The Word Processor of the Gods
Screenplay By: Michael McDowell
Story By: Stephen King
Directed By: Michael Gornick
Struggling writer Richard Hagstrom (Bruce Davison) is plagued by financial troubles and his abusive family, including his gold-digging wife Adeline (Karen Shallo) and his layabout son Seth (Patrick Piccininni). His brother and his family, including genius nephew Johnathan (Jon Shear), recently died in a car accident, and among their personal effects, Richard receives a homemade computer Johnathan made for him as a birthday present. Experimenting with the computer, Richard discovers that every sentence he types into it is capable of altering reality, providing him with a quick fix to his problems.
Tropes:
- The Alleged Computer: The homemade word processor Jonathan created for his uncle is a subversion. It's very noticeably ramshackle and struggles with mundane text processing, but when it's commanded to rewrite Richard's life, it does so flawlessly. The last command Richard writes with it, to have his wife and son replaced by Belinda and Johnathan, is completed just before the thing finally explodes.
- Asshole Victim:
- Adeline and Seth aren't nice people in the slightest, so no tears are shed when Richard "deletes" them from existence.
- Richard's brother also falls under this category. Between his rampant alcoholism and Richard's not-so-fond description, he wasn't the nicest guy when he was alive.
- Big Brother Bully: Richard's brother, according to the man himself, used to do every horrible thing conceivable to him when he was alive.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: While Richard is kind-hearted, he's too meek to speak his mind, which isn't that bad. His family, on the other hand, consists of a heartless, gluttonous gold digger of a wife, a lazy and apathetic son, and a brother who drank heavily and used to torture him in numerous ways.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Played with, though it falls more under "Deceased Sister-in-Laws and Nephews are the best". Richard's nephew Johnathan was a bright and promising prodigy, and his mother Belinda was as beautiful as she was kind.
- Drunk Driver: Richard's brother killed his family by sailing their car off a cliff while drunk.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: A literal version here. Richard no longer has to put up with a life where he chickened out of proposing to Belinda, the kindly and beautiful girl of his dreams who went on to marry and start a family with his abusive brother, while his own wife and kid are no better. Just before the word processor goes up in smoke, he manages to rewrite reality so Belinda is brought back to life and made his wife, and her genius son Johnathan is also Richard's son.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Richard tries to ask Seth to help out with some heavy boxes like any father would a willing, strong-backed son. Occupied with practicing his guitar, Seth loudly grouses "Later!"
- While Richard's away, Adelina complains about the costly funeral arrangements of his brother, nephew, and sister-in-law, instead of treating it sensitively like the tragedy it is. She also implies she only married Richard for the prospect of his writing career, showing that she's a Gold Digger as well as a cheapskate.
- Fat Bitch: Adelina, the heartless gold digger who belittles everyone around her, never stops eating all episode. The opening shot even shows that the kitchen is overflowing with her leftovers.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Johnathan, who invented the word processor Richard inherits, was also noted to have won a science fair for high school seniors when he was only in 6th grade. Richard's neighbor reminisces on other kids who did similar stuff back in the day, such as one who made an atom smasher out of two soup cans and $5 worth of electronics, and another who whipped up a pipe bomb from the celluloid scraped off the backs of playing cards.
- Hate Sink: Adelina and Seth, who view Richard as a spineless whelp who never does anything right by them.
- Kick the Dog: When Richard kindly points out that today is his birthday in the hopes his wife might throw him a bone, she snidely teases that if he makes a wish, he'll get money.
- Lighter and Softer: The episode goes a more mysterious-yet-whimsical route with its magic, reality-altering word processor.
- Like Mother Like Son: Whenever Seth's guitar practice blows out the house's circuits, he yells out "BINGO!" Given his mother spends all her nights at bingo games, it's little wonder where he got it from.
- Nice Guy: Richard, as well as his nephew and sister-in-law, tried for years to do their best with what fate dealt them.
- Parental Substitute: Johnathan may have been born to an alcoholic father, but he viewed Richard more like a father than any other man.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The drunken crash of Richard's brother and his family set the plot in motion.
- Rewriting Reality: The word processor that Richard comes into possession of has the power to make whatever's typed onto it a reality, and can make it disappear when it's deleted.
- World of Jerkass: Half of Richard's family is lazy, apathetic, gluttonous, abusive, and overall atrocious, but the other half is the exact opposite.
