"Shadow Play", Poll and discussion thread

A murder convict (Dennis Weaver) tells the people sentencing him to death that they are merely part of his recurring nightmare.
Originally aired May 5, 1961.

Full video of the episode on CBS.com
List of musical cues

This is the preferred thread for any and all of your "Shadow Play" posts--facts, opinions, questions, speculations, and whatever else you can think of.* You can also give your opinion of the episode on a 1 to 10 scale, in the poll shown above.

Let the discussion begin!

*More specific instructions and suggestions about posting questions/comments related to this episode are located here.

a vert god TZ. weaver shows here that he is a great actor. the direction was great too.

One of my favorites! I have some terrible dreams, sometimes, so the thought of being stuck in a terrible re-occuring dream is just dreadful. Awesome episode, awesome closing...

Oooohhhh!

I confess that this is one that I have a hard time suspending disbelief for. I can't believe--even for the sake of watching a fictional program--that I, a conscious being, could be a character in someone else's dream, and I can't believe that the characters in my or anyone else's dreams could be conscious beings. At least that's true when I watch this one. Now when Edward Hall tells Maya in "Perchance To Dream" that she's just a character in his dream, and she says, "I know that," I have no trouble believing her. A topic for future thought . . .

Bobby.. does this translate into "very good?" Or did you morph into some German part of yourself? I just found this amusing, sorry.

I love this ep.

Beev, why not? You think characters in a dream are empty lifeless shells is that it? Smiling vacant things like Aunt Amy?

I believe many times our dreams originate from something that happened to us the day before. For example maybe someone brings up Robert Redford (or add your own name here) and that night they appear in a dream. To me that is why Adam's characters are interchangeable. All these folks who are the players were very real in his life at one time or another.

I cooked steaks under the broiler the other night and when I opened the oven door and pulled out the rack this ep came to mind. Sizzle sizzle.

Leen

http://www.red-arrow-deutschland.de/Grilla..._SteakGrill.jpg

very funny leenzone . my apologies for not catching the spelling errors in two words.

Dennis Weaver's bravura performance makes this excellent episode truly great - one of the single best individual performances of the series. His wonderful expression of emotions is riviting and accomplishes what all great performances should - namely making you forget you are only watching a show and instead, making it seem real. A definite top 10 for me.

http://www.cinefania.com/pics/personas/2/2295.jpg

Great episode--the tense feeling of depseration throughout the episode is what makes this one a winner. Plus, the fact that it's just a repeated dream that happenes over and over adds to the futility the main character feels as he tries to convince the others in his dream that they are just figments of his imagination.

10 all the way. I can find no fault whatsoever in this episode. Never gets old and now I'm a McCloud fan not to mention old Buck McCoy! Anyone remember him?

Let's go way back and how about Chester, Rip?

Awesome episode! A true classic! You can feel his fear.

A good psychological episode...'10' for me.

I gave this a 10. This is usually in my "top-ten list" about 6 or 7 or so. Weaver's acting might have been the best of the Zone. The concept fascinated me, and I loved the other actors too, particularly the DA and the media guy...

I bet this was a great departure role for him after being "Chester" since 1955. He would continue in that Gunsmoke role until April of '64.

One can still see him hosting on The Westerns Channel

Leen

An interesting episode, but I never got into it.

'The Executions of Grady Finch' from the 2002 episodes has a similar ring to this original.

http://www.twilightzonetv.com/guide/images...e_execution.jpg

Not bad for the newer ones, but Shadow Play was always a favorite of mine.

http://leapinbass.com/zone/picture_pages/t...02/tz062-04.jpg

i guess i should add my two cents here..

i never believed that adam grant was dreaming. notice how he never says that he is innocent of the crime he is being tried for. i think that the recurring cycle of trial-conviction-electrocution is his punishment.

in other words -think of rocky valentine in "a nice place to visit". rocky's punishment is the monotony/boredom of 'the other place' while adam grant's punishment is the repetition of his execution.

-ag

****SPOILER****










Interesting. That would explain why we don't see him wake up when he's electrocuted, but instead we just go back to the beginning of the "dream".

Adam Grant, in the flesh!




So you are of the opinion that Adam did indeed commit a crime even though he comments that this is a nightmare.

As you can see from the voting this is one of the most liked eps in the Zone across the board. Me included.

Leen

good to be here!

to answer your question-like i said before adam grant never disputes the fact that he should have been executed; he just would have preferred it done once and not over and over again.

-ag

Very good episode.

9/10

Very captivating episode. Excellent performance by Weaver.

