the time-loop ('Groundhog Day') concept in film/TV/novels

[jefferiestubes8]

Sure we've all seen 'Groundhog Day' (1993) but where did this time-loop concept begin and what other films, TV shows, and novels used it _BEFORE_ 1993?
Let's discuss the time-loop concept of story telling not a non-linear style (ala 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) ).

 

[Christopher]

Sure we've all seen 'Groundhog Day' (1993) but where did this time-loop concept begin and what other films, TV shows, and novels used it _BEFORE_ 1993?

Interesting you should ask that, since Groundhog Day's creators were threatened with legal action for allegedly copying the time-loop concept from 12:01 PM, a 1990 short film based on a 1973 prose story by Richard A. Lupoff. In 1993, the same year that Groundhog Day came out, a 2-hour TV-movie adaptation of 12:01 PM was released (though it was called simply 12:01, and it was changed in the movie to 12:01 AM). The TV movie was often mistakenly accused of being a Groundhog Day ripoff.

Doctor Who used the time-loop concept several times in the '70s, which suggests it was probably around in prose fiction sometime earlier.

Here's Wikipedia's page on time loops as a plot device:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop

It includes references in literature going back to the 1350s (the Decameron).

 

[Nardpuncher]

There's the great book Replay by Ken Grimwood that I believe came out in 1988 that has a guy who dies at age 57 or something and 'wakes up' in college...reliving his life like "Groundhog Day" in that he knows what will happen...then he dies again in 1988 and is 'reborn' again.

Great book. I read it twice. I think.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I think I recently read a story about a movie based on that book being planned.

 

[Saul]

The hell? Didn't we talk about this yesterday?

 

[Nardpuncher]

Many times!

 

[Greg Cox]

There's the great book Replay by Ken Grimwood that I believe came out in 1988 that has a guy who dies at age 57 or something and 'wakes up' in college...reliving his life like "Groundhog Day" in that he knows what will happen...then he dies again in 1988 and is 'reborn' again.

Great book. I read it twice. I think.

It also won the World Fantasy Award.

Sadly, Ken Grimwood passed away a few years later. As far as I know, he only wrote a few other books.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Ben Affleck is supposedly to direct and star in the movie version.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Does Tapestry count?

There was also Cause and Effect.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Here's Wikipedia's page on time loops as a plot device:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop

wow thanks Christopher. i totally forgot to check out Wiki before posting this morning. that is pretty detailed. i like how it mentions the names of episodes like the TNG, VOY, & ENT episodes.
forgot about Primer and the 'Naked' film sounds interesting. It's pretty cool how this plot device has been used in all of those TV show's episodes though.
Since 'Groundhog Day' any films are kind of a variation on the theme. G.D. was a comedy of course though.

I find stuff like this fascinating: GD's "time loop' or 'temporal loop' concept and stuff like 'bullet time' from "The Matrix" going back to the "Speed Racer" show intro.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Does Tapestry count?

There was also Cause and Effect.

I immediately thought of Cause and Effect. But to my mind, Tapestry is more in the vein of A Christmas Carol; a character being given a chance to live his life over by some sort of Godlike or supernatural character.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm trying to decide if Slaughterhouse-Five should count.

 

[Canadave]

^ There's no loop in Slaughter-house 5, though, Billy Pilgrim has simply become unstuck in time, and jumps around at random.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Being Erica, a Canadian show has just recently used the concept and it was really good and well done.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Nothing can top the original short film 12:01 PM. It's up on YouTube if anyone is interested. You'll never look at Kurtwood Smith the same way again...

 

[Silvercrest]

Canadave wrote:
^ There's no loop in Slaughter-house 5, though, Billy Pilgrim has simply become unstuck in time, and jumps around at random.

Right, but a lot of the elements are the same: Reliving the same points in time over and over, unable to break the cycle, no one else aware of it, etc. Seems like it deserves a place in the discussion regardless, except that it wasn't really intended as science fiction.

Like I said, I'm not sure.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I really liked the take on the concept in the Lois & Clark episode with Mr Mxyzptlk.

There people within the loop started to breakdown emotionally because there was no hope for a tomorrow. Even though they where not consciously aware of the time-loop.

 

[Guy Gardener]

CTRL with Tony Hale was an uproar.

And the lead spud from Godssip girl when he was a boy, was in a positively charming Nickelodeon sitcom called Do-Over where a 30 year old wakes up in his 15 year old body in the past after an accident with a defibrillator going off while attached to his ears... Threatening to tell people what happened in Phantom Menace while waiting in line for the Empire Strikes Back was Hillllarrrious.

I suppose if you really want to argue it, Sisyphus would have been the fist guy stuck in a loop push that boulder up a hill for eternity?

 

[Canadave]

Canadave wrote:
^ There's no loop in Slaughter-house 5, though, Billy Pilgrim has simply become unstuck in time, and jumps around at random.

Right, but a lot of the elements are the same: Reliving the same points in time over and over, unable to break the cycle, no one else aware of it, etc. Seems like it deserves a place in the discussion regardless, except that it wasn't really intended as science fiction.

Like I said, I'm not sure.

As I read it, though, Billy isn't really re-living moments over and over, he's just living his life out of order. He can't change how anything happens in his life, and there's no need for him to break the loop. So in my mind, it's a different type of time travel story.

 

[Silvercrest]

I could argue the point, but the lack of other response suggests that everyone agrees with you.

So it goes....