A
merry-go-round or carousel is an amusement park attraction or ride that
consists of a circular platform on which rest seats (traditionally in the shape
of horses or other animals) that go up and down as they spin.
The
merry-go-round is a set-piece that has made frequent appearances throughout
cult-television history.
Perhaps
the most memorable of such carousels appears in the first season Twilight
Zone (1959 – 1964) episode “Walking Distance.” There, an overworked business-man, Martin
Sloan (Gig Young) travels back in time to the home town of his youth. There he hopes to enjoy one more summer, but
near the merry-go-round he sees his younger self and feels compelled to tell
him a message about growing up, and enjoying life while you can. He chases down his younger self a
merry-go-round, a symbol for a life that spins around and around, but goes
nowhere.
A
merry-go-round also featured prominently in the Ghost Story/Circle of Fear
(1972) episode titled “At the Cradle Foot.”
Here, a man (James Franciscus) is plagued by dreams that his daughter
will be shot and killed on a merry-go-round.
He goes out in search of that playground in an attempt to avert his
child’s grim fate.
A
Get
Smart episode called “The Wax Max” (1965 – 1970) set at an amusement
park finds Max (Don Adams) and 99 (Barbara Feldon) being attacked by enemy agents
(one dressed as Dracula..). A shoot-out
occurs on a merry-go-round.
In
an episode of The Prisoner (1967 – 1968), Number Six recounts a story to
several children in the Village. It
involves him hunting down and being hunted himself by a woman -- Sonia (Justine
Lord) – who is “death.” Part of the
“game” takes place at an amusement park which happens to feature a carousel or
merry-go-round.
A
carousel also appears briefly on an island in the Bermuda triangle in “The
Funhouse,” an episode of the short-lived The Fantastic Journey (1977).
And,
an episode of Thundarr the Barbarian (1980 – 1982) features a post-apocalyptic
carousel as a setting in “Stalker from the Stars."
I enjoyed your article about the Merry-go-round theme in Cult TV. Besides "Walking Distance", I remember The Outer Limits (1960's version) episode "Second Chance" and The Twilight Zone (1960's version) episode "In Praise of Pip". Your explanation that a merry-go-round is "a symbol for a life that spins around and around, but goes nowhere" seems to be used in just this way in all three of these episodes as they show how the character's lives are just repeating and going nowhere. All three episodes used an amusement park as a place to go so the characters could escape from their normal lives.
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