Episode
The Twilight Zone: Wordplay / Dreams for Sale / Chameleon
Overview
Salesman Bill Lowery wakes up one morning and discovers, to his horror, that people around him are slowly degenerating their talk into gibberish that he cannot understand. His ability to communicate is needed more than ever when his son becomes sick. Lowery manages to get his son the treatment he needs and discovers he must relearn everything from scratch. On an idyllic outdoor picnic with her husband and their twins a nameless woman becomes confused and disoriented when events begin to repeat themselves. A space shuttle returns from a mission and NASA discovers that something unusual has been picked up. They discover that they have a shape-changing alien in their holding tank that poses a danger to all.
Details
- Series
- The Twilight Zone
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 2
- Air date
- 1985-10-04
- Runtime
- 49 min
Episode context
Wordplay / Dreams for Sale / Chameleon is Episode 2 in Season 1 of The Twilight Zone. It aired on 1985-10-04. The runtime is 49 min.
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Episode 1: Shatterday / A Little Peace and Quiet
A man named Peter Jay Novins accidentally dials his home phone number, and it's answered by Peter Jay Novins.
A harried housewife finds a medallion that gives her the power to freeze time.
Episode 3: Healer / Children's Zoo / Kentucky Rye
Cat burglar Jackie Thompson breaks into a museum to steal ancient artifacts and takes a rare gem that has strange healing powers - he is shot but the gem heals him. Taking on the name of Brother John, Jackie becomes a faith healer but soon becomes too greedy. Meanwhile an old Indian man, Duende, shows up and tells Jackie the relic must go back to where it belongs. Jackie starts to have second thoughts but his partner Harry leaves with the cash and his old bullet wound opens up and he begins dying again.
A little girl's parents are always fighting and screaming at each other. She takes them to the Children's Zoo with a special invitation and she gets something very special, something her parents could not even imagine.
Bob Spindler, a drunk driver, arrives at the "Kentucky Rye" bar where the customers are all victims of drunk drivers.
More episodes from this season
Episode 4: Little Boy Lost / Wish Bank / Nightcrawlers
A photographer torn between taking a plum overseas assignment and getting married, meets a strangely familiar little boy.
Janice finds a magic lamp at a garage sale. Restrictions and lots of paperwork apply for her three wishes.
A deputy trooper stops by a diner during a rainstorm where a Vietnam veteran's nightmares come to life.
Episode 5: If She Dies / Ye Gods
A year after his wife died a man is involved in a car accident that leaves his young daughter in a coma. On his way home the man has a vision.
Cupid arrives in the modern world. A love spell for his target does not work as well as he hopes.
Episode 6: Examination Day / A Message From Charity
In the far future, twelve-year-old Dickie must pass the government intelligence test. He is very nervous about the outcome of the test but eager to show how smart he is. At the end his parents get the news - Dickie "passed" the test...but the government kills anyone who is too intelligent.
In 1985, a fever-stricken Peter Wood finds himself in telepathic contact with Charity Paine, a sick girl his age living in Puritan New England. The two rejoice in sharing their thoughts, and Peter gives Charity the chance to see things that she'd never experienced in her limit time and place. However, their new-found contact turns to horror when Peter's knowledge of the future endangers Charity's life. She inadvertently speaks of the future, causing the villagers to believe she is a witch.
Episode 7: Teacher's Aide / Paladin of the Lost Hour
A teacher on a violent and gang infested high school has trouble controlling her students. The building is warded by some mysterious gargoyles, which give some special powers to the teacher.
A Vietnam Vet named Billy saves an old man named Gasper from a mugging at a cemetery. He discovers that this old man holds the future of time in his watch.
Episode 8: Act Break / The Burning Man / Dealer's Choice
A landlord hounds a playwright named Maury for his rent. When the playwright's partner dies of a heart attack, he wishes he could become the greatest playwright ever. Maury is transported back in time and meets Shakespeare.
During a heat wave in the 1930's a mother and her son enjoy a drive in the country. They encounter a strange man who wants a ride.
Four friends and a fifth's stand-in get together for a game of poker. The fifth man, Nick, has an uncanny knack for drawing three-of-a-kinds...in 6s. The men figure out that Nick is the Devil, come to claim one of them. The unlucky man offers to play the Devil a game of poker to get his soul free.
Episode 9: Dead Woman's Shoes / Wong's Lost and Found Emporium
Shy Maddie finds a pair of shoes and after trying them on, is possessed by the vengeful spirit of a rich murdered woman.
David Wong searches for something he lost. He seeks the Lost and Found Emporium where he finds others looking for their lost items.
Episode 10: The Shadow Man / The Uncle Devil Show / Opening Day
The smartest boy in school is a target for bullies. At home in bed after an attack, the boy meets the "Shadow Man" under his bed who offers him a solution. The "Shadow Man" is a serial killer, but tells the boy that it never kills the one underneath whose bed he lurks. In defiance of all the curfews, the boy goes out and taunts the killer to show his courage. As the other kids run, the boy stands confident as the "Shadow Man" approaches, only to be told, "I'm not the Shadow Man under your bed."
Parents don't realize that the video their child watches demonstrates magic tricks like turning parents into lizards and giving dogs four eyes.
A beautiful woman and her boyfriend plan to kill her husband on the first day of duck hunting season.
Episode 11: The Beacon / One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty
When Dr. Dennis Barrows's car breaks down, he goes to an unusual town where visitors are disliked and townspeople are terrified of lighthouse and where it might shine. The house where Barrows stays the night is shined upon by the lighthouse. It holds a sick child, one which he helps with his medicine.
Angry with his adult life, a man, Gus Rosenthal, returns to his childhood stomping ground in Ohio and while digging up an old toy soldier finds himself transported back to when he was a boy.
Episode 12: Her Pilgrim Soul / I of Newton
Two scientists named Kevin and Daniel are experimenting with a holographic device. One day they are confronted with a fetus in their machine. Growing, it becomes a woman whose life story fascinates and allures Kevin. A frazzled mathematics professor accidentally summons a demon who will let him riddle to get free of the contract he accidentally invoked. The professor, Sam, has three questions to find a task the demon can't accomplish, or a question he can't answer, then challenge him after the questions are answered. The demon appears omnipotent, but Sam gives the demon a simple command: "Get lost." The demon is banished and Sam goes back to work.
Episode 13: Night of the Meek / But Can She Type? / The Star
A drunken storefront Santa is terminally depressed by the many children who go gift less and starving during Christmas. He is fired from his job at a department store when he shows up late, and subsequently finds a bag that he can pull any present anyone wants from it.
An overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated secretary uses a Xerox machine and wakes up in a parallel reality where no one has heard of her. In this reality, however, secretaries are a revered, rare commodity.
Onboard a spaceship an astrophysicist and a priest learn they have discovered a planet long dead and a transmitter emitting a signal for eons. They discover that the planet holds the last remains of a civilization, which died when their star went supernova.