Jason Robards is always worth watching. While there are some missed opportunities for creepiness, including a fairly glaring continuity are toward the end of the episode, and, as usual, pretty lame day for night shooting, this episode is none the less atmospheric and has a very cool supernatural conclusion.
3 Reviews
The Television
AaronCapenBanner14 November 2014
Jason Robards plays ranger Elliot Brent, whose wife Joanna(played by Stella Stevens) doesn't appreciate him or his job at all. Desperate to keep her happy, he buys her a television set, but she becomes consumed by it to the detriment of all her household chores, causing them to have a big argument in which he accidentally kills her. He manages to cover up the crime, but then he sees images of her having an affair on the television, and when that other man shows up in real life, it pushes Elliot to drastic measures... Good cast in average tale that does have some spooky scenes, but is also derivative of "The Twilight Zone" as well.
This is one re-run I can do without.
mark.waltz25 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
It takes a good 40 minutes for the frights in this to start and it's only a 50 minute show with commercials. Up until then, you're praying for something to happen after frustrated husband Jason Robards accidentally kills his harpy of a wife played by Stella Stevens. she married him, knowing exactly what he does, then complains about boredom when she gets there. What does she do to make the time pass, sit in front of the TV and watch everything and anything that is on.
When she decides she's leaving, they have a fight, she pulls out the plug of the receiver he needs to get important rescue information, and when he pushes her away, she falls, hits her head and is killed. After he arranges it to look like an accident he discovers in the weirdest way that she was having an affair. So when he realizes who the man is, he kills him too and is then haunted by their presence through the television sets that had him witnessing again exactly what happened when she died.
Of course, in stories like this, the dead never stayed dead, and he's been haunted by everything through the television set. I remember a sequence in the "Creepshow" movie (featuring Leslie Nielsen and Ted Danson) that took a similar plot line and made it more interesting in less time. the most interesting element of this is that the TV, after being destroyed, doesn't die, so the haunting continues. It's too bad that so much time has to pass before the real spooky stuff happens.
When she decides she's leaving, they have a fight, she pulls out the plug of the receiver he needs to get important rescue information, and when he pushes her away, she falls, hits her head and is killed. After he arranges it to look like an accident he discovers in the weirdest way that she was having an affair. So when he realizes who the man is, he kills him too and is then haunted by their presence through the television sets that had him witnessing again exactly what happened when she died.
Of course, in stories like this, the dead never stayed dead, and he's been haunted by everything through the television set. I remember a sequence in the "Creepshow" movie (featuring Leslie Nielsen and Ted Danson) that took a similar plot line and made it more interesting in less time. the most interesting element of this is that the TV, after being destroyed, doesn't die, so the haunting continues. It's too bad that so much time has to pass before the real spooky stuff happens.
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