User Reviews

I imagine some will consider "The Trouble with Mary Jane" to be an absolute hoot. It has Lawrence Tierney and Phyllis Diller (what a team this is!) as charlatans operating a store where they perform tarot readings and such, deciding (well, Tierney is the one who wants to do it while Diller grumbles and complains—and rightfully so—about the dangers of fooling around with the *real* supernatural) to take on the exorcism of a little girl under siege by a demon that gives her goat's feet (?!?!), with her condition growing steadily worse. Tierney first tries to command the demon out of the possessed girl (Tanya Fenmore) while her mother (Anita Dangler, who plays the mother as an oblivious ditz) looks worriedly on. To say it fails is the understatement of the week. Sent to the emergency room, both Tierney and Diller, after the demon turns the little girl's room upside down and inside out, you'd think that'd be the end of it. $50,000.00 is what motivates Tierney to continue on while Diller wants him to forget the whole thing. Tierney then decides to call a second demon to eradicate the one inside Fenmore but instead the conjured GAD also possesses her! So now Tierney, still undeterred despite all the failures before him, learns how to cleanse Fenmore of her possession, with the two demons finding "different habitats" to possess! A poke at The Exorcist, Tierney appears to be having a lot of fun, with more personality than usual while Diller is..well, Diller. She thinks Tierney is just impossible, and Diller stays at him for insisting on pursuing the exorcism and payday. I imagine the final moments will be what most take from this episode because the rest is just a spoof of The Exorcist. It is all a harmless, silly time-waster. Tales from the Darkside is often featured as a spookshow, a creepshow, a chiller, but oftentimes the show resorted to horror-comedy, high-brow and a bit over-the-top. This episode is one of those cases. Tierney and Diller take what the material gives them and perform accordingly. Their final scene, made-up precisely as only the episode could dictate, encompasses the humor of the entire episode.

Tales from the Darkside: The Trouble with Mary Jane starts as two amateur occultists Jack (Lawrence Tierney) & his wife Nora Mills (Phyllis Diller) are hired by an old lady (Anita Dangler) to perform an exorcism on her Granddaughter Mary Jane (Tanya Fenmore) who is possessed by a 12,000 year old she demon called Aisha (voiced by Carolyn Seymour) but the bungling couple are more interested in the $50,000 offered by Mary's Grandmother than actually getting things right...

Episode 9 from season 2 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during November 1985, directed by the show's long term producer T.J. Castronova this is a fun little parody of The Exorcist (1973). The script by Edithe Swensen plays for laughs as much as anything else as the couple hired to exorcise Mary Jane actually end up making things worse & I have to say the twist ending is actually rather funny. Obviously there's no gore or bad language as in the original Exorcist but the basic story of a young girl possessed by a demon is present & correct, the makers have fun with it & this episode comes across as being one of the funnier Tales from the Darkside entries. I liked it, I thought the comedy worked well & overall the whole episode was very amusing & at only 20 odd minutes in length it's short & as such doesn't outstay it's welcome.

The references to The Exorcist are here for all to see, the girl in a white gown confined to a large bed & is possessed by a demon who talks in a sinister voice through her. While there isn't any spewing green vomit she does dribble lots of white liquid! I suppose it was about as graphic as they could get away with. This episode is well made & there are some fun performances from the cast including film & TV veterans Tierney & Diller as the amateur exorcists.

The Trouble with Mary Jane is a funny parody of the The Exorcist which is miles better than the Leslie Nielsen vehicle Repossessed (1990) which also exists solely to poke fun at The Exorcist. One of the better episodes from the series.

Bumbling amateur occultists Nora (Phyllis Diller in delightfully snarky and zesty form) and Jack Mills (a vibrant and excellent performance by legendary tough guy actor Lawrence Tierney) are offered $50,000 dollars to rid possessed girl Mary Jane (played with lip-licking wicked relish by the cute Tanya Fenmore) of a nasty demon that has taken over her body. Director T.J. Castronovo, working from a witty script by Edithe Swensen, relates the entertainingly goofy story at a brisk pace, milks the amusing sense of wacky humor for a good deal of solid belly laughs, and has an obvious ball poking merry fun at "The Exorcist." The ace acting by Diller and Tierney helps a whole lot: Their sharp rat-a-tat-tat bickering and edgy chemistry keep the episode humming. Anita Dangler likewise scores a bull's eye with her winningly daffy turn as the ditsy Mrs. Nugent. The Mills' various abortive attempts at exorcisms are hilarious. While the twist at the end might be predictable, it's still cute and appropriate just the same. A very funny show.