Night Gallery - The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes

Rod Serling wrote the teleplay for this “boy tells the future” story on a sweet boy (played by the Clint Howard) compelled to share his gift with the world, eventually allowed to go on a television station after some barking from a producer named Wellman (Michael Constantine), who considered him dull. He makes two predictions that turn out true: the rescue of a missing girl with a broken leg and an earthquake in LA. Wellman has an obvious change of heart, signing the boy to a contract. Herbie’s (Howard) grandfather (William Hansen) accompanies him. Brought in to meet him is Dr. Peterson (Ellen Weston), as he is quite a special boy. It is basically for research and study considering Herbie’s gift is quite extraordinary. With over 100+ predictions successful over his time on Wellman’s show, Herbie is unsettled by a vision. Herbie requests his grandfather take him home, but Wellman is persistent. After relenting, Herbie goes on and drags out his prediction until the very end much to Wellman’s boredom and displeasure. Herbie comes out with the “peace on earth” prophesy that leaves quite an uproar, but it is just a lie. Herbie decides his vision is too disturbing for the world to know, revealing to Peterson and grandfather the truth…a supernova! The sun will prove to be the earth’s undoing. A chilling revelation that I think many a viewer will surmise from Herbie’s global unity prediction and the right score (and the use of a rather looming orange filling the screen, bearing down on Herbie, Peterson, and his grandfather) certainly leave a troubling sensation. The behind-the-scenes look at the obsessive quest for ratings in Serling’s script made me grin; I’m pretty confident he was poking fun. Constantine is a bulldog, and his watching the duel between Dr. Moreau and Speaker of the Law in a private theater amused me to no end. He’s totally a ratings whore, and not accepting Herbie’s request to take a show off points to that. He begs and pleads with Herbie to not “abandon those fans at home”…it was the typical desperate pitch to salvage a loss in ratings with viewer discontent clearly on his mind. But the burden of those visions certainly concerns the grandfather, for which he shares with Peterson. This might explain why Herbie made his decision to lie…with such an overwhelming vision that would tell everyone they’d be dead soon, the boy wishes to give them a happy lie instead.