| "There Was an Old Woman" | |||
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| The New Twilight Zone episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 48 |
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| Directed by | Otta Hanus | ||
| Written by | Tom J. Astle | ||
| Original air date | December 17, 1988 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Colleen Dewhurst : Hallie Parker |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
There Was an Old Woman is the forty-eighth episode (the thirteenth episode of the third season (1988–1989) of the television series The New Twilight Zone.
Contents |
| “ | Not so very long ago, before computerized toys and cathode-ray characters did our speaking and thinking for us, one of the storytellers most important tools was imagination. The imagination of an audience. That was how it used to be. Once upon a time... | ” |
A middle-aged woman sits up from her chair in a library as a worker comes toward her. He asks if she needs more time. She says no and that her books don't appeal to the "video" generation. A good story never becomes obsolete, he says. They go on to discuss the sale of her home and how she will enjoy Arizona. A lady walks up looking for Hallie Parker, the lady in question and the children's author of "Creatures in the Closet", the book the lady is brandishing. The lady, Nancy Harris, requests the author's autograph for her son, who apparently is sick. Hallie, apparently overcome by the lady's request, says she would love to come to him and sign it in person. Ms. Harris says she can't express her joy at this, or Brian's, her son's.
When she arrives, Hallie discovers Brian to be very sick indeed, with prescription bottles and oxygen tanks at his bedside. Hallie takes her book over to show him the autograph she wrote out for him. She decides to read to him from her book. They truly enjoy their time together. But Brian asks one thing, will she come back and read some more? Hallie says that she is moving away so she isn't sure.
At her home, Hallie tries to sleep but is interrupted by dreams of laughing children. She is confronted by blowing drapes and moving rocking chairs. As people go in and out of her house, Hallie becomes more and more apprehensive about who might be moving in. And somehow, this apprehension starts to come alive. She actually believes that children are coming in and out of her house. Hallie discovers the book she brought to Brian. Thinking some child might have stolen it and brought it there, she calls the Harris house. She discovers that Brian has died and there is no way his book could've been there. Hallie is confused but then hears voices upstairs. She goes upstairs to find ghostly images of Brian and other children. Brian wants Hallie to stay and read them stories, to comfort them. Somehow, a feeling of relief washes over her and she agrees to never leave them...
| “ | There was an old woman. A page in a book. Mere phrases and words, of which no one would look. But a tale worth telling has a life of its own. Happily ever after, in the Twilight Zone. | ” |