What You Need

For the INXS song, see What You Need (song).
"What You Need"
The Twilight Zone episode

Steve Cochran and Ernest Truex in "What You Need"
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 12
Directed by Alvin Ganzer
Written by Rod Serling
(Adapted from the story of the same name by Lewis Padgett (pseudonym for Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore). First published in the October 1945 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction)
Featured music Original score by Nathan Van Cleave
Production code 173-3622
Original air date December 25, 1959
Guest stars

Steve Cochran: Fred Renard
Ernest Truex: Pedott
Arlene Martel: Girl in Bar

Episode chronology
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"And When the Sky Was Opened"
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"The Four of Us Are Dying"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"What You Need" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is based on the short story of the same name by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore).

Contents

Plot

Pedott, a peddler, has the curious ability to give people exactly what they need before they need it. The old man enters a cafe where he first gives a woman a vial of cleaner. Then, he gives a down-on-his-luck ex-baseball player bus tickets to Scranton, Pennsylvania. The ball player receives a job offer in the city the tickets are for; and the ball player needs his jacket cleaned, for which the woman just happens to have the cleaner.

Renard, a small time thug, asks Pedott to give him what he needs, and the peddler gives him a pair of scissors which save Renard's life when his scarf gets caught in an elevator's doors. Renard shows up at Pedott's apartment, asking for another thing he "needs," and the peddler comes up with a leaky pen that predicts a winning racehorse.

Renard continues menacing Pedott for more. Pedott gives him a pair of new shoes. When a car suddenly heads directly toward Renard, he tries to run, but the new soles are so slippery, he cannot escape on the wet pavement. He is struck and killed by the passing car. The shoes, Pedott explains to Renard's corpse, were what Pedott needed, because he foresaw that Renard would eventually kill him. At the end of the episode the peddler gives a couple a comb, which they use to groom themselves just before they are photographed as witnesses for a newspaper story covering the "hit and run" accident that killed Fred Renard.

Production information

The original story featured a machine that could foretell an individual's probable future. Serling replaced this science-fiction element with a street peddler who could magically perform the same function.

The final shot before the first commercial (while Serling is concluding his narration) is actually played backwards; looking carefully, one can see smoke returning to Renard's cigarette.

During the scene in Mr. Renard's hotel room a bellhop brings him a newspaper. Renard then opens it and spreads it out on the floor. The movement is quick, but the front page of the newspaper is visible, indicating that it is the same front page used in another Twilight Zone episode, "Time Enough at Last". The headline reads "H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction."

Other media

This episode inspired the song of the same name by British post-punk band The Fall from their acclaimed 1985 album This Nation's Saving Grace.

This episode was also the inspiration for the Stephen King short story "I Know What You Need", appearing in his first short story anthology Night Shift.

The same source story was also used for an episode of Tales of Tomorrow, aired February 8, 1952. That episode is available for viewing at archive.org.

References

External links