Amazing Stories: Mummy, Daddy

"Mummy, Daddy" is the fourth episode of season one of the television series Amazing Stories. Directed by William Dear and written by Earl Pomerantz, the episode first aired on NBC on Sunday, October 27th, 1985. In this episode, a monster movie actor named Harold learns that his pregnant wife has gone into labor and he must hurry to the hospital to meet her. Unfortunately, there's not enough time for him to remove his mummy costume. Along his frantic journey, Harold is mistaken for a real mummy by the local town villagers.

Synopsis
Harold is an actor playing the role of a mummy in a horror movie. The director finishes a scene and breaks for lunch. In lieu of how much time it would take to get Harold out of his wrappings and re-wrap him after lunch, the director recommends staying in costume. Inside of Harold's trailer, the director tells him that he chose this specific location (in the Louisiana bayou), because rumor has it that it was once the territory of an actual mummy known as Ra Amon Ka. Harold begins laughing and thinks that the entire story is foolish. Just then, they receive a telephone call informing them that Harold's pregnant wife is about to go into labor. Still dressed up in full mummy attire, Harold races out of the trailer and hops into his car to meet his wife at a hospital in Gridley.

Along the way, his car runs low on gas and he stops to refuel. The gas station attendant in inside his office watching The Mummy's Hand when Harold walks up. The attendant is scared out of his mind and begins screaming. Harold is startled by the man's antics and runs off into the night.

As he continues traveling, he comes upon a truck load of rednecks who mistake him for an actual mummy. They begin firing shots at him and Harold, unable to explain his situation due to the prosthetic props in his mouth, is forced to flee again.

He runs further into the bayou until he comes upon a small cabin. A blind man invites him inside and offers him some tea. Harold accepts the man's generosity until the man begins feeling Harold's hands and arms. Recognizing the sensation of cloth bandages, he turns in fear and runs towards the back of his shack. Amongst the various bric-a-brac in the cabin is the sarcophagus containing the real Ra Amon Ka. The true mummy springs to life and lurches forward. Harold is terrified and runs out into the night. Ra Amon Ka chases him through a cemetery, but the mummy stumbles and falls into a freshly dug grave.

Harold gets closer to town, but as he does so, he runs into the truck driver he encountered earlier. The man, having already informed the town locals of the presence of Ra Amon Ka is ready to execute him. The villagers are present and they round Harold and attempt to decide what to do with him. The truck driver posits several ideas such as putting a stake in his heart, setting him on fire or using silver bullets on him. The gas station attendant, an apparent aficionado on monster folklore, tells him that these methods won't work on a mummy. The trucker decides to hang him, citing that lynching works on everybody. Harold protests, but his words only sound like jumbled grunts through his mask. They sit him on top of a horse and place a noose around his neck. As the driver urges the horse to bolt, the noose slips off and Harold bounds away from the scene on the back of the horse.

He eventually reaches the hospital (where he ties the horse reins to an elderly woman's walker) and rushes inside to find his wife. Searching from room to room, he scares several patients until finally a hospital security guard tries to get him to leave. Harold knows that the lynch mob is outside waiting for him. As he turns around however, he sees an orderly wheeling his wife past him on a gurney. She tells the security guard that this mummy is her husband and then shows Harold his newborn baby girl. The lynch mob are watching the event from outside and their tempers settle down as they watch Harold cradling his daughter. The gas station attendant intones in a raspy voice, "The mummy's a daddy!"

Notes & Trivia

 * This episode has been made available on the Amazing Stories: The Complete First Season DVD collection.


 * The story is allegedly inspired by an actual event when famed Frankenstein Monster actor Boris Karloff was forced to leave the set of a film in full makeup to attend to the birth of his child.