Wordplay

"Wordplay" is the first segment of the second episode of the first season (1985-1986) of the television series The New Twilight Zone. Bill Lowery is a salesman whose company has switched to a medical supply product line forcing him to stay up nights memorizing medical terms in order to be ready to sell the line in a week's time. His wife tells him that she’s worried about their son who’s ill. As Lowery leaves for work, his neighbor refers to his ... more

"Wordplay" is the first segment of the second episode of the first season (1985-1986) of the television series The New Twilight Zone. Bill Lowery is a salesman whose company has switched to a medical supply product line forcing him to stay up nights memorizing medical terms in order to be ready to sell the line in a week's time. His wife tells him that she’s worried about their son who’s ill. As Lowery leaves for work, his neighbor refers to his dog as an "encyclopedia" but Lowery shrugs it off, thinking he heard wrong. Lowery puts in a full morning of trying to cope with the new terms, the jibes from the younger salesmen (about teaching old dogs new "trumpets"), and the surprising usage of words completely out of place. As Lowery leaves for lunch at home, a subordinate asks for a referral to a good place to go for "dinosaur". Lowery tries to find out why the co-worker is not using the correct word ("lunch"), but the co-worker just walks away annoyed. Lowery arrives home where his... less