Dreams are one of the most interesting parts of the human mind. Who hasn't woke up in the morning fresh from a dream, thinking that they now have a million dollars, or a new love, or have regained a youthfull age, etc., only to find after a few minutes of racking your brain that it was just a dream and that your life hasn't changed from the night before. And that sad, empty feeling that follows.

Or that feeling of relief, which for me is the more frequent. My recurring dream (not every night, but a few times a year) is being a student again, not having attended a particular class in weeks, and helplessly and hopelessly facing the final exam. This may be based on an actual college physics class that I found myself cutting more often than I should.

A variation takes me back to my days of teaching math. There I find myself approaching the end of the marking period without having given my students a single test or anything else on which to base a grade, and I haven't been taking attendance, either.

Believe me, I feel so much better on waking when I recall that I'm no longer in school on either side of the teacher's desk.

I wish I could remember my dreams a little more often, but I actually rarely remember them. When I was plagued by nightmares as a little kid I started telling myself over and over before falling asleep that I wouldn't have any nightmares, and after doing that for a while I rarely remembered my dreams anymore.

Same dream here, Dan. I also have the variation of not being able to find my locker or finding it but not being able to remember the lock combination.
Another dream I have alot since I became and older guy is needing to go to the bathroom and not being able to find one. Of if I find one, it is FILLED with people and I can't get a toilet. Or there is one but people are all crowded around it talking.

yes.. i've also had a similiar dream about the bathrooms.. i usually wake up needing to go to the bathroom and i assume that is why i cannot go in my dream.

also while dreaming a song starts playing in my dream and i wake up only to hear my radio/alarm clock playing that same song. i guess i need to turn up the volume!

-ag

It's probably already loud enough. Isaac Asimov once incorporated into a short story an excellent theory as to why dreams work this way. (He may very well have heard this elsewhere, but his story was the first time I encountered it.) Your subconscious hears the song and places into your mind a scenario to explain it. You probably have been listening for only a second or so, but your brain translates it into a much longer stretch of time.

Asimov's example is a fire alarm that turns out to be a traditional clock alarm. The supposed time frame of the dream is several minutes, but it would be impossible to coordinate the fire alarm and the clock alarm for so long a stretch. Again, the clock alarm is translated into an instantaneous subconscious sound that creates its own lengthy scenario.

I used to have trouble believing that dreams are so short, but then I gave them a little extra thought. Imagine a dream in which you appear in several places, or numerous separate events occur, or anything that's more than one event in one place. The odds are that you don't experience the actual travel or the actual time passage between events. You experience only the highlights, and your subconscious tells you that time has passed. It's like a teleplay that dissolves from one scene to another at a different time and/or place.

That makes sense, it probably is only the highlights, and the provocative moments that we experience.

I went to a Dream website and this is what their FAQ had to say about people (like me) who don't usually remember their dreams:
So why is it that some people don't remember their dream? This may be attributed to alcohol consumption, certain antibiotics, fever, lack of sleep, high levels of stress, and/or unconscious fears about the content of your dreams. Some researchers believe that certain people have a genetic disposition to forget their dreams as they come out of their sleep.

Ah so...

Here's the link to that FAQ:
Dreams FAQ

I usually don't remember my dreams, and when I do, they're usually so jumbled and disorganized that I can't even begin to try and make sense of them.

Sometimes I wake up feeling uneasy or even scared, but I can't remember what exactly in the dream made me feel that way.

I read once that the dream you're having right before you wake up or your alarm goes off is the one you're most likely to remember the most clearly.

I wonder if Rod ever got ideas from his dreams?

A good episode with some nice acting. I actually think the 80's Twilight Zone remake with Peter Coyote is better.

Ah, yes, I remember that remake. It's the one in which he has this recurring nightmare where he always electrocutes himself while trying to catch a roadrunner.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said "Wile E. Coyote."

I'm watching this one on the marathon. I do still love it. It still stands through the years.

Even though this is certainly far from a funny ep it has its humorous moments. When the DA, Ritchie, goes to visit Adam in his cell the way Adam mimics Ritchie's voice exactly and then he mouths the exact words the DA says and Ritchie says, "Stop that!"

Long Live Shadow Play!

pretty goot episode. i give it a 7.

i really thought/hoped that Adam might be saved from the chair

Rod's message at the end really creeped me out too. i don't like the idea that i could really be part of someone's dream...

Me too!

Me too!

thanks guys. i appreciate that!!

Me too!

thanks guys. i appreciate that!!

ahyukhyuk!

10
Amazing performance by Dennis Weaver!!!
This is one of those TZ episodes that I'll call my #1 favorite if I happen to be watching it.

Anyone watching the TZ rotation today? Kicking it off with this episode...I had to wake up to start it because 'Shadow Play' is worth watching.

Damn straight!