The Lonely

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"The Lonely" is the seventh episode of the The Twilight Zone.

From the CBS Video Library cover:

"For inmate James A. Corry, solitary confinement means life on an asteroid nine million miles from Earth. Corry craves human contact —so much so that he counts the minutes until a roving ship makes its annual drop-off of provisions. Corry may well be the loneliest man in the universe. But all of that is about to change. Because the supply ship is on its way, this time carrying a special package for Corry that will help him to forget his problems...and present him with a whole new dilemma."^[1]

Episode Details[]

Title Sequence[]

Opening Narration[]

"Witness if you will a dungeon, made out of mountains, salt flats and sand that stretch to infinity. The dungeon has an inmate: James A. Corry. And this is his residence: a metal shack. An old touring car that squats in the sun and goes nowhere - for there is nowhere to go. For the record let it be known that James A. Corry is a convicted criminal placed in solitary confinement. Confinement in this case stretches as far the eye can see, because this particular dungeon is on an asteroid nine million miles from the Earth. Now witness if you will a man's mind and body shriveling in the sun, a man dying of loneliness."

Episode Summary[]

Allenby, the captain of a supply ship that travels the solar system, take pity on Corry, who's serving a fifty-year sentence for murder, and leaves him a box containing Alicia, a robot that looks and sounds exactly like a woman. Initially, Corry is repelled by the robot, but eventually his heart melts and he falls deeply in love with her. Eleven months pass. Then one day the supply ship lands. Allenby tells Corry he's received a full pardon, and that they've come to get him. But there's a hitch: Corry can only take fifteen pounds of gear, and Alicia weighs more than that. Corry refuses to leave Alicia behind, claiming that she's a woman. Reluctantly, Allenby draws his gun and shoots Alicia full in the face, revealing the mass of smoldering wires and circuitry. He tells Corry, "All you're leaving behind is loneliness." Stunned, Corry replies, "I must remember that. I must remember to keep that in mind."

Closing Narration[]

"On a microscopic piece of sand that floats through space is a fragment of a man's life. Left to rust is the place he lived in and the machines he used. Without use, they will disintegrate from the wind and the sand and the years that act upon them; all of Mr. Corry's machines - including the one made in his image, kept alive by love, but now obsolete . . . in the Twilight Zone."

Preview for Next Week's Story[]

"Next week, a distinguished actor lends us his talents as Mr. Burgess Meredith stars in 'Time Enough at Last', the story of a man who seeks salvation in the rubble of a ruined world. We hope you'll share this very strange experience with us. Thank you and good night."

Themes[]

Critical Response[]

Background Information[]

Cast[]

Rod Serling as Narrator (voice only); uncredited
Jack Warden as James Corry
Jean Marsh as Alicia
John Dehner as Captain Allenby
Ted Knight as Adams; uncredited
James Turley as Carstairs; uncredited

Crew[]

Rod Serling (executive producer: Cayuga Productions
Buck Houghton (producer)
George T. Clemens (director of photography)
Joseph Gluck (film editor)
Millie Gusse (casting; credited: Mildred Gusse)
George W. Davis (art director)
William Ferrari (art director)
Rudy Butler (set decorator)
Henry Grace (set decorator)
Ralph W. Nelson (production manager)
Edward O. Denault (assistant director; credited: Edward Denault)
Franklin Milton (sound; credited: Frank Milton)
Jean G. Valentino (sound; credited: Jean Valentino)
Van Allen James (sound effects editor; uncredited)

Production Companies[]

Cayuga Productions
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (in association with)

Distributors[]

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1959) (USA) (TV) (original airing)

Other[]

United Productions of America (UPA) (animated title)
U.S. Department of Interior (filming at Desolation Canyon, Death Valley National Monument courtesy of) (as Department of Interior)

Home media release[]

This episode is included on the Image Entertainment Vol. 5 DVD along with "Long Distance Call", "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Probe 7, Over and Out".

Trivia[]

The seventh episode originally aired, but the second to be filmed, following the pilot.
This episode takes place from 2046 to 2047.
The first of many Twilight Zone episodes to be filmed on location in Death Valley. Unprepared for the conditions, the crew suffered extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion. Director of Photography George T. Clemens collapsed and fell from a camera crane. The cast and crew feared Clemens was suffering of a heart attack, but it turned out to simply be heat exhaustion.
The heat got to be so bad for the cast and crew, that the scenes in Corry's shack were shot on the MGM lot.
One of the first early stories Rod Serling used to pitch The Twilight Zone to sponsors.
George T. Clemens later said that sweat of the cast and crew would evaporate almost immediately. Because of this, the sweat seen in the show is actually glycerin.

Cast Connections[]

Memorable Quotes[]

Notes and References[]

↑ CBS Video Library: Twilight Zone #0307 "The Invaders/One for the Angels/Eye of the Beholder/The Lonely" ; UPC: 000307060004, EAN: 0000307060004, ASIN: B0007LHTR4; Format: NTSC, VHS, Collector's Edition (1987)

External Links[]

[CBS-1] CBS Video Library: Twilight Zone #0307 "The Invaders/One for the Angels/Eye of the Beholder/The Lonely" ; UPC: 000307060004, EAN: 0000307060004, ASIN: B0007LHTR4; Format: NTSC, VHS, Collector's Edition (1987)

[1]

v • e The Twilight Zone (original series) 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" • "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" • "Death's 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"