Sounds and Silences

"**Sounds and Silences**"
"Sounds and Silences"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 27
Directed by	Richard Donner
Written by	Rod Serling
Production code	2631
Original air date	April 3, 1964
Guest appearances
	John McGiver - Roswell G. Flemington ; Penny Singleton - Mrs. Lydia Flemington ; Billy Benedict - Conklin ; Francis De Sales - Doctor ; Michael Fox - Psychiatrist ; Renee Aubry - Ms. Abernathy (Secretary) ; Lurene Tuttle - Secretary
Episode chronology
← Previous; "I Am the Night—Color Me Black"	Next →; "Caesar and Me"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
	List of episodes

Last updated April 06, 2024

"Sounds and Silences" is episode 147 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . It originally aired on April 3, 1964 on CBS.

Opening narration

This is Roswell G. Flemington, two hundred and twenty pounds of gristle, lung tissue and sound decibels. He is, as you have perceived, a noisy man, one of a breed who substitutes volume for substance, sound for significance, and shouting to cover up the readily apparent phenomenon that he is nothing more than an overweight and aging perennial Sea Scout whose noise-making is in inverse ratio to his competence and to his character. But soon our would-be admiral of the fleet will embark on another voyage. This one is an unchartered and twisting stream that heads for a distant port called the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Roswell G. Flemington, owner of a model ship company and a former serviceman of the United States Navy, grew up in a home where his mother required silence. Thus, as an adult, he makes as much noise as he possibly can, is obsessed with the Navy, and behaves thunderously in response to any slight.

After twenty years, his wife Lydia becomes fed up with his obsession with noise and walks out on him. Alone, he begins to hear every little noise like an explosion or gunshot. He sees a psychiatrist, who helps him understand that conflict with Lydia has caused him to relive his resentment against his mother to the point that he internalizes his mother's affliction. He now realizes it is all in his head and all he needs to do is overcome the mental block with "mind over matter". He successfully does so, but when Lydia returns to pick up her jewelry, he "shut[s] her out", leading to him going deaf. Desperate to hear anything, he puts on a record and sets the volume to its highest setting. The scene remains silent, but his apartment vibrates from the stereo's sound. Panicked, he opens his windows and begs for noise.

Closing narration

When last heard from, Mr. Roswell G. Flemington was in a sanitarium pleading with the medical staff to make some noise. They, of course, believe the case to be a rather tragic aberration - a man's mind becoming unhinged. And for this they'll give him pills, therapy, and rest. Little do they realize that all Mr. Flemington is suffering from is a case of poetic justice. Tonight's tale of sounds and silences from the Twilight Zone.

Cast

John McGiver as Roswell G. Flemington
Penny Singleton as Mrs. Lydia Flemington
Billy Benedict as Conklin
Francis De Sales as Doctor
Michael Fox as Psychiatrist

Litigation

In 1961, a script titled "The Sound of Silence" was submitted to the producers and rejected. Following the first screening of "Sounds and Silences", the original author successfully sued Rod Serling for plagiarism because of similarities in the plot, and was awarded $3,500 in damages. Since litigation was ongoing at the time of the initial syndication package creation the episode was withheld until 1984 when it first resurfaced on a special holiday presentation.^[1]

Related Research Articles

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"You Drive" is episode 134 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on January 3, 1964, on CBS. In this episode, the perpetrator of a fatal hit-and-run is hounded by the car he committed the crime with. Earl Hamner Jr. reprised this story, as he had already used it in the 1954 TV series 'Justice'.

"Spur of the Moment" is episode 141 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a young woman is set upon by a mysterious and terrifying woman dressed in black just hours before her engagement. Alternating between scenes set 25 years apart, the episode explores themes of regret and the danger of yielding to passion.

References

↑ Presnell, Don; McGee, Marty (2008). A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959–1964. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. p. 185. ISBN 978-0786438860.

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

"Sounds and Silences" at IMDb

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[1] Presnell, Don; McGee, Marty (2008). A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959–1964. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. p. 185. ISBN 978-0786438860.

[1]

v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"