The Twilight Zone Person or Persons Unknown (1959–1964) Online

If Richard Long is questioning his own sanity he's got good reason in this Twilight Zone episode. Another frightening and paranoid thought that Rod Serling tempts you with in this story. What if you just woke up one day like any other day and went to work, but your wife, your co-workers, absolutely no one knows who you are? There's even another guy seated at your desk in the bank where you work.

Long goes through a nightmare of a day and gets through it. But wait till you see what tomorrow brings for him.

Serling taps into our deepest fears with this one and comes up with a fine story for The Twilight Zone.

It positively sucks to be David Gurney. The man wakes up in his own bed with a wife who doesn't know him! He is bewildered at her frightened face and demeanor as if he were an intruder of her home. He thinks it a charade, angered that his possessions, like a razor and clothes, are missing, further enraged when he goes to work at the bank, notices his Vice President desk is occupied by another man, and that none of the employees recognize him. Gurney goes to pull out his driver's license to show the police, realizing that there isn't any identification whatsoever! To say he is in a dilemma is an understatement. How does David prove to everyone around him he is who he says he is? I think anyone would consider this kind of scenario to be an absolute nightmare. If even your own mother doesn't know who you are—can it get much worse? Richard Long is utterly convincing as a man thrust into an unimaginable situation as he tries with all his power to convince others that he is David Gurney, with no success. He knows exact details (such as the scene where David enters a bar he frequents on Fridays, the bartender a friend who doesn't recognize him, knowing details about the man's life that not just anyone knows) about people, yet everyone looks at him like he's nuts. The ending is the icing on the cake as we are led to believe that maybe David has escaped his nightmare only to encounter another regarding his wife. It is ultimately about identity, being raped of it by the Twilight Zone. John Brahm's direction and Charles Beaumont's script really twist the poor character of David inside and out, and we are participants in this victim's turmoil. This is a fine example of what the classic Twilight Zone show was all about.

A quintessential episode of lost identity, "Person or Persons Unknown" has similarities to a number of other TZ entries, including "A World of Difference" and "A Passage for Trumpet." But the episode is compelling on its own terms, with one of the most devastating twist endings in all of TZ. What would you do if you woke up one morning to discover that your spouse, co-workers and acquaintances didn't recognize you? That's exactly what happens to 35-year-old banker David Andrew Gurney, superbly played by Richard Long. Instead of passively acquiescing to this new state of affairs, Gurney fights back with vehemence, determined to assert his identity in the face of every obstacle. The ending will leave your mind turned over on itself as you ponder what exactly happened; was this reality, a dream, or a dream within a dream?

Despite a premature death in his mid-forties, Richard Long had a substantial acting career, starting in his late teens with movies like Orson Welles' THE STRANGER (1946). By 1962, Long was still a young and handsome actor and his performance absolutely carries this tale. A bold self-assertiveness bordering on arrogance adds fire and excitement to the episode; although Long is flamboyant at times, he never seems over-the-top thanks to a notable measure of personal elegance. The other portrayal worthy of mention is that of Frank Silvera, compassionate and reasonable as the doctor. The remaining performances aren't as strong - but then weak supporting performances were not uncommon on TZ, and they don't seriously mar the episode.

We might ask ourselves: why were stories about loss of identity so common during the 1950s and early '60s? Undoubtedly they grew out of the contemporary concern that modern civilization was hostile to the individual, that the growth of bureaucracy and totalitarianism was stifling the common man. Gurney fights to affirm what he knows to be true against all odds, and we root for this lone individual as he tries to restore order and sanity to his world. Yet the fact that Gurney is apparently alcoholic adds another layer to the story, and causes us to wonder about his moral character and the health of his marriage: is he perhaps a philanderer, used to waking up in the bed of women other than his wife? Is the entire episode nothing but a nightmare resulting from an alcoholic bender, from which he will eventually wake up?

All this adds texture and depth to "Person or Persons Unknown," an excellent and archetypal episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Identity transference was a common theme of the series, open to many interesting variations. This is one of them. Richard Long wakes up with hangover and personal identity intact, but nobody including his wife recognizes him, even though he recognizes them. Maybe the world has shifted, but he hasn't, or maybe it's the other way around. Anyway, the warp is driving him crazy as he tries to establish a connection somewhere, anywhere. Long gives a nicely shaded, energetic performance that makes the situation almost believable. However, the episode is played as a straight suspenser, without the creepy or eerie moments that would make it memorable. In passing-- Long's character would be wise to go with the flow. After all, what guy would not like waking up next to the lovely Miss Van Zandt!

