help identify tv show or movie

September 19, 2010 12:41 AM

What 70s or 80s television show or televised movie featured a scene with an angled room, a hallway containing a light source, and a man walking through the hallway into the room? Crude pixel drawing of the scene included.

Can you identify which TV show (and preferably which episode), or which televised movie contained the scene described and depicted here?

I'd guess that the time frame for this event is 1982-1988. I saw a TV show or a televised movie with a particular scene that has been etched into my memory ever since. Themes of the show or movie might include drama, mystery, crime, or law enforcement.

What I remember about the scene is that there was a dark room viewed at an angle (so the floor was not parallel with the bottom of the frame). A hallway that joined the room was illuminated, so light from the hallway spilled into the room. And a man walked through the hallway into the room, and his presence in the room was likely a dramatic and revealing point of the story. I believe this was the entirety of the scene: seeing the room and the lit hallway, seeing a shadow move along the wall as the man approached the room, and then seeing the man walk into the room, with the viewer understanding who it was and why he was there.

I think the room colors were gray, white, and black, but I don't believe that it was a black-and-white show or movie.

I don't remember anything else about the show. It might've been something that I stumbled across while flipping channels, or something that I got a glimpse of while someone else was watching it. Most likely, I saw this while at home, which excludes cable TV channels and rented videos. I am almost certain that it was real actors filmed on a set as opposed to an animated show. I don't believe it was from a TV show that I watched regularly at the time (such as M*A*S*H, Knight Rider, Airwolf).

Here's the drawing I made from my memory of the scene:

http://klfo.com/images/television-scene.jpg

sorry that the man has no shadow in my drawing

posted by germdisco to media & arts (9 answers total)

This reminds me of a scene from the Third Man: jump to 1:02 for the scene.
posted by doublehappy at 3:43 AM on September 19, 2010

That should say "shot", not "scene". Even if that's not what you're looking for, if the scene you're describing is the kind of thing to stick in your mind, watch this movie.
posted by doublehappy at 3:45 AM on September 19, 2010

Perhaps the opening credits to The Prisoner (jump to around :50).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:05 AM on September 19, 2010

I immediately though of the movie Phantasm. Very creepy hallway scene etched into my head from that one.
posted by WickedPissah at 7:17 AM on September 19, 2010

This sounds a bit like one of the scenes in the opening for Space: 1999.
posted by zippy at 10:01 AM on September 19, 2010

doublehappy: thanks, but that's definitely not it. I might watch it later anyway!
posted by germdisco at 10:32 AM on September 19, 2010

Blazecock Pileon: nope, but thanks for submitting that.
posted by germdisco at 10:34 AM on September 19, 2010

WickedPissah: I took a look at this trailer, but I'd guess that I'm not thinking of a horror film. Does the trailer show the walking man scene which you recall?
posted by germdisco at 10:39 AM on September 19, 2010

zippy: I didn't see a matching scene here or here. Also, I don't think I ever saw this show on television. It was used as visuals at a nightclub once, and I rented some of the DVDs from Netflix afterward.
posted by germdisco at 10:49 AM on September 19, 2010