1.01 --- Shatterday

Directed by : Wes Craven Written by : Alan Brennert (story by Harlan Ellison) Starring : Bruce Willis, Dan Gilvezan, John Carlyle First aired : 27th of September, 1985. Peter Jay Novins (Bruce Willis) is a new wave yuppie, dedicating most of his time to his business ventures, neglecting family and love interests. One evening, while waiting for his latest girlfriend at a bar, Peter accidentaly dials his home number...which is answered by himself. After several minutes of puzzled cross-examination from both parties, Peter realizes that the person on the other side of the line is him when they both use his favourite catchphrase at the same time. Seeing that the "other himself" is now living at his apartment and leading his life, Peter withdraws all the money from the bank, moves to a hotel room and plots how to make his doppelganger's life more miserable. However, as he finds out through regular telephone contact, it is he who sinks into misery, as the "other" Peter slowly starts to mend broken relations which plagued his life in the past decade or so. He reconciles with his ex's and his current girlfriend, and starts giving more attention to his ill mother, which "old" Peter basically ignored. With every passing day (which are inventively titled someday, duesday, woundsday and shatterday), "old" Peter slowly loses his reality grip and fades away. Finally, on shatterday, he is visited by his alter ego who informs him that his mother will be arriving soon. Old Pete is by this time in wretched state, being barely able to speak, but he does confess regret at his previous lifestyle, and wishes his "new" self a better life. They shake hands, after which old "Peter" disappears, while the new Peter Jay Novins exits the hotel room, ready to lead a new, better living. *** Season one, and thus the new Twilight Zone, opens with this somewhat uninspired piece of split identities, in which one man's quest for better life is presented as a personal disorder (in most literal meaning of that term, that is). Bruce Willis, at that time a virtual unknown, handles the dual role good, but it is obvious that he is better suited to the role of "old" Peter Jay, who slowly disintegrates over the course of the episode. The "new" Peter Jay is somewhat underplayed, coming across not as the better, upgraded person, but more as a smug imposter who does opposite things just for the piss of it - although this is dispelled at the end. Wes Craven, coming off freshly from his Nightmare on Elm Street experience, does a capable job directing this episode, throwing in a neat symbolism in shape of rain - during the personality split, it's raining like hell outside, but once Peter Jay re-invents himself, the sky clears and he leaves the hotel as the sun appears. The story does somewhat echo Rod Serling's old Twilight Zone stories, in a way that the main character finds redemption after meeting an alternate incarnation of itself. It is a stretch, but you could call Shatterday a distant cousin of Serling's Walking Distance, which originally aired 30th of October 1959.