Richard Long plays David Gurney--a guy who wakes up after drinking too much. Oddly, his wife does not recognize him--screaming when he wakes her! She even threatens to call the police, but he KNOWS this is crazy--she IS his wife and they are married.

Oddly, when Gurney arrives at work, he knows everyone by name--but none of them know him! When he insists to go to work at HIS desk, security is called and he's nearly shot and the security guard turns him over to the police--who are already looking for him, as his 'wife' has called the police to report that a strange man was in her home. And, when he looks in his wallet, his I.D. cards do NOT confirm he is Gurney. Eventually, he's taken to the mental hospital, as he's surely insane to believe that he is this Gurney character when all evidence says he is not.

This episode is like that old existential argument that our reality is NOT who we really are--that it all can change in the blink of an eye. This isn't an entirely new idea for a story, but is still quite interesting and compelling--like a nightmare come true. I enjoyed the show quite a bit and a similar idea was used with the great series "Nowhere Man"--a very short-lived but exciting series starring Bruce Greenwood. Unfortunately, however, "The Twilight Zone" already did a VERY similar show in the first season ("A World of Difference") and because of this there wasn't a lot of originality. Because of this, the show has to lose a point or two for a lack of originality.

This is another guy put into an untenable position. He wakes up and his wife and all his usual acquaintances don't have a clue who he is. He does what most people would do. He thinks everyone else is crazy. He goes from place to place, eventually being taken in by a guard who he has known for four years. Eventually, of course, he's put in a psyche ward and is being analyzed by a doctor there. Serling does a good job using Richard Long as the suffering man who doesn't know which way to turn. He finally makes his way home and we think there is a conclusion to his pain. This one has a great ending, so wait for it. Longs frustrations and facial expressions work very well. He was pretty much all over the place during the fifties and sixties, including that Western with Barbra Stanwyck.

Probably the biggest twist of any episode (and that says a lot).Richard Long is having a nightmare.He knows who he is, he knows who everyone else is but no one seems to know him.He addresses them by name, discusses details of past relationships and conversations and everyone thinks he's insane.When he finally wakes up, well.......................Lets just say the ending puts an ironic smile on anyone watching this episode .The one image that has been embedded in my mind was that final shot. After telling his wife that he just had one hell of a nightmare of lost identity he looks up at her, eyes bulging, mouth wide open, but says nothing. What makes this scene work is that anyone who is watching knows why he is shocked despite no words being spoken at all right thru the end of the episode. SHOCKER majority of this episode was border line boring but oh baby what a payoff at the end. This episode personifies what the "Twilight Zone" is all about. I have not seen this episode in 25 years and I still remember the image on Long's face.Now THATS an accomplishment.

Funny how identity theft meant something entirely different a half century ago. In this episode, banker David Gurney (Richard Long) wakes up to a hangover and a nightmare when nobody in his whole world recognizes him, including his wife. It's the kind of premise that's synonymous with The Twilight Zone, the type of story where your mind races ahead to come up with a conclusion before Serling lets you in on the twist. You'll probably have it nailed when Gurney wakes up the second time, and Wilma carefully keeps her face concealed until she finally walks out of the bathroom. With tables turned and the entire rest of the story relegated to a Bobby Ewing moment, it's left to the viewer's imagination how Gurney fares the second time around. A clever, and almost too typical ending, but that's why we love The Twilight Zone.

"Who am I?" The question is supposed to have plagued many of us in advanced cultures, but does it really? Does even a wino in a doorway wake up wondering who he is? No, he knows exactly who he is, although he wishes he weren't More likely it's a question reserved for those who, having achieved most of what is believed to be success, find themselves still unfulfilled. Yes, it's true. I now own a comfortable house with a swimming pool and an SUV with a 20 millimeter cannon on top. But what do I do NOW, Ma? There is also a special sort of wilderness area set aside for the French intellectuals who claim everyone asks himself this question, when they're not asking each other what "truth" is.

