There Was an Old Woman
"Not so very long ago, before computerized toys and cathode-ray characters did our speaking and thinking for us, one of the storytellers' most important tools was imagination; the imagination of an audience. That was how it used to be, once upon a time."
Hallie Parker (Colleen Dewhurst) is an elderly author who specializes in writing children's books, which she adores reading at her local library. She is saddened that today's children are forgoing literacy and using their imaginations in place of television and computerized entertainment, believing that her work no longer has a purpose in the "video generation". She is soon called to the house of Brian Harris (Zachary Bennett), a very sick boy whose parents want Hallie to autograph and read one of her books, Creatures in the Closet, which is said to be Brian's favorite. Sometime later, Hallie is disturbed by an unseen wind blowing through her house, the laughter of distant children, and a baseball that breaks her window. When she learns that the cause of the disturbances are a group of ghostly children, including Brian, Hallie realizes that she still has a purpose in life after all.
Tropes
- Age-Appropriate Angst: Hallie is an author of children's books in her 60s, and she believes that books, and she herself, have grown obsolete because they no longer appeal to the "video generation." She intends to retire and live a quiet life in Arizona with her sister Ellen, as she feels that she has nothing left to contribute to society. However, Hallie learns just how important she and her books truly are when she is visited by the ghosts of Brian and about a dozen other children, who want her to stay and read her stories to them.
- Bookends: Forgoing the book-themed nature of the episode, Hallie is upset when no one turns up to her last storytime session in the local library. She thus feels like she has outlived her purpose and her books have lost their appeal. In the final scene, she discovers that her books meant a great deal to Brian and other deceased children, whose ghosts ask her to read to them.
- Friend to All Children: Hallie, who writes children's books for a living and adores reading them to kids at the library. The ending shows that she's more than happy to forgo retirement and read her stories to an audience of ghostly children.
- Happy Ending: Hallie is confronted with the ghosts of Brian and several other kids, who ask her to read stories to them. She's absolutely delighted to do so, once again having a purpose in life.
- I'm Your Biggest Fan: Brian adores Hallie's books, his favorite being Creatures in the Closet, and he's ecstatic to have her visit his house and read the book to him.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Brian, who has a serious illness, coughs incessantly during Hallie's visit. He unfortunately dies a week later.
- Literary Allusion Title: Given that protagonist Hallie is a children's book author, the episode's title is a reference to the classic nursery rhyme "There Was an Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe".
- Littlest Cancer Patient: Brian, who is around eight, is dying of an unspecified disease. He is a kind-hearted and happy boy who loves the books Hallie's written, especially Creatures in the Closet. Brian is delighted when Hallie visits him with a signed copy of the book and reads it to him. The following week, he dies and his ghost appears to Hallie, asking her to read to him and his new friends, a group of about dozen other child ghosts.
- Nice Girl: Hallie adores writing books for children and reading them at the library, and is more than happy with doing so for the ghost of Brian and a dozen other kids his age.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghosts of Brian and about a dozen other kids appear to Hallie and ask her to read to them. Deeply moved, Hallie agrees to do so, glad that she can once again be useful.
- Poltergeist: Children's author Hallie notices her drapes and a rocking chair moving on their own. As she heard the sound of children giggling, she decides that the neighborhood kids were pranking her. Several days later, her living room window is broken by a baseball, again assuming that it was the local kids. That night, Hallie finds the copy of Creatures of the Closet she signed for Brian in her house. She calls his parents to tell them that someone has stolen his book, only to discover that Brian died and the book was buried with him. Hallie eventually realizes that everything was caused by ghosts when apparitions of Brian and a dozen other children appear to her.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Keeping in touch with how the episode is centered around children's literature, the closing narration is spoken completely in rhyme.
- Technology Marches On: In-Universe, Hallie believes that books, hers specifically, are losing their glamor in the 1980s, as TV and video games are the primary interest of kids these days.
- Title Drop: In the closing narration, told in rhyme.
- Unnamed Parent: Brian's father has no spoken name.
"There was an old woman, a page in a book. Mere phrases and words, of which no one would look. But a tale worth telling has a life of its own. Happily ever after — in the Twilight Zone."
