"Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" is the second segment of the ninth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...
''. The segment is based on the short story "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium", by
William F. Wu
William F. Wu (born March 13, 1951) is a Chinese-American science fiction, fantasy, and crime author.
Literary career
Born March 13, 1951, in Kansas City, Missouri, Wu had his first professional fiction publication, a short story, published in 1 ...
, first published in ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
'' in May 1983. It takes place in a mystical shop where ephemeral things such as lost integrity and lost time can be recovered.
Plot
David Wong, a young Asian American, has spent three years looking for a mysterious place called "The Lost and Found Emporium." He tracks it down to a backroom of a
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
pawn
Pawn most often refers to:
* Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game
* Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral
Pawn may also refer to:
Places
* Pawn, Oregon, an his ...
shop, but cannot find any staff. Browsing, David meets an elderly woman who is looking for lost time. He is not interested in her story, but he sees an orb of light floating behind her. Following the orb, which the woman does not see, he finds a cage with mice that have instructions to rub them until they calm down. Believing this is her chance to win back her lost time, the woman tries to do so but the mice scatter. She breaks down in tears and David leaves her.
David meets an elderly man who came to the emporium by accident. He says he lost the respect of his children. With the help of another orb, David points him to a mirror, which he must look at for no less than five and a half minutes. The man is disgusted by what he sees—a distorted, monstrous image of him. He smashes the mirror and then realizes he has destroyed his chance. David shakes his head and leaves.
David is confronted by a young woman named Melinda who scolds him for his lack of compassion. David says it is his compassion he is after and explains how he lost it due to racial intolerance, in particular the
murder of Vincent Chin
Vincent Jen Chin ( zh, first=t, t=陳果仁; May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was an American draftsman of Chinese descent who was killed in a racially motivated assault by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, l ...
. Deducing that visitors to the emporium can see other people's guiding orbs but not their own, Melinda offers to find his compassion if he finds her lost item. David agrees and follows her orb to an old thermos, which releases a stream of vapor. After inhaling the vapor, Melinda receives back her sense of humor. She points David to three flasks, but won't tell him which one contains his compassion.
David smashes the two biggest flasks, regaining his integrity and a childhood memory. The third flask rolls away and is lost. David is unhappy, but decides it is destiny to help other unfortunate souls. Melinda hypothesizes that he gained back some of his compassion with the restoration of his integrity, and volunteers to stay as his assistant. They start by helping the elderly man and woman. Afterwards Melinda puts up a new sign on the entrance: "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium: Under new management".
Production
Alan Brennert
Alan Brennert (born May 30, 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American author, television producer, and screenwriter. Brennert has lived in Southern California since 1973 and completed graduate work in screenwriting at the University of Cali ...
wrote the teleplay for the episode based on the short story by
William F. Wu
William F. Wu (born March 13, 1951) is a Chinese-American science fiction, fantasy, and crime author.
Literary career
Born March 13, 1951, in Kansas City, Missouri, Wu had his first professional fiction publication, a short story, published in 1 ...
. Wu got the idea for the story from a prompt given by
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
at the
Clarion Writers Workshop
Clarion is a six-week workshop for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Damon Knight's and Kate Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, United States, it was founded i ...
: "Where do lost things go?" Seven years after the workshop, the full concept of the story popped into his head as he was lying down for a nap.
Writer Michael B. Tonin was responsible for bringing the short story to Brennert's attention.
[
The production featured a huge number of "lost item" props, with the crew cracking jokes about having cleaned out the CBS property room.][ Actress ]Carol Bruce
Carol Bruce (born Shirley Levy; November 15, 1919 – October 9, 2007) was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.
Early years
Bruce was born Shirley Levy in a Jewish family, in Manhattan, to Beatrice and Harr ...
was shocked when she noticed that one of the prop skeletons was a real human skeleton rather than the usual plastic model. Wu, who was present for the filming and was a fan of Bruce's, took the opportunity to chat and have his photo taken with her.[ Science fiction writer Alison Tellure suggested the idea of a head in a jar which turns out to be alive.][
The original short story makes a subtle reference to an earlier short story with a mystic curio shop, "The Chaser" by ]John Collier John Collier may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*John Collier (caricaturist) (1708–1786), English caricaturist and satirical poet
*John Payne Collier (1789–1883), English Shakespearian critic and forger
*John Collier (painter) (1850–1934), ...
,[ which coincidentally was also developed into a ''Twilight Zone'' episode, albeit for the original series rather than the 1985 incarnation. However, this reference was left out of the TV adaptation.
]
Sequels
A sequel episode titled "Missing Person" was developed for season two of "The Twilight Zone", this time with the teleplay written by William F. Wu himself, but the series was cancelled before it could be filmed. The plot revolved around a person who wakes up to find he is a "lost item" on a shelf in Wong's Lost and Found Emporium and cannot leave until someone comes and "finds" him.[ Though the TV episode was never produced, the short story version of "Missing Person" was published in '']Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
'', as was a second sequel story, "Indigo Shade, Alizarin Light". All three Lost and Found Emporium stories were collected in Wu's 2020 book ''Interlaced Pathways'', which was coincidentally dedicated to Alan Brennert.
According to Brennert, in the early 2000s he was in talks to adapt the episode into a Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...
series in which David and Melinda would interact with a different set of guest stars each week, but nothing came of it.[
]
References
External links
*
Postcards from the Zone episode 1.22 Wong's Lost and Found Emporium
{{The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series) episodes
1985 American television episodes
The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series season 1) episodes
Television shows based on short fiction
Fictional rooms
Lost and found
fr:Le Bazar de M. Wong