Many, Many Monkeys

Last updated
"Many, Many Monkeys"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 61
Directed by Ryszard Bugajski
Written by William Froug
Original air dateMarch 18, 1989 (1989-03-18)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
 Previous
"Rendezvous in a Dark Place"
Next 
"Love is Blind"
List of episodes

"Many, Many Monkeys" is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone , first broadcast in 1989. The episode was written in 1964 for the final season of the original The Twilight Zone series by producer William Froug, but though CBS bought the script, they chose not to use it. Froug believed that they found it "too grotesque." [1] It remained shelved for more than twenty years until it was made as an episode in the third and final season of the 1980s Twilight Zone revival. The episode is a medical drama centering on an epidemic which causes people to go blind.

Contents

Plot

Shortly after entering a hospital emergency room, Mrs. Reed goes blind from cataracts. While Nurse Claire Hendricks is visiting her hospital room, Mrs. Reed tells her that they are two of a kind. Uninterested in her cryptic remarks, Claire leaves. Mr. Reed is brought to the hospital, having been abandoned by Mrs. Reed after he started going blind.

The spontaneous cataract development proves to be an epidemic. Claire, despite her incredible workload, visits with Mrs. Reed again. Mrs. Reed again says they are alike and claims the blindness is divine retribution on a human race that has become indifferent to suffering, like monkeys—see no evil, speak no evil, etc.

A report surfaces that an explosion at a biological research laboratory released several unstable forms of bacteria into the atmosphere just hours before the outbreak. Claire tells Dr. Peterson that she is nonetheless now convinced that Mrs. Reed is right, and she feels that she herself has become unfeeling towards her patients and to her own husband. Dr. Peterson argues that she has only maintained the professional distance necessary to do her job, but she is unconvinced. After talking to him, Claire succumbs to blindness.

A surgery is developed to remove the cataracts. Dr. Peterson asks Mrs. Reed to visit Claire and cheer her. Though she has not yet had the surgery, Mrs. Reed is hopeful and convinced that the discovery of the bacteria proves she was wrong. However, Claire argues that the presence of a scientific explanation for the epidemic does not mean it is not divine retribution, and that if they treat themselves with surgery, the same affliction will strike them down in another form. Concerned, Mrs. Reed asks Dr. Peterson if Claire will have the surgery. He says "An operation isn't the answer in her case.", as Claire's eyes are clear and her blindness is psychosomatic.

Related Research Articles

The Hitch-Hiker (<i>The Twilight Zone</i>) 16th episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"The Hitch-Hiker" is the sixteenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone which originally aired on January 22, 1960, on CBS. It is based on Lucille Fletcher's radio play The Hitch-Hiker. It is frequently listed among the series' greatest episodes.

"The Lateness of the Hour" is episode 44 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on December 2, 1960, on CBS. It was one of the six episodes of the second season which was shot on videotape in a short-lived experiment aimed to cut costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Hackett</span> American actress (1934–1983)

Joan Ann Hackett was an American actress of film, stage, and television. She starred in the 1968 western Will Penny. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1981 film Only When I Laugh. She also starred as Christine Mannon in the 1978 PBS miniseries version of Mourning Becomes Electra.

"The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" is episode 88 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 23, 1962 on CBS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Number 12 Looks Just Like You</span> 17th episode of the 5th season of The Twilight Zone

"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is set in a dystopian future in which everyone, upon reaching adulthood, has their body surgically altered into one of a set of physically attractive models.

"Four O'Clock" is episode 94 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

"I Am the Night—Color Me Black" is episode 146 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 27, 1964 on CBS.

"Caesar and Me" is episode 148 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone starring Jackie Cooper as a ventriloquist. It is not to be confused with a similar episode "The Dummy", starring Cliff Robertson as a ventriloquist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Gregg</span> American actress (1916–1986)

Virginia Lee Gregg was an American actress known for her many roles in radio dramas and television series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanette Nolan</span> American actress (1911–1998)

Jeanette Nolan was an American actress. Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974), and in films such as Macbeth (1948).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llanview</span> Fictional city

Llanview, Pennsylvania is the fictional setting for the long-running American soap opera One Life to Live. The city exists in the same fictional universe as cities from other existing or defunct ABC daytime dramas, including Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, from All My Children, Port Charles, New York, from General Hospital, and Corinth, Pennsylvania, from Loving.

"Come Wander with Me" is the final episode to be filmed of the American television series The Twilight Zone. This episode introduced Bonnie Beecher in her television debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Bath</span> First African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention

Patricia Era Bath was an American ophthalmologist and humanitarian. She became the first female member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, the first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and the first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American to serve as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University. She was also the first African-American woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. A holder of five patents, she founded the non-profit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.

Suseela Prabhakaran is an Indian ophthalmologist and chief ophthalmic surgeon at Divya Prabha Eye Hospital in Trivandrum, India. She started her career as a lecturer in ophthalmology in the Department of Medical Education at the state government of Kerala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Willes</span> American actress (1923–1989)

Jean Donahue was an American film and television actress. She appeared in approximately 65 films in her 38-year career.

<i>The Secret of Dr. Kildare</i> 1939 film by Harold S. Bucquet

The Secret of Dr. Kildare is a 1939 American film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the fourth of a total of ten Dr. Kildare pictures, Lew Ayres starred all but the first.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanduk Ruit</span> Nepalese ophthalmologist

Sanduk Ruit is an ophthalmologist from Nepal who was involved to restore the sight of over 180,000 people across Africa and Asia using small-incision cataract surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasreen & Alam Sher Foundation</span>

The Nasreen and Alam Sher Foundation, was started in February 2007, and is a United States-based organization with one major goal: to help those in need. Since its inception, the NASF has expanded in members and support worldwide. It is an organization run completely non-governmental, non-religious, non-political, and non-profit. Recognized by the United Nations, this organization was created to promote health, education, humanities, and peace in South Asian countries and beyond. The emphasis remains on human development, freedom, human rights, quality and equality of the lives of ordinary people.

"Eye of the Beholder" is the 39th episode of the sci-fi anthology television series The Twilight Zone. The episode aired on April 30, 2003 on UPN. It is a remake of the episode from the original Twilight Zone written by Rod Serling about a woman with bandages covering her face hoping that a last-chance surgery will allow her to fit in with society, lest she be sent to a community of people with her 'deformity'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bharti Kashyap</span> Indian ophthalmologist

Bharti Kashyap Navigating Health Care Reform in Jharkhand From a crusader against blindness to Cervical cancer activist the extraordinary success and figures of cervical cancer eradication campaign, eye donation awareness campaign, diabetic retinopathy screening, “Jyot Se Jyot Jalao” campaign and vision protection campaign being run in Jharkhand over the past three decades by Dr. Bharti Kashyap is a testament to the fact that she has carried out the campaigns with full devotion and dedication and has successfully achieved the set targets. Nari Shakti puruskar Awardee Dr Bharti Kashyap is an Indian ophthalmologist and great family and child welfare social worker in Jharkhand, also known as vision and Janni suraksha Lady. She is honoured with Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2017 by hon'ble president of India and is a five-time recipient of the National IMA Award for the welfare of the underprivileged section of society

References

  1. Quoted in Marc Scott Zicree, The Twilight Zone Companion, Second Edition p. 388.