Bang! You're Dead

One of the most talked about episodes of the entire series. Little Billy Mumy loves playing shoot-em-up with his little cowboy friends. Presumably it's all good clean fun. But then he swipes a real hand-gun from an uncle just returned from dangerous Africa. Trouble is that Mumy thinks the real thing is a toy and problems mount as he loads first one real bullet and then more before going into the neighborhood looking for likely targets.

Hitchcock himself directed as the suspense mounts. When will the impish Mumy pull the trigger for real and who will be on the receiving end. It's a genuine nerve-wracking 20 minutes. Mumy is well cast as the little hellion. (Can't help but note presence of Biff Elliot as the father, long after his one shot at stardom as Mike Hammer in "I, the Jury" fizzled on the big screen.) There's an amusing little vignette as suffering daddy Olan Soule tries to bribe Mumy into letting his annoying little daughter ride the mechanical horsey. Hitchcock's penchant for dark humor is all over that brief sequence. This is one of the few "message" entries of the series, carrying a clear lesson about kids near guns. In fact, Hitch replaces his usual whimsical epilogue with an expressly cautionary message to adults. That aside, a six year-old on the loose with a real gun makes for a very suspenseful and unusual half-hour.

Billy Mumy is a typical kid of the 50s-60s who likes to play cowboy, totes around a toy gun and likes to shoot people with it. Then his visiting uncle careless leaves him with a suitcase that contains and real gun, and Billy decides he likes it better. Moreover, he loads it, but only adding a bullet now and then, and heads for the local grocery store. When is it going to go off and the kid will actually shoot somebody?

His parents and uncle discover the mistake and go frantically looking for him. Put aside those who complain this is just "anti-gun" PR (out of an industry that makes its living with guns all around everywhere). The suspense is really good, the cast is excellent, and the lesson - if you have a gun you'd better well keep it secure - is a good one.

This is another episode that fits into the file of telling a story about a serious topic but not being preachy about it. Current tv doesn't know how to tell a well told story without coming off like they're beating the message into your head. Current tv series preaches and it just comes off as obnoxious more than anything. You watch "The Conners" gun control episode from season 4 and then watch this episode. You'll see what I mean.

I don't see this episodes as something telling everybody to take all guns away from people because bad stuff happens. I think it's telling people to be responsible. Keep firearms out of the reach of children. That's all it is imo.

Anyway, onto the story. Chester is a little boy that loves playing with guns. And let me say something before I dive deeper into this episode. It was absolutely bizarre in modern times to watch a tv show featuring such a young child walking to the store all by himself. I don't know of that existence tbh. But something tells me if you were a young child in the 50s and 60s, you might chime in that you did that all the time. Things were just different and you could do stuff like that without too many bad things happening. On a somber note, it must be sad for all of you that grew up watching Alfred when it was originally airing and you're watching it in current times. There must be so many things that pop out to you about how things were back then and how sad things are in modern times because there's none of that innocence. Oh, I'm not trying to romanticize the past. But there is still that innocence lost factor, ya know?

Another thing that seemed bizarre involves our actual plot point. Jackie's uncle is visiting and he's brought a surprise for Jackie. Jackie find his uncle's real gun and real bullets and he trots off happily because he thinks this is the surprise his uncle meant for him. So Jackie's walking around town with a real gun and he doesn't know it. Jackie meets the mailman and talks with him before finishing his trek to the store. He gets to the store and he's got this gun out and he's loading bullets into it, pointing it at people, messing with the safety, etc. He's clearly seen. Can you imagine a scene like that today? And I'm not even talking about a real gun. Can you imagine going to your local stores and walking by a kid playing with a toy gun? I hate to say it but I think people are so on edge that even a toy gun....maybe even playing with a water gun would set some people off.

Anyway, Jackie's family realizes what's happening. They know Jackie's out and he's got his uncles gun and he's got bullets for the gun too. They all go out to search for him. They go to the grocery store and Jackie is still in the store while the announcement is being made mentioning his name. But he can't hear the announcement because he's near a man grinding coffee. Jackie leaves the store and later on Jackie's family leaves the store. The family are out in the parking lot and all get frightened when a car backfires because they thought it was the gun being fired.

Jackie gets back home and greets Cleo. Cleo is the family's maid. The two banter back and forth and Jackie's now got all the bullets in the chamber by this point in time. He says he's gonna shoot Cleo. Please remember he still thinks he has a toy gun when he's saying these things to Cleo. Cleo thinks he's playing around and continues to banter with him. Jackie pulls the trigger and gun fires. Thankfully the bullet misses Cleo and Jackie's upset once he sees what happened.

Again, this was a well told story and I didn't come away with the feeling of being preached out. Great job with the writing and acting in this episode.

The message for parents is just as relevant today as it was when this aired.

Should be required viewing for all married couples about to have children. I usually only give high ratings to episodes that have an unexpected twist at the end, one I can't predict. This episode is an exception.

Nice, pointed speech at the end from Hitchcock.

Just watching this on MeTV, and I have to say Bill Mumy is one of the (if not *the*) best child actors ever. He has such an expressive face, and he delivers his lines like a pro! It seems he has grown up into a really good person, too, his parents did a good job of keeping his feet on the ground. So glad he is one of the thriving survivors!