A Stop at Willoughby

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The Twilight Zone original series Season one (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) Fall 1959 – Summer 1960 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: Where Is Everybody? One for the Angels Mr. Denton on Doomsday The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine Walking Distance Escape Clause The Lonely Time Enough at Last Perchance to Dream Judgment Night And When the Sky Was Opened What You Need The Four of Us Are Dying Third from the Sun I Shot an Arrow Into the Air The Hitch-Hiker The Fever The Last Flight The Purple Testament Elegy Mirror Image The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street A World of Difference Long Live Walter Jameson People Are Alike All Over Execution The Big Tall Wish A Nice Place to Visit Nightmare as a Child A Stop at Willoughby The Chaser A Passage for Trumpet Mr. Bevis The After Hours The Mighty Casey A World of His Own

“A Stop at Willoughby” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 30
Season: 1
Original air date: May 6, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Parrish
Producer: Buck Houghton
Music: Nathan Scott

[edit] Cast

Gart Williams: James Daly
Mr. Misrell: Howard Smith
Jane Williams: Patricia Donahue

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Gart Williams is an advertising executive who has grown exasperated with the stress of the business life and whilst being unable to sleep properly at home, constantly drifts off for short naps on the train during his daily commuting and dreams of a peaceful place called "Willoughby." After he finally snaps at his workplace, he exits the train while in his dream so he can live in Willoughby. In reality, he jumped off the train to his death. His body is eventually loaded into a hearse owned by Willoughby & Son Funeral Home.

[edit] Trivia

The “Bradbury account” is a reference to seminal science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who wrote the Twilight Zone episode “I Sing the Body Electric”.

In the story, the main character, Gart Williams works in New York but resides in the Connecticut town of Westport, which is a real town. Writer Rod Serling himself actually lived in Westport and commuted back and forth to New York City briefly in the latter part of the 1950's before he relocated out to the west coast. Also: in the scenes the train conductor walks down the aisle and reads off the list of upcoming town stops, all of which exist in real life, and are read in the correct order if one takes the Metro North Commuter Railroad (New Haven Line) from New York City's Grand Central Station.

Willoughby is also a real city in Northeast Ohio. Rod Serling lived for a time in Canton, Ohio, and if he traveled to New York by train would have ridden through the town (which did indeed have its own stop).

The town square still looks today much as it did over a hundred years ago, right down to the statue honoring local Civil War soldiers.

[edit] Themes

The theme of a man working in the business world, and the work environment becoming increasingly stressful (to the breaking point) is a familiar theme in the Twilight Zone. This theme is similarly explored in “Walking Distance”, “A World of Difference”, “The Brain Center at Whipple's” and two Serling teleplays from before and after The Twilight Zone: Patterns and the Night Gallery episode “They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar”.