David Gurney wakes up and finds that his wife doesn't recognize him. In a near panic, he rushes off to work at the bank, where no one recognizes him either. He winds up in a psychiatric facility under the care of the sympathetic Frank Silvera. At a particularly dramatic moment, he wakes up back in his own bed, to find that it was all an alcohol-induced nightmare. Finally, his wife recognizes him. The problem is that this woman isn't his wife! "A nightmare turned inside out," as Serling's narration puts it.

I can understand why the issue of self identity had some appeal for Rod Serling, who never seemed quite able to leave the values of his childhood behind, even after he found himself in the dog-eat-dog world of television writing. I doubt that it applies to many of us, who will just find this an entertaining and somewhat knotty mystery with a twist at the end.

You have to like Frank Silvera as the psychiatrist, though. What an actor. He's been everything from an African-American to a Mexican. Born in Jamaica of mixed parentage, he went to law school at Boston University before dropping out to go into acting. He's been uniformly fine and always exudes a kind of likableness. Some might remember him best as the Mexican vaquero in "Hombre". Perhaps his best performance was as the Police Inspector, Porfiri or whatever he was called, in "Crime and Punishment USA", a little-seen low-budget number starring George Hamilton.

David Gurney (a fine and credible performance by Richard Long) wakes up one seemingly ordinary day only to discover much to his chagrin that no one else knows who he is.

Director John Brahm relates the absorbing premise at a brisk pace and ably crafts a tense and uneasy unsettling atmosphere. Charles Beaumont's crafty script addresses the frightening concept of suddenly losing one's identity in a chilling and provocative manner as well as provides a suitably startling surprise twist ending. Long makes for a sympathetic protagonist; he receives sturdy support from Frank Silvera as wannabe helpful psychiatrist Dr. Koslenko, Shirley Ballard as his shrewish wife, and Edmund Glover as perplexed bartender Sam Baker. An excellent episode.

Richard Long plays David Andrew Gurney, a married man who one morning wakes up to find that his wife has no idea who is. Confused and upset, David leaves and goes to his job, but no one there knows who he is either! Now desperate, David is taken into custody and examined by a psychiatrist who thinks he is suffering from some disorder. Convinced that he isn't, David escapes, but will come to find out that not everything is as he thinks either, but even that may not be enough to end this nightmare... Richard Long is fine in episode that treads(by now) familiar ground. Fine as it is, but only the twist at the end has any real sting.

'Person or Persons Unknown' could be considered the quintessential 'Twilight Zone', but then so could a lot of others. It's not that it's so great; it's not, but it sums up in one episode the Zone formula. Start with a puzzling premise, string it out for about twenty minutes, then have a little twist at the end. For all intents and purposes, one could get by with the first three minutes and the final two and know almost exactly what has happened, but then you wouldn't have a half-hour show, would you? Don't get me wrong- Rod Serling and company had this formula down and this episode, written by Charles Beaumont, is certainly entertaining in that unmistakable TZ fashion. David Gurney (played by Richard Long, though it could have been Gig Young or Leslie Nielsen or a hundred other familiar TV faces from back then) wakes up one morning to find nobody, not his wife or friends or co-workers, recognizes him. He knows all of them, but none of them know him. So then we're off... Gurney tells everyone to quit joking, everyone tells him they've never seen him before, etc etc. It takes him roughly twenty minutes (in screen time) to realize nobody is ever going to believe him. Imagine that. And THEN at the end, he's back in bed, waking up again just like he did at the beginning... only this time, he doesn't recognize the woman who claims to be his wife! This episode is very reminiscent of 'A World of Difference' from a couple of seasons earlier. In fact, they are practically identical except for the fillip at the end. But it says something about 'Twilight Zone' that 'Person or Persons Unknown' is still very enjoyable.

David Gurney (Richard Long) wakes up fully dressed one morning, and begins talking to his wife, Wilma, who is still in bed. They had a few drinks the night before and David urges his wife to get up with a gentle spank through the bed sheets. To their mutual dismay she does not know who he is. David expects her to be back to normal later, but finds the world doesn't know him anymore. This is a theme touched on in series one with 'And When The Sky Was Opened' and addressed again in series four with 'In His Image'. Both are better in my opinion.

This one leaves the viewer with too much to work out. A very unsatisfying ending lets this entry down. David Gurney is of course regarded as crazy and goes looking for evidence of his identity. I read that the actress playing Wilma (Shirley Ballard) worked on the continuity of Mad Max years later, and I cant help finding that a little amusing for a reason I wont elaborate on for those yet to see this.