Season 1, Episode 22.1: Take My Life...Please!

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

Season 1, Episode 22.1: Take My Life...Please!

Airdate: March 28th, 1986
Writer: Gordon Mitchell
Director: Gus Trikonis
Starring: Tim Thomerson, Xander Berkeley

A successful comedian who steals a routine from another comedian ends up paying a high price.

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[fail:safe]

Wow, I loved this one. It really stood out for me.

{SPOILERS}

The story follows a comedian who dies and goes to the after life, when there he is asked to perform for an audience who dont respond to his jokes but instead demand to hear stories about all the horrible things he did whilst alive.

And thats where it gets really good, the stories he tells are really awful and the episode goes to a very dark place. But its the subtities that make the episode.

The comedian at first refuses to tell the stories being requested but then seems unable not to tell them. He then tries to rationalise what he does but just feels all the more guilty for it.

He is heckled from the ever increasing audience, by a man whose face is never reveiled, demanding specific stories. This man never laughs like the other audience members- begging the question- who is he.

bravely this question is never answered, letting the viewer make their own mind up as to whether this man is God or Satan.

In the final scene, after the comedian has admitted every terrible selfish thing he has done and cant stand to be himself- he is told that he will have to perform the same guilt filled routine 3 times a night for eternity.

If the content of the mans sins had been toned down for a 1960s audience this episode would have sat well next to some of the best of the original series IMO.

F:S

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

That's a great review there F:S, and I wholehartedly agree.

My only criticism, and it's not something that ruins the episode, just a bit of a nit-pick, but the opening scene with the comedy bit where he does the gorilla thing was just cringeworthy.

I've seen it before when a comedian is a character in something, especially in the 80's, they really over play it. I know a lot of comedians of the time had this OTT schtick, but that part was just plain embarrassing. Why not actually get something funny for him to do?

A minor quibble in a great piece though.