A Stop at Willoughby

"**A Stop at Willoughby**"
"A Stop at Willoughby"
The Twilight Zone episode
	James Daly in "A Stop at Willoughby"
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 30
Directed by	Robert Parrish
Written by	Rod Serling
Featured music	Nathan Scott
Production code	173-3629
Original air date	May 6, 1960
Guest appearances
	James Daly as Gart Williams; Howard Smith as Oliver Misrell; Patricia Donahue as Jane Williams; Jason Wingreen as Train conductor; Mavis Neal Palmer as Helen; James Maloney as 1888 Conductor; Billy Booth as Short Boy; Ryan Hayes as Engineer;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Nightmare as a Child"	Next →; "The Chaser"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 1)
	List of episodes

"A Stop at Willoughby" is episode 30 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling cited this as his favorite story from the first season of the series.

Opening narration

This is Gart Williams, age thirty-eight, a man protected by a suit of armor all held together by one bolt. Just a moment ago, someone removed the bolt, and Mr. Williams' protection fell away from him, and left him a naked target. He's been cannonaded this afternoon by all the enemies of his life. His insecurity has shelled him, his sensitivity has straddled him with humiliation, his deep-rooted disquiet about his own worth has zeroed in on him, landed on target, and blown him apart. Mr. Gart Williams, ad agency exec, who in just a moment, will move into the Twilight Zone—in a desperate search for survival.

Plot

Gart Williams is a 20th-century New York City advertising executive who has grown exasperated with his career. His overbearing boss, Oliver Misrell, angered by the loss of a major account, lectures him about giving the "push-push-push" until Williams insults him. Unable to sleep properly at home, he drifts off for a short nap on the train during his daily commute through the November snow.

He wakes to find the train stopped and that he is now in a 19th-century railway car, deserted except for himself. The sun is bright outside, and as he looks out the window, he discovers that the train is in a town called Willoughby. He eventually learns that it is July 1888. He learns that this is a "peaceful, restful town, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure." Being jerked awake into the real world, he asks the railroad conductor if he has ever heard of Willoughby, but the conductor replies, "Not on this run...no Willoughby on the line."

That night, he has an argument with his shrewish wife Jane, who makes him see that he is only a money machine to her. He tells her about his dream and about Willoughby, only to have her ridicule him as being "born too late", declaring it her "miserable tragic error" to have married a man "whose big dream in life is to be Huckleberry Finn."

The next week, Williams again dozes off on the train and returns to Willoughby, where everything is the same as before. As he is about to get off the train carrying his briefcase, the train begins to roll, returning him to the present. Williams promises himself to get off at Willoughby next time.

Experiencing a breakdown at work, he calls his wife, who abandons him in his time of need. On his way home, he once again falls asleep to find himself in Willoughby. This time, as the conductor warmly beckons him to the door, Williams intentionally leaves his briefcase on the train. Getting off the train, he is greeted by name by various inhabitants who welcome him while he tells them he's glad to be there and plans to stay and join their idyllic life.

The swinging pendulum of the station clock fades into the swinging lantern of a railroad engineer, standing over Williams' body. The 1960 conductor explains to the engineer that Williams "shouted something about Willoughby", before jumping off the train and being killed instantly. Williams' body is loaded into a hearse. The back door of the hearse closes to reveal the name of the funeral home: Willoughby & Son.

Closing narration

Willoughby? Maybe it's wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man's mind, or maybe it's the last stop in the vast design of things—or perhaps, for a man like Mr. Gart Williams, who climbed on a world that went by too fast, it's a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is a part of The Twilight Zone.

Production notes

The name "Willoughby" presumably comes from the Midwestern town of Willoughby, Ohio, near Cleveland. There are, however, other places with that name in other parts of the United States, including a Willoughby Creek near Great Valley, New York (however, it is located in the southwest part of the state, nowhere near Connecticut or New York City). Another possible inspiration is Willoughby Avenue, a street only a few miles from the Sony Pictures Studios (formerly MGM) where nearly all Twilight Zone episodes were shot.^[1]

The "Stamford" and "Westport/Saugatuck" stops called out by the conductor in the episode do exist—Metro-North Railroad (at the time New Haven Railroad) stops in Fairfield County, Connecticut, include Stamford (the station is now the Stamford Transportation Center), and Westport (the station was once known as Westport & Saugatuck), where series creator Rod Serling once lived.^[2]

Williams' home phone number, CApital 7-9899, includes what was once a legitimate central office name for Westport.

