"The Chaser", Poll and discussion thread

A man buys a potion from "Professor A. Daemon" to win a woman's love.
Originally aired May 13, 1960.

List of musical cues

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The only first-season episode that hasn't been commented on yet. I'm going to start off by saying some good things about it, because I know I might be the only one. I've come to like this. Entertaining throughout for me, with maybe two weak moments that I've gotten used to. George Grizzard is likable enough, despite his faults (sort of reminds me of Michael J. Fox, especially vocally); Patricia Barry has some very funny dialogue after she becomes enthralled by George; and John McIntire is a hoot. I also like the "Street Moods In Jazz" cue, and those shelves of books are fantastic. It makes you wonder what else he could have in there. I'm going to take the plunge and give this a 7.

Let posterity record that this was Matthew Cregg's least favorite Season 1 episode. He wasn't that high on "Bevis," either. A pity.

I've always liked "The Chaser", and I think I like it more now than when I was younger. I think it's fairly successful as a TZ comedy, which is saying a lot. I especially think it's funny the way Roger just passes out at the end at the thought of spending the rest of his life with Lela.

I agree with Mr. B, I also went with a '7' for this episode. When I watch it, I recall the episode "Loved To Death" from Tales From the Crypt...similar in nature regarding a man using a potion to make a woman fall in love with him.

The woman is annoying, Roger is a weenie and John McIntyre saves it for me enough to earn a "6."

Leen

It's terrible. Another one for my 'Do Not Watch' list. Roger is annoying, and post-potion, Leila is so cloyingly googie-eyed over him, it makes me sick. Blech.

She did have a funny pre-potion line, though--"Why don't you take a flying leap at the moon?" Classic put-down.

"The Chaser" isn't THAT bad. It's an entertaining enough little story. George Grizzard as Roger and Patricia Barry as Leila both did a nice job.

I thought the entry to the Professor's Library was cool. It's inside doorway had a "Get Smart" feel to it. The ending was pretty surprising,too. Leila really drops a bomb on Roger.

"The Chaser" wasn't great but it wasn't awful, either. It was a slightly below average episode for me.

Not a bad episode, another "careful what you wish" lesson,
actually given better performances and production value
than John Collier's original short story deserved.

The Definitive Edition includes an alternate audio track for this episode,
which consists of a 1978 Zicree interview with director Douglas Heyes.
In it, he describes the various sets used for Professor Daemon's home.

The front door opens on its own, to reveal the inner doors, which are
miniatures, designed to create an illusion of distance. The next shot
is of the full-sized inner doors, which are not attached to any walls,
and which slide apart without boundaries, in order to allow the camera,
and the crane upon which it rides, to enter into the library set.
(A telling shadow is briefly seen on at least one of the inner doors.)

The library set consists of nothing more than the bookshelves,
which are backlit through the cheesecloth behind the books.
Reportedly a very expensive scene to shoot? Not sure why.

Thank God I'm not the only one to like this episode. I've always found it funny. I like George Grizzard a lot and his exchanges with the professor are quality. I gave it an 8.

Gave it a 3. For a long time I've felt it's so bad it's just not worth commenting on BUT since it's getting some buzz now thought I'd throw my two cents worth in. Oh, it's my least favorite season 1 episode with Bevis right there ahead of it...

Of the 29 previously published stories adapted as episodes for TZ, 28 appeared in The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories (edited by Martin Harry Greenberg, Richard Matheson, and Charles G. Waugh). The exception is "The Chaser" by John Collier. You can find it online here. It's at the same website at which GreenGuysMama found "It's A Good Life" by Jerome Bixby, so my thanks to her for making it possible for me to find it.

"The Chaser" was in a literature textbook I had in 10th grade.

best episode i love it

Question: Would it have made more sense for Roger to buy some more of the love potion for himself, drink it, and then love Leila as much as Leila loved him? Or would this have been just too nauseating all around?

The other day I read something just briefly about the plot of the opera Tristan und Isolde, and I gather that something like this happpened (in other words, two people loved each other very intensely because they both drank a love potion). The story doesn't end happily. I don't know all the details, and I'm not sure I've got even these details exactly right, but I don't have time to check them right now. Maybe later, though.

to answer your first question.. didn't roger already love leila as much as she loves him post potion? isn't that why roger gives her the potion? but the potion put a spin on this love by making it a cloying, 'i can't be without you' love on the drinkers part. that is the 'punishment' that comes with forcing the will of another for your own gain.

now to comment on the episode.. likable enough -love prof daemon and his library, but i can certainly do without that annoying leila. also, never understood why someone would want to change someone else. if you like someone, it is for who they are. changing them might change the things you like about them.. hence the lesson learned by roger.

oh.. and to answer your second question.. yes it probably would be too nauseating.

