1.04 --- Dreams for Sale
 Directed by : Tommy Lee WallaceWritten by : Joe Gannon Starring : Meg Foster, David Hayward First aired : 4th of October, 1985. A handsome woman (Meg Foster, The Osterman Weekend, They Live) is enjoying a picnic with her husband (David Hayward), twin daughters and a dog. The occasion : a new house and husband's raise. Perfect day at the lake suddenly turns awry when woman hears her husband pop the champaigne cork twice, while he insists he did it only once. Soon, his voice becomes distorted and echo-laden, and other sequences start to repeat - he asking her if she feels alright, his voice trembling, and so on. In desperation, the woman screams, only to wake up in a futuristic-like hybernation chamber. We find out that she is a factory worker somewhere in the future, and that the only reprieve in this society is an occasional shot of "dreams" per your choice. The dreamer is convinced that the lake picnic is her reality, but the less-than-friendly dream machine technician (Vincent Guastaferro, who later portrayed Al Capone in made-for-TV Frank Nitti : The Enforcer with Anthony LaPaglia in the title role) remarks that that's just a sideeffect, and hurries her back to the chamber so she can spend the rest of her alotted time. The techie fixes the repeat bug, and sends her back to dreamland. Once there, the dreamer confesses to her husband she had a strange dream about being a worker in a future factory. Right about then, her dream-a-tron shortcircuits and kills her in sleep, and she remains trapped in her picnic dream. Or, better said...liberated. *** This 9-minute vignette, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (later the helmer for TV adaptation of Stephen King's It), is the first of its kind in the new Twilight Zone, and as such, its potential is limited - which doesn't mean it's a bad episode. As it stands, Dreams for Sale is another variation on the escapist idealism which was already used in previous TZ episodes, most notably The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine and A Stop at Willoughby. Yet, it manages to be slightly different by involving a futuristic twist and the idea of human drones being kept in check by pre-programmed lifelike dreams - so next time when you hear someone dribble about The Matrix being the high point of Hollywood creativity, do direct him here. David Hayward looks like the stock 70's soap husband, which was the goal I guess, and Meg Foster is solid if not spectacular, despite her overplaying her "future" part and coming off rather whiney. However, with those amazing eyes of her, I can never find her boring - her glance is just hypnotic. All in all, a solid filler. |
posted by Mairosu at 5:35 PM
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Alvex said ... (7:50 AM) :
post a commentI don't consider this story filler, I think it is the best segment of the episode. Even though it's kind of predictable, I thought it was really chilling and affective.
I've had nightmares like this. I thought this was more suited for an Outer Limits style show than the Twilight Zone, but any way it happens I am glad it was made. Good show and I never tire of seeing Meg Foster.
This would have been intolerable at a full half-hour; at a shorter length, it's just fine. We're introduced to the problem, get our twist and then then wrap-up quickly and efficiently. And the twist and the ending are disquieting, giving us something to think about. Not an all-time top-shelf classic TZ, but still solid.
Meg Foster is hot. Her, Charlotte Rampling, (young) Kirstie Alley, and another one I can't recall all had that hot look.
It's a solid silver, mostly bc it predates other similar ideas.
This is a movie from a long time ago and I remember it back then and I watched it on the internet. This is how I see it make Foster's character as a futuristic worker doesn't seem to have much of a life at least it doesn't seem like that otherwise she would rather stay in her real life then go back in the doesn. the drink for her has the perfect husband perfect daughters and perfect dog with a perfect life. I think this was excellently done
Doing the word activated thing so my reply to this because I'm the one who just put it out. What I meant to say was Meg FFoste. And what else I meant to say was the dream for her as a perfect husband daughters and perfect dog with a perfect life
This was an okay episode. My wife thought the DVD was scratched during those broken dream sequences though. :)
This episode short had similarities to Rod Sterling's "A stop at Willoughby" where the main character is much happier in an idylic dream they've been having than they are in their dismal reality. And both examples also have the character when they go back to their pleasant dream the last time, they go back one way because for some reason they die. In "Willoughby", the character kept dreaming about viewing an idylic 19th century town from a train at the town's station and kept wanting to get off the train into the town. In his third dream there, he finally did but died while doing so because in reality he simultaneously stepped off a real train and was killed. In "Dreams for sale", the main character was in and out of an idyllic countryside picnic through going back and forth from the futuristic dream machine. And she died her last time going back to that dream because the machine permanently malfunctioned in some way to where she wouldn't be able to ever wake up again. It's easy to figure out how jumping off a train can kill somebody, but I'm not fully clear how a dream machine breaking down can kill someone. However, because dream machines don't really exist and because it's the Twilight zone, we just gotta go with it