"Beautiful Dreamer", a song first published in 1864 and still popular in the 1880s and beyond, can be heard being played by a band. "Oh! Susanna", published in 1848 and among the most popular American songs ever written, is also heard.

In popular culture

Willoughby, Ohio, calls its annual neighborhood festival "Last Stop: Willoughby" in honor of the episode.^[3]^[4]^[5]

The 2000 TV movie For All Time, starring Mark Harmon, was based on this episode.^[6]

In North Conway, New Hampshire, a memorial brick is inscribed "Next Stop Willoughby!" (https://rodserling.com/bonnie-weinsteins-tribute-to-rod-serling/)

One of the last episodes of Thirtysomething pays homage to this episode. It has the same title, and in it, Michael experiences a crisis similar to that of Williams, though it does not end tragically.^{[citation needed]}

In the Rugrats episode "Family Reunion", the Pickles family takes a train to the town of Willoughby, with the conductor saying, "Next stop Willoughby!"^{[citation needed]}

In the TV series Stargate Atlantis episode "The Real World", Dr. Elizabeth Weir awakens in the Acute Care Unit of Willoughby State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital. She is told her memories of the last two years off-world was a fantasy and that she had imagined the Stargate project.^[7]

Matthew Weiner, creator of the TV series Mad Men, acknowledged the influence of The Twilight Zone on his work, and how Don Draper's life had many superficial similarities to the main character of this episode. Weiner said they also paid homage to the episode in The Sopranos, when Tony Soprano leaves behind his life in his briefcase.^[8]

In the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub) describes the Willoughby episode to his wife and daughter as they tour Midge's apartment.^[9]

In the 2016 Richard Linklater film, Everybody Wants Some, the college-age character played by Wyatt Russell is named "Willoughby". He is revealed to be a 30 year old man who has refused to grow up and who continues to travel the country trying to play for college baseball teams. Willoughby has a nearly complete collection of Twilight Zone episodes on tape and reveals that he knows almost all of them by heart, citing the name and episode number of "Eye of the Beholder" to another character.

References

^ Maps and directions, Sony Pictures Studios.
^ Untermeyer, Larry (August 5, 2010). "Celebrating Westporter Rod Serling and 'The Twilight Zone'". westportnow.com. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
^ Morrison, Mara (August 11, 2021). "Last Stop Willoughby is a 'last fling' before summer ends". The News-Herald. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
^ "Last Stop Willoughby Event/Parade". The City of Willoughby. August 13, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
^ Dawidziak, Mark (August 8, 2013). "Anne Serling to be grand marshal of Last Stop Willoughby parade". cleveland.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
^ Erickson, Hal (2010). "For All Time (2000)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
^ GateWorld. "Transcript » Season 3 » The Real World". GateWorld. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
^ Agresta, Michael (October 25, 2014). "Austin Film Festival: The Golden Ages of Matthew Weiner". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
^ Leeds, Sarene (February 18, 2022). "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Recap: Pursuing Our Art". Vulture. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

External links

"A Stop at Willoughby" at IMDb

[1] Maps and directions, Sony Pictures Studios.

[2] Untermeyer, Larry (August 5, 2010). "Celebrating Westporter Rod Serling and 'The Twilight Zone'". westportnow.com. Retrieved August 20, 2022.

[3] Morrison, Mara (August 11, 2021). "Last Stop Willoughby is a 'last fling' before summer ends". The News-Herald. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

[4] "Last Stop Willoughby Event/Parade". The City of Willoughby. August 13, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

[5] Dawidziak, Mark (August 8, 2013). "Anne Serling to be grand marshal of Last Stop Willoughby parade". cleveland.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.

[6] Erickson, Hal (2010). "For All Time (2000)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2008.

[7] GateWorld. "Transcript » Season 3 » The Real World". GateWorld. Retrieved March 15, 2019.

[8] Agresta, Michael (October 25, 2014). "Austin Film Festival: The Golden Ages of Matthew Weiner". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved March 15, 2019.

[9] Leeds, Sarene (February 18, 2022). "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Recap: Pursuing Our Art". Vulture. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

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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"