—and ours. Now you think about that now, because this is - The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Patrick McNulty is a self-important, annoying man in his 40s. One day, he is summoned by his boss, Mr. Cooper. McNulty is delighted, believing that his frequent contributions to the suggestion box have earned him recognition. Cooper, however, says that all of McNulty's suggestions deal with fields of enterprise in which the company is not involved and fires McNulty for wasting his time.

McNulty goes to Joe Palucci's bar, where he drives away the other patrons with his opinions about a sporting event. Palucci requests that McNulty patronize another establishment, but McNulty ignores him and buys a drink for the sole remaining patron, Potts, a drunk who spews various phrases from times long past. In return, Potts gives McNulty his stopwatch. Thinking it an odd gift, McNulty quickly discovers that it pauses time for everyone and everything except for the watch holder.

McNulty tries to show Cooper the stopwatch's power in the hopes of improving their company, but Cooper does not understand McNulty and dismisses him. Returning to the bar, McNulty tries to demonstrate the watch's power to the customers, but does it in such a way that they do not understand again.

McNulty steps into a bank with the intention of robbing it, but drops the watch, which breaks and permanently freezes time. With no way to repair it, McNulty frantically begs for help from the frozen people around him.

Closing narration

Mr. Patrick Thomas McNulty, who had a gift of time. He used it and he misused it, and now he's just been handed the bill. Tonight's tale of motion and McNulty - in the Twilight Zone.

Cast

Richard Erdman as Patrick Thomas McNulty
Herbie Faye as Joe Palucci, the bartender
Leon Belasco as Potts, the drunk who gives McNulty the stopwatch
Doris Singleton as Secretary to McNulty's boss Mr. Cooper
Roy Roberts as Mr. Cooper, McNulty's annoyed boss
Richard Wessel as Charlie, drinker in Palucci's bar
Ray Kellog as Fred, who delivers coffee to McNulty's office
Ken Drake as Daniel, last patron in Palucci's bar who tells McNulty, "Come on fella, we're trying to watch."
Uncredited:
Sam Balter: sports announcer on TV in Polucci's bar
Al Silvani: one of the drinkers in Polucci's bar

One cast member, last-billed Ken Drake, had a credited bit part in an earlier episode of the original series, "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (April 1961).

Adaptation

The television episode was later adapted as an episode of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas series under the title "A Kind of Stopwatch", featuring Lou Diamond Phillips in the lead role.^[2]

Related works

Ideas from this episode were used in "A Little Peace and Quiet", an episode in the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone.^{[citation needed]}

The Adam Sandler 2006 movie Click, uses a similar premise, only the stopwatch is a "universal remote" that pauses, fast-forwards, and reverses time.

The episode has been parodied by a number of animated series, including in the Johnny Bravo episode "The Day the Earth Didn't Move Around Very Much"; the Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XIV"; The Garfield Show episode "Time Master"; and "Meanwhile", the Season 7 finale of Futurama.

References

^ "A Kind of Stopwatch" is the title on the script, two versions of which were published in As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Volume 3, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2007). The original scripts (both versions) are part of The Rod Serling Archives Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine at Ithaca College.
^ "The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: A Kind of Stopwatch". Twilightzoneradio.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2013-07-02.

External links

The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College, The Twilight Zone, Season 5, Script 124, "A Kind of Stopwatch"
"A Kind of a Stopwatch" at IMDb

[1] "A Kind of Stopwatch" is the title on the script, two versions of which were published in As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Volume 3, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2007). The original scripts (both versions) are part of The Rod Serling Archives Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine at Ithaca College.

[2] "The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas: A Kind of Stopwatch". Twilightzoneradio.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2013-07-02.

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