-ag

Interesting twist on this question, adam. Hey, maybe Leila should have bought a love potion for Roger after realizing that he didn't love her as much as she loved him! And then she could have fallen out of love with him after he got nauseating again. That ending might have been at least as good as the one they used.
***SPOILER***




I like this episode, but the part at the end about the "little rabbit" makes me a little queasie weasie. I guess they couldn't say "pregnant" yet on television (they did eventually on "Ninety Years Without Slumbering").

i wouldn't want no love potion for a woman to fall in love with me she can do that on her own.

Good point, damin. Does Leila really love Roger? Is her love real?

I brought this up on Matt's website once; I get the distinct impression that J Pat O'Malley's character just used the "glove cleaner" on his own 'Leila', hence the emergency phone call...anyone else come away with this??

still the best episode

A fun time. Its interesting to note the camera angles on the actors capture the emotions well. Its one of those eps you will watch and still laugh at even if youknow what to expect.

This is an entertaining episode, but objectively it isn't that great. I gave it a '6'.

The worst episode of season 1.

At least it's not a 24-minute one-liner ("A Nice Place to Visit", anyone?).

WHAT??? i think you need you watch it all over again.

At least it's not a 24-minute one-liner ("A Nice Place to Visit", anyone?).

Which is why my conscience advised me to give this episode a "10". Speaking of Love Potion, the Johnson Smith Novelty company was selling gag "Love Potion" spray in the early to mid 1980's.

Interesting.
Peace

Does anyone know why the "next week" promo for "A Passage For Trumpet" was done in videotape? To my knowledge this is the only videotaped passage in all of Season 1.

It didn't look like videotape to me (as I remember it, but I could be wrong), it just looked like poorer than average quality. When I videotaped the next week promos from PBS back in the 1980s, this one looked the same way--I guess it's the only existing print of that promo.

I didn't care too much for this episode when I was younger now I really get a kick out of it,I especially like how cheap the love potion is John McIntire is great in this episode he really makes it work an his veiwpoint is very much needed for balance.Not a classic but still quite enjoyable. I gave it 6 zones.

its so crappy its good

This one has slipped a bit for me. The beginning is among TZ's dumbest. On the other hand, Professor Daemon is still da man.

It's so crappy it's crappy.

if anyone has ever watched the season 3 opener for Tales from the crypt will notice that its almost the exact same idea ....

Loved to Death (Originally aired on 6/15/91)

Starring:
Andrew McCarthy, Mariel Hemingway, David Hemmings and Kathleen Freeman
An aspiring screenwriter slip a beautiful actress a love potion. The love potion causes her to become obsessed with him, and she won't ever leave him alone. Desperate, the young man tries to poison her, but he ends up drinking the poison and dying. The actress finds him in the afterlife - it seems she commited suicide by jumping out of a window, and she looks the worse for wear from it.

Very similar indeed...thanks, SVB. Nice twist.

I remember seeing it on original broadcast. Thanks for the reminder, SVB!

I remember that one too. And as of a few years ago, that's not the only link to TZ that Mr. McCarthy has now.

This is one that I never really liked.
It could have been better, but I just didn't like the story much to begin with, so I don't really know what I would change, except possibly the channel.



All that aside,..........Andrew McCarthy is a complete waste of Hollywood space.
His performance, in the 2002 Zone he was in was pretty damn pitiful.

In TZDZ FAN's world, there is only one McCarthy in the Zone. KEVIN McCARTHY.

And Andrew McCarthy, isn't even qualified to hold Kevin McCarthy's.........umm..... bust of Plato.



Thank you and good night.
TZ DZ Fan

A lot of people have said the girl is really annoying, and I aggree, but she's supposed to be! So I found it quite funny. It's one of those episodes that I don't think is a classic but is still fun to watch (like "The Bard")

I dont know, I dont think shes that bad. I still try to figure out if she actually had any feelings for him, and was maybe being coy or whatever. Because she thinks about it before she lets him in for a drink, and the expression on her face is deceiving like there was some feeling there.