Special Service
"Introduction to Mr. John Selig, a reasonably average man who goes through life with both eyes open and both hands firmly on the wheel. Mr. John Selig, practical and steady, who's about to be blindsided — by the Twilight Zone."
Average working man John Selig (David Naughton) discovers his mirror houses a camera behind it when it falls off the wall. A friendly, dim-witted repairman named Archie (Keith Knight) rushes in to fix the camera, but when John asks him questions, he fails to deny the camera's presence. It's only when John threatens to call the police that Archie pulls him into the closet to reveal the truth: John is the star of JSTV, a television network where his life is broadcast to the viewing public 24 hours a day. As he starts wrecking the camera equipment he finds around the house, John is abducted and brought to Arthur Spence (Elias Zarou), the head of JSTV, who tries to have him call off his one-man crusade to have his privacy.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: Did JSTV really cancel the show and remove all the cameras from John's house, like Arthur said they would? Or did they just lie about what they said and are still filming him without his knowledge, like Archie suggests? Though it seems like the former is the truth, John still has an uneasy feeling and starts dancing to please his supposed audience.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: John has traces of this in the end. All episode, he wants nothing more than his privacy, but by the time he gets it, he's starting to get used to being a star with loads of money and women under his belt.
- The End... Or Is It?: Though John seems to have won in his battle against JSTV and has the show of his life taken off the air, as well as being awarded a million dollars in royalties and a large collection of gifts and fan mail, Archie hints that JSTV might've been lying when they said the show would end.
- Famous for Being Famous: Arthur tells John that this is the reason he's a huge TV star, claiming that finding a person who hasn't actually done anything worthy of fame and putting their face on TV often enough will gradually turn them into a celebrity.
- Fat Idiot: Archie the repairman, who makes offhand comments about John's status as a TV character and privately reveals the truth to him. The end of the episode shows that his incompetence and letting John in on the secret got him fired.
- For Want Of A Nail: John discovers that the last five years of his life have been secretly filmed and shown on television solely because he was wiping his bathroom mirror and forcing it to fall off the wall. Had this not happened, Archie wouldn't have come to fix it and blab the truth to him, leading him to have stayed in the dark.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The closing narration informs the viewers that they should check for cameras around the house if they decide that something seems too good to be true, hinting that the folks at JSTV might've given up on John and turned you into their latest star.
- Graceful Loser: Arthur eventually relents to John's demands, canceling his show and having the cameras taken out of his house. He also gives John a large collection of gifts and fan mail that built up over the years, as well as a million-dollar check as royalties for the profit he generated. Although, as Archie hints to him, he may have been lying about canceling the show.
- Groupie Brigade: At the halfway point, John is hounded by dozens of screaming groupies after learning that his life has been turned into a hugely popular TV show. Since the secret is out, they don't need to hide from him anymore. A particularly obsessive one breaks into Arthur's office for his jacket or a lock of his hair, leading him to discover that they've been just outside the door the whole time.
- Hollywood Law: After John discovers that he's been secretly filmed for five years and turned into the star of a hit cable TV show, he demands that the show be taken off the air as he has a right to his privacy. The head of JSTV, Arthur Spence, gives John a copy of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, sarcastically asking him to point out the specific clause that says a man's life can't be put on TV, which prompts John to counter that this is a technicality. John is in the right, though; he has rights, and JSTV can't film him or make use of his name and image without his consent, meaning that he can get an injunction that will force them to stop. They do stop (maybe) after he insists, and give him a million dollars in royalties for the profit they made off him.
- I Warned You: As John hunts down and smashes all the cameras hidden throughout his house, a representative of JSTV warns him to stop destroying company property. When he refuses, she calls again and tells him that he was given a warning. Immediately after this, a pair of thugs load him into a limo and take him to Arthur's office.
- Lighter and Softer: The previous episode was ludicrously over the top, but this episode gets back into the swing of things, though it's also pretty light-hearted.
- Loony Fan: One of John's biggest fans breaks into Arthur's office through the window and tells John that she wants to have his baby or a lock of his hair, prompting John to scramble away from her.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: John is described by the opening narration as an average man with an average life. Archie later tells him that it's because he's so average, and the fact that he doesn't know he's being filmed, that's made him a smash hit for the last five years.
- Story Arc: In-Universe. Arthur tells John that when he lost his job two years ago, this formed a major storyline in the TV show that is his life. However, the viewers eventually became bored of watching him look for work and ratings began to slip, so JSTV simply arranged for him to get a new job.
- Suddenly Shouting: As Arthur invites John into his office and makes sure he's comfortable, he immediately begins shouting at him for sabotaging the company.
- "Truman Show" Plot: This episode is a unique version of the trope, as it was made almost a decade before The Truman Show. Specifically, John learns that the last five years of his life have been secretly filmed and broadcast on television. While shaving one morning, his bathroom mirror falls off the wall, whereupon he discovers a camera behind it. Almost immediately, a friendly repairman named Archie appears to fix the problem and tries to assure John that nothing is out of the ordinary. After several minutes, however, he admits that John's life is the subject of a hit TV show and there are cameras in every room of his house, his workplace, and elsewhere. When he is brought to meet Arthur, he is shocked to discover that even his wife Leslie is an actress who was hired to play his love interest. Since John has discovered he's being filmed and states that he has his rights, JSTV is canceled. However, Archie suggests that JSTV may have pretended to remove all of the cameras, and the show is continuing without John's knowledge.
"The next time you think people are talking about you behind your back, or a happy coincidence seems just a little too good to be true, check behind the bathroom mirror, or see if there are any channels missing from your TV. It just might be that John Selig's ratings have dropped, and you've become a star in the phosphor-dot world — of the Twilight Zone."
