Bio[]
The Great TV Set Mystery is a British sci-fi thriller alternately known as "1994." The film starts with an American news broadcaster named Dudley Baddley (Benny Hill) from NBG Broadcasting describing reports of a rash of electrical appliances behaving erratically from as far away as Los Angeles and Denver, Colorado. As he speaks, his images in the Starlite Television shop window roll back and forth as if they're eyes scanning the town. Pedestrians (Anne Easton and Samantha Spencer-Lane) pass in front not realizing the activity, but as another one (Nola Haynes) stops to adjust her stocking, the screens react to her presence.
Meanwhile, the lights of a house nearby flicker in a strange code to the other houses. The homeowner (Benny Hill wonders what is happening, but he's most interested in his dinner. His wife (Helen Horton) responds she's cooking with only the stuff in the cans missing labels, but he commiserates that dinner is never as hot as the TV. His wife yells the stove isn't working so he shows her how to kick it to get it to work. As she slides dinner into the stove, she gets sucked up into the stove with it.
Upstairs, their housekeeper (Sharon Haywoode) watches the vacuum cleaner come to life and bites her on the neck. Meanwhile, her husband is upstairs fussing with a temperamental wall-mounted light. When it starts working, it wraps around his neck and chokes him.
His daughter (Sue Upton) finishes her homework and decides to take a shower, little knowing that the television has come to life and is following her up the stairs. She undresses and enters the shower, but she turns around and sees the TV set looking at her with eyes glowing from the screen. Clutching the shower curtain, she pulls it down as it kills her, and a strange light blue current passes through the water.
Down the street, a man selling newspapers (Bob Todd) is trying to warn the public, but the TVs appear and do away with him. TVs with eyes start marching out of town.
After a few days, the TVs have taken over and human beings are used for entertainment. Hitting a button in the floor, a TV pulls up Esther Rantzen of "That's Life!" (Benny Hill), Fanny and Johnny Craddock (Benny and Bob Todd) and comedian Bernie Winters (Benny again).
Trivia[]
- This sketch seems to be Benny's parody of the old 1950s alien invasion flicks, such as "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" (1956), "This Island Earth (1955) "Earth versus The Flying Saucers (1956) and "Invasion of The Body Snatchers" (1956) with the added homage to the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960).
- This sketch starts with "Station 007, New York Presents, 1994," For this reason, it's being treated as one of the numerous TV/movie parodies which Benny has created through the run of "The Benny Hill Show."
- For some reason, Sue Upton ascends the stairs on the set with her hands and arms kept down by her sides instead of a more natural gait.
- The lamp choking scene was likely done in two parts with Benny hitting the fixture in one half and the choking part acted in reverse and played backward.
- Benny and Helen's characters were basically left over from the prior episode's The Fudpuckers.
- Compared to her Hill's Angels routines, this has to be the "nudest" Sue Upton has been in the series. However, it is very likely she was wearing some some of underwear or pasties during filming.
- Except for the shot of the TV at her feet, Dennis Kirkland almost accurately re-creates the shower scene from "Psycho" (1960) with actress Janet Leigh.
- According to William Brown of "Benny's Place," this sketch was featured on the HBO-DVD "One Night Video Stand" under the name "Starlight Television." In the sketch, it's dubbed "1994" in the opening scroll; however, this site refers to it as "The Great TV Mystery" (from Bob Todd's dialogue in the sketch).
- Brown also adds this sketch has its origins in a TV spoof from Benny's May 24, 1965 show, "One Step Behind," a parody on the 50s American series "One Step Beyond." The episode was referred to as "Appliance Revolt."
- This plot line may also have its origins in "The Twilight Zone" October 28, 1960 episode, "A Problem with Machines."
