Mumy spoke about his time engaged on the episode in “The Twilight Zone Companion” by Marc Scott Zicree, the place he confessed that it wasn’t till he was older that he might really contextualize the seriousness of the scenes. “I keep in mind my mom was actually upset with the suicide scenes,” Mumy stated, “considering that it’d make some kind of bizarre impression on me to get one thing out of them by perhaps pulling a stunt like that.”
Mumy’s character is proven working in entrance of a automotive following his grandmother’s funeral, claiming that she advised him to do it. However the true horror takes place when his dad and mom discover him face down within the backyard pond. “Once I tried to [die by suicide] within the pond we shot a complete factor there with me floating within the water,” stated Mumy. “I do not assume that was on digital camera, however I keep in mind doing it. I used to be an actual good swimmer then.”
Happily, Billy survives the ordeal in “The Twilight Zone” after his father pleads with the grandma ghost on the opposite line, however the visible of a drowned baby was nonetheless jarring nonetheless. The truth is, the impassioned speech Billy’s father offers over the cellphone was fully rewritten throughout filming to place Billy on the heart of his father’s pleas on the request of Rod Serling. The end result was a good looking monologue carried out by Phil Abbott and one of many extra optimistic endings for “The Twilight Zone.”