- Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)
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"Once Upon a Time" The Twilight Zone episode 
Buster Keaton and Stanley Adams in Once Upon a TimeEpisode no. Season 3
Episode 78Directed by Norman Z. McLeod (with an uncredited sequence by Les Goodwins) Written by Richard Matheson Featured music William Lava (piano score played by Ray Turner) Production code 4820 Original air date December 15, 1961 Guest stars Buster Keaton: Woodrow Mulligan
Stanley Adams: Rollo
Jesse White: Repairman
James Flavin: First 1962 Policeman
Gil Lamb: Officer Flannagan
Milton Parsons: Professor Gilbert
Warren Parker: Clothing Store Manager
Harry Fleer: Second 1962 Policeman
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"Five Characters in Search of an Exit"List of Twilight Zone episodes "Once Upon a Time" is a 1961 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents
Synopsis
Woodrow Mulligan (Buster Keaton) is a grumpy janitor in 1890, dissatisfied with his time and place: a backwater town called "Harmony" with seventeen-cent cuts of meat, two-dollar hats, livestock freely roaming the streets, and penny-farthing bicycles that knock him down while going the speed limit (eight miles per hour). He works for Professor Gilbert, who has just invented a time helmet. Pouncing on the opportunity, Mulligan uses the helmet to transport himself to 1960, which of course turns out to be a surprise with even higher prices and more noise. He meets Rollo (Stanley Adams), a scientist and authority on the 1890s, which he regards as "charming."
Rollo tries to go back alone, but Mulligan jumps on him and they go back together. The 1890s turn out to be not entirely what Rollo thought of them. Mulligan, however, is relieved, and when he hears Rollo griping ("This guy sounds worse than my mother-in-law," Mulligan observes through an intertitle), he sets the helmet for 1960, puts it on Rollo's head, and sends him back to his own time.
This episode was one of the Twilight Zone's comedy episodes. The parts set in the 1890s have no sound, silent film intertitle cards (except, of course, for Rod Serling saying "Mr. Mulligan, a rather dour critic of his times is shortly to discover the import of that old phrase 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire'. Said fire burning brightly at all times, in the Twilight Zone") and a saloon piano. Much is made of the fact that Mulligan shows up in the 1960s with no pants due to his getting run over by a "high speed" bicycle. A running gag involves a helpless Mulligan being chased by a policeman in both the past and the present.
Inspiration
Buster Keaton was one of the biggest stars of the silent era, starring in and devising elaborate stunts and gags for such classic comedies as The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.. His career suffered with the advent of sound films, and he spent decades struggling in Hollywood. This episode was intended as an homage to his early work.
References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
External links
Richard Matheson Novels I Am Legend (1954) • The Shrinking Man (1956) • A Stir of Echoes (1958) • The Beardless Warriors (1960) • Hell House (1971) • Bid Time Return (1975) • What Dreams May Come (1978)Short stories "Born of Man and Woman" (1950) • "Blood Son" (1951) • "Button, Button" (1970)Screenplays The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) • House of Usher (1960) • "The Last Flight" (1960) • "Nick of Time" (1960) • "A World of Difference" (1960) • "A World of His Own" (1960) • Master of the World (1961) • The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) • "The Invaders" (1961) • "Once Upon a Time" (1961) • Night of the Eagle (1962) • Tales of Terror (1962) • "Little Girl Lost" (1962) • "Young Man's Fancy" (1962) • The Raven (1963) • "Death Ship" (1963) • "Mute" (1963) • "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963) • "Steel" (1963) • The Comedy of Terrors (1964) • The Last Man on Earth (1964) • "Night Call" (1964) • "Spur of the Moment" (1964) • Fanatic (1965) • The Young Warriors (1966) • "The Enemy Within" (1966) • The Devil Rides Out (1968) • De Sade (1969) • Duel (1971) • The Night Stalker (1972) • The Night Strangler (1973) • The Legend of Hell House (1973) • Dracula (1973) • The Morning After (1974) • Trilogy of Terror (1975) • The Martian Chronicles Mini-Series (1980) • Somewhere in Time (1980) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) • "Button, Button" (1986) • Loose Cannons (1990) • The Dreamer of Oz (1990) • Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) • Trilogy of Terror II (1996)Adaptations
by others"And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959) • "Third from the Sun" (1960) • Cold Sweat (1970) • The Omega Man (1971) • The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) • What Dreams May Come (1998) • Stir of Echoes (1999) • "Dance of the Dead" (2005) • "My Ambition" (2006) • I Am Legend (2007) • I Am Omega (2007) • The Box (2009) • "The Splendid Source" (2010) • Real Steel (2011)Categories:- 1961 television episodes
- The Twilight Zone episodes
- Time travel television episodes
- Steampunk television episodes
- Screenplays by Richard Matheson
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