Description: Season 3, Episode 27
Air Date: March 23, 1962
Plot Summary: After a crazy bender, a man awakens to a world where no one remembers him.
Review: I really want to like this episode, but I'm not entirely sure if it does enough to distinguish itself from episodes like "And When the Sky was Opened" and "Perchance to Dream." There are certainly interesting ideas to consider, and a few humorous moments, but the ending is forced and there weren't enough implications in the story to draw any feasible conclusions. The story simply involves a guy named Dave Gurney (who will say his name a hundred times) as he wakes up from a night of next level drinking. His hag of a wife doesn't stir despite him touching her, rolling around on the bed, and talking quite loudly; what kind of meds was this chick on?! When getting ready for work, Dave finally gets that wife up, and she claims she has no idea who he is. For whatever reason, Dave brushes this off and goes to work where the same routine occurs of no one knowing him. This leads to him being arrested and then committed, because what else would you do with someone in the '60s? This part was kind of annoying since the psychiatrist keeps trying to explain to Dave how he's crazy despite the fact that Dave knows all these individuals' names, histories, phone numbers, etc. Maybe nowaday you could pull that off, but, back then, it would at least make a rational person curious as to how this guy knows everything. But, alas, the psychiatrist won't listen which forces Dave to jump out a window randomly. Don't worry though, they were on the first floor and everyone knows broken glass can't hurt you in TV-land.
Dave sets out to prove someone or thing is trying to erase him from existence by checking out various details in his life no one would have known about. First he goes to his favorite bar, pulling a reverse "Cheers," and second to a photography place or whatever it was supposed to be. At first Dave finds a photo of he and his wife, but the psychiatrist shows up seconds later and the photo has changed to just Dave. Crying like a bitch, Dave wakes up from another drunken stupor and now his wife recognizes him. All seems to be well except Dave doesn't know who the woman is that claims to be his wife. Look buddy, this new chick is A LOT better looking than your last wife so just relax and go with it! Overall, it's not too bad of an episode despite all the similarities. If there was a final plot point that tied things up, or left an inference for the audience, I would have liked this episode significantly more. As it stands, we are left with too many unanswered questions that we were already left wondering about in those other episodes.
The "new" wife looked better and was less of a bitch too, of course the new wife wasn't dealing with a strange man in the bedroom though since the situation was reversed now.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the name David Guerney was said too many times.
Why, I ask, didn't Dave show the picture of him and his wife to the photo lady when he first saw it before the photo changed to just him? Then, there would've at least been a witness to help testify that Dave wasn't 100% delusional.
It's true that it would be alot easier for someone to pull off today what everyone thought Dave was pulling, with him knowing so much, with the internet today.
This episode was similar to the TZ ep where the actor suddenly thinks that he's in real life the character of the show he's preforming, and his bitchy (but hot) ex wife is chasing him down for alamony money.