The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

“It’s a tree-lined, quiet residential American street, very typical of the small town. The houses have front porches on which people sit and swing on gliders, conversing across from house to house. STEVE BRAND polishes his car parked in front of his house. His neighbor, DON MARTIN, leans against the fender watching him. A Good Humor man rides a bicycle and is just in the process of stopping to sell some ice cream to a couple of kids. Two women gossip on the front lawn. Another man waters his lawn.”

This opening sequence introduces Maple Street’s status quo. The neighbors are typically pleasant, cooperative, comfortable, and friendly. This stands in stark contrast with how they behave throughout the bulk of the episode.

“CHARLIE: Well, why don’t you go downtown and check with the police, though they’ll probably think we’re crazy or something. A little power failure and right away we get all flustered and everything.

STEVE: It isn’t just power failure, Charlie. If it was, we’d still be able to get a broadcast on the portable.”

This exchange establishes that Charlie and Steve initially approach the street’s power failure in a cooperative and rational way. It also informs the viewer that this bout of power failure is unusual because it affects electronic devices that don’t rely on the power grid to work, like a battery-operated portable radio.

“That was the way they prepared things for the landing. They sent four people. A mother and a father and two kids who looked just like humans…but they weren’t.”

Here, Tommy introduces the true conflict of the episode. This description of aliens as covert interlopers is what sparks paranoia on Maple Street.