My mother has set me on a quest to track down an episode of a tv show
she saw years ago and would like to see again...  It was a show that
had short stories and the episode was about a woman who finds herself
in a shop where there are shelves of colorful bottles.  Inside the
bottles are people's tears.

She thought it was an episode of Twilight Zone, but is positive that
the episode was in color (she remembers the vivid, colorful bottles)
so I thought perhaps it was Night Gallery.  I found a fairly extensive
Night Gallery site at http://www.nightgallery.net and the episode
guide didn't hold anything like this.   Other possibilities could be
Outer Limits and Twilight Zone, but neither filmed in color and the
theme of the stories were different.   I suppose the NEW Twilight Zone
(1980s?) can't be ruled out, but I was under the impression she saw
this when she was younger (1960s).

The ultimate goal here is to actually purchase a video of whatever
this turns out to be, so if that information is available as well, I
would be interested.

Thanks!

Dear lazygal-ga,

I am certain that the show your mother wants is "The Tear Collector,"
an episode of "Tales from the Darkside."

Here are some brief descriptions from fan sites:

"A woman who can't stop crying finds some guy who wants to buy them. 
After each session she feels a bit better, but then for some reason
decides to go and smash all the vials of tears this guy had
collected."

Series and Episode Info, Tales from the Darkside
http://cs-people.bu.edu/shoffman/tfds/tfds.html  

"THE TEAR COLLECTOR                                 2/18/85
 
        A woman who can't stop crying finds a buyer for her tears.
        w. John Dimmer & Geoffrey Loftus   d. John Drimmer
           story by Donald Olsen
        Ambrose Cavender.................Victor Garber
        Prudence.........................Jessica Harper
        Gretchen.........................Linda Lee Johnson
        Junkie...........................Eric Bogosian
        Young Woman......................Kay Walbye
        Young Man........................John Rothman
        Stunts: Lisa Cain and Edgard Mourino"

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE EPISODE GUIDE
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9821/darkside.txt

A videotape containing three episodes of the show, including "The Tear
Collector," is described here:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/product/film_info/0,3699,2329370,00.html

Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a place where you can
buy this videotape. Ebay sellers are offering a different "Tales of
the Darkside Volume 6,"  which contains five episodes, but "The Tear
Collector" is not on that tape.

I will continue trying to find a copy of the video for you. If "The
Tear Collector" is not the show you want, or if any part of my answer
is unclear, please ask for clarification.

Search strategy:

"vials of tears"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22vials+of+tears

"tales from the darkside" + "video"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22tales+from+the+darkside%22+video

Best regards,
pinkfreud-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 01 Aug 2002 19:45 PDT

Regarding which volume this episode is on, I believe it really is on
Volume 6 of one of the Tales from the Darkside collections, since I
found several sources that gave this information. The problem is that
there were two different sets of such collections. The set you want
has three episodes per tape. The other set, which seems to predominate
on Ebay, has five episodes per tape.

There are so many DVD anthologies of old TV series coming out that I
would not be surprised to see a DVD collection someday. There is quite
a cult following for this show, which bodes well for its continued
availability on various media, and also makes it likely that someone
will rerun it again. The last reruns I recall were on the Sci-Fi
Channel about five years ago; they are currently showing old "Twilight
Zone" and "Outer Limits" episodes late at night, and I would think
that "Darkside" would fit right into that niche.

Thank you for the five-star rating!

~pinkfreud

Thank you so much!  I think this must be what I'm looking for...  It's
quite possible she viewed this on tv in the 80s and thought it was
longer ago than that.  (It's been almost 20 years!)  There does seem
to be some confusion about what volume this episode might be on -- I
would be grateful if you found it.  I will start looking myself, now
that I know what I'm looking for!  ;-)   Thank you again -- excellent
response time!