The Jeopardy Room
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“The Jeopardy Room” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
[edit] Details
- Episode number: 149
- Season: 5
- Production code: 2639
- Original air date: April 17, 1964
- Writer: Rod Serling
- Director: Richard Donner
[edit] Cast
- Major Ivan Kuchenko: Martin Landau
- Commissar Vassiloff: John van Dreelen
- Boris: Robert Kelljan
[edit] Synopsis
Trying to defect, Ivan Kuchenko is trapped inside a hotel room with Commissar Vassiloff, a hitman, and Boris, his assistant, in the room across the street. Vassiloff has planted a bomb in the room and Ivan must find it within three hours. Vassiloff has hidden the bomb in the room’s telephone, where it will be triggered by an incoming call. Ivan manages to escape and also causes Boris to trigger the bomb accidentally, killing himself and Vassiloff.
[edit] Trivia
- This was the last episode written by Rod Serling to be produced.
- This was an unusual entry in the series as it contains no supernatural or science-fiction elements. Other such episodes include “Where Is Everybody?”, “The Silence” and “The Shelter”, this one being the only one to not even include "strange" elements, dealing only with a complex assassinaton plot.
- On September 18, 1964 this became the final Twilight Zone to be broadcast (as a rerun) in its original Friday night timeslot on CBS. The following week saw the debut of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in Twilight Zone’s place.
- The 2004 horror movie, "Saw (film)", has a similar concept.
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)