Tales from the Darkside: All a Clone by the Telephone starts as freelance writer Leon (Harry Anderson) has been out of work for six months & is bugging his agent Seymour Furman (Dick Miller) to rectify the situation. Then much to Leon's surprise his telephone answer machine develops a life of it's own, every time someone phones Leon they get either some insulting message or precisely what they want to hear. Leon isn't happy about this & disconnects his answer machine that comes up with a way to get itself plugged back in...
All the 1's episode 11 from season 1 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during January 1985, directed by Frank De Palma this is an OK episode with an unusual premise but it's not an episode I think I would want to watch again anytime soon. The script by Haskell Barkin is certainly original, I personally can't think of another film or telly programme in which an answer machine develops a life of it's own, can you? However for all it's imagination I just didn't find much here to enjoy, once you get over the initial fascination of the idea & it wears off which is pretty quickly there really isn't much here to get excited about. The moral of All a Clone by the Telephone is that technology & in particular phones are taking over our lives & even taking control of them which for a show made in the mid 80's was pretty insightful as now the entire world & it's brother has a mobile phone with various designs, cameras, ring-tones & all that stuff that many people seem to think denotes social standing or something. Just because you have an expensive phone with an irritating ring-tone doesn't mean you are posh. Anyway, All a Clone by the Telephone is a twenty minute oddity that's worth an one time watch for it's curiosity value but little else.
The Tales from the Darkside production team were masters at setting stories in one or two simple locations & with only a couple of cast members & All a Clone by the Telephone continues this trend. It's well made with a cameo from the king of cameos Dick Miller.
All a Clone by the Telephone is a odd way to pass twenty minutes but while it's a original concept there's not much anyone could do with it &, you know, a telephone answering machine has limited possibilities as the star of a telly programme.
All the 1's episode 11 from season 1 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during January 1985, directed by Frank De Palma this is an OK episode with an unusual premise but it's not an episode I think I would want to watch again anytime soon. The script by Haskell Barkin is certainly original, I personally can't think of another film or telly programme in which an answer machine develops a life of it's own, can you? However for all it's imagination I just didn't find much here to enjoy, once you get over the initial fascination of the idea & it wears off which is pretty quickly there really isn't much here to get excited about. The moral of All a Clone by the Telephone is that technology & in particular phones are taking over our lives & even taking control of them which for a show made in the mid 80's was pretty insightful as now the entire world & it's brother has a mobile phone with various designs, cameras, ring-tones & all that stuff that many people seem to think denotes social standing or something. Just because you have an expensive phone with an irritating ring-tone doesn't mean you are posh. Anyway, All a Clone by the Telephone is a twenty minute oddity that's worth an one time watch for it's curiosity value but little else.
The Tales from the Darkside production team were masters at setting stories in one or two simple locations & with only a couple of cast members & All a Clone by the Telephone continues this trend. It's well made with a cameo from the king of cameos Dick Miller.
All a Clone by the Telephone is a odd way to pass twenty minutes but while it's a original concept there's not much anyone could do with it &, you know, a telephone answering machine has limited possibilities as the star of a telly programme.