| Series: | The Twilight Zone |
| Season: | 5 |
| Episode: | 27 |
| Production: | 2631 |
| Director: | Richard Donner |
| Guests: | John McGiver - Roswell G. Flemington Penny Singleton - Mrs. Lydia Flemington Billy Benedict - Conklin Francis De Sales - Doctor Michael Fox - Psychiatrist Renee Aubry - Ms. Abernathy (Secretary) Lurene Tuttle - Secretary |
| Season Article: | The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5) |
| Episode List: | List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes |
| Prev: | I Am the Night—Color Me Black |
| Next: | Caesar and Me |
"Sounds and Silences" is episode 147 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on April 3, 1964 on CBS.
Roswell G. Flemington, owner of a model ship company and a former serviceman of the United States Navy, grew up in a home where his mother required silence. Thus, as an adult, he makes as much noise as he possibly can, is obsessed with the Navy, and behaves thunderously in response to any slight.
After twenty years, his wife Lydia becomes fed up with his obsession with noise and walks out on him. Alone, he begins to hear every little noise like an explosion or gunshot. He sees a psychiatrist, who helps him understand that conflict with Lydia has caused him to relive his resentment against his mother to the point that he internalizes his mother's affliction. He now realizes it is all in his head and all he needs to do is overcome the mental block with "mind over matter". He successfully does so, but when Lydia returns to pick up her jewelry, he "shut[s] her out", leading to him going deaf. Desperate to hear anything, he puts on a record and sets the volume to its highest setting. The scene remains silent, but his apartment vibrates from the stereo's sound. Panicked, he opens his windows and begs for noise.
In 1961, a script titled "The Sound of Silence" was submitted to the producers and rejected. Following the first screening of "Sounds and Silences", the original author successfully sued Rod Serling for plagiarism because of similarities in the plot, and was awarded $3,500 in damages. Since litigation was ongoing at the time of the initial syndication package creation the episode was withheld until 1984 when it first resurfaced on a special holiday presentation.[1]