Stories from "The Twilight Zone" Quiz

Answer: "The Mighty Casey"

Casey was a human-looking robot whose perfect pitches brought the Hoboken Zephyrs from last place to fourth place in the standings. After Casey was hit in the head by a line drive, doctors discovered he was a robot and had no heart. Casey's creator, Dr. Stillman, gives Casey a mechanical heart, but Casey, not having learned about competitiveness, wouldn't strike out the batters. "I just can't bring myself to hurt their careers." said Casey. Dr. Stillman gives McGarry Casey's blueprints as a keepsake.

In the closing narration of this episode, Rod Serling says, "Once upon a time there was a major-league baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs who, during the last year of their existence, wound up in last place and shortly thereafter wound up in oblivion.

There's a rumor, unsubstantiated of course, that a manager named McGarry took them to the West Coast and wound up with several pennants and a couple of world's championships. This team had a pitching staff that made history. Of course, none of them smiled very much, but it happens to be a fact that they pitched like nothing human. And if you're interested as to where these gentlemen came from, you might check under 'B' for baseball, in the Twilight Zone." (Do you suppose he was referring to the Los Angeles Dodgers?)

Answer: "Escape Clause"

Walter Bedeker exchanges his soul to the devil for immortality and indestructibility. He manages to collect tidy sums of money from "accidents" he's involved with. (Such as a steel I-beam falling on him!) He decides to see what would happen if he jumped from the roof of his apartment building.

While trying to dissuade him, his wife falls though an airshaft. Bedeker calls the police and reports he has just murdered his wife, hoping he'll get the penalty of the electric chair. But his clever lawyer gets him off with life imprisonment. Knowing he is to live forever, Bedeker exercises the "escape clause" with the devil, and dies of a heart attack.

At the end of the episode, the guard makes a comment about the look of utter horror on Bedeker's face.

Answer: "Where Is Everybody?"

Mike Ferris suddenly seems to wake up to find himself walking down a lonely highway towards a small town. When he arrives, he finds all businesses open, but there's absolutely no people around anywhere. Throughout the episode, he has the peculiar feeling of being watched.

When he can't stand the loneliness any longer, he presses a button that is used to make the traffic light change, but in reality, it's a release button to a hangar. He is being observed by the Air Force to see how long an astronaut can stand the loneliness of being in a space capsule alone.

The ironic thing about this story is that, as the medical team is taking Ferris away, he finds a theater ticket from the town he hallucinated about in his shirt pocket!

Answer: "The Lonely"

James Corry is serving fifty years on an asteroid for killing the drunk driver who ran down Corry's wife. His asteroid is visited four times a year by a supply ship. On one visit, Captian Allenby brings Corry a robot in the form of a woman named Alicia to help Corry get through the lonely hours. Corry eventually falls in love with Alicia. Allenby returns several months later to tell Corry that he has received a pardon from the Governor, but he must leave Alicia behind, as there isn't enough room on the supply ship for her. Corry refuses to leave her, so, Allenby shoots her, exposing all of the tubes inside. Corry ends up going with Allenby.

Answer: "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street"

A street full of neighbors are enjoying a nice sunny afternoon, when suddenly, there is a blinding flash of light overhead, and everything from lawnmowers to radios stop working. They think at first that it was a meteor, but a twelve-year-old boy begins to tell of the space stories he's read about Martians invading the Earth.

His stories are enough to plant seeds of doubt into the neighbors' minds, and they begin to look at each other with suspicion. It finally escalates into a full scale panic, and by morning, all of the residents of Maple Street are dead. On a hill above, two Martians watch this, and comment about their plot to take over the Earth with this same plan in every neighborhood.

Answer: "The Big, Tall Wish"

Bolie Jackson is desperate to make a comeback in the boxing circles. On the night of the fight, Bolie breaks his hand prior to the fight. He is knocked out by his opponent, and suddenly wakes up to find that he has won the fight after all. When he returns home, his neighbor's son, Henry, who adores Bolie, tells him that he won the fight because Henry made "the big, tall wish".

Henry tells Bolie that he has to believe in magic, or the wish won't be true. Bolie just can't make himself believe, and ends up back in the ring and losing the fight.

Answer: "Dust"

Luis Gallegos, a young Mexican man, is sentenced to be hung for accidentally killing a little girl. Sykes, an unscrupulous peddler, sold the rope to the hangman, then convinces Luis's father that he has a "magic dust" (which is ordinary dirt) that when sprinkled over the heads of the townspeople, will turn their hate to love.

He charges Luis's father a lot of pesos for it, but the father manages to come up with the money. As the hangman is preparing Luis for hanging, the father runs back and forth scattering the "magic dust" and pleading for his son's life.

He hears the trap door drop, and falls to the ground covering his face. The sudden silence of the crowd makes him look up to discover that the rope broke and that his son is still alive.

The father of the dead little girl decides that the sentence has been carried out, and doesn't want them to try again. Luis is pardoned and sent home. Sykes is so stunned by this event, he ends up giving the pesos to Luis's younger siblings.

Answer: "The Midnight Sun"

Norma, a young artist, is living in New York City. She is very ill, and dreams that the Earth had changed its orbit, and was drawing closer to the sun with each passing day. There is no night, and each day is hotter than the day before. She wakes up to find just the opposite-the Earth has changed its orbit-but it's moving away from the sun and it's colder and darker with each passing day.

Answer: "The Whole Truth"

Harvey Hunnicut is the biggest liar that ever lived. He will tell any lie to sell one of his used cars (which are all lemons), until a little old man sells Harvey his Model A. He tells Harvey that the car is "haunted", and that anyone who owns it must tell the truth. Harvey doesn't believe him at first, but finds out the hard way that the man was correct.

He finally manages to sell the Model A to Nikita Krushchev with the idea that he can use the car for propaganda purposes.

Answer: "The Odyssey Of Flight 33"

Flight 33 en route to New York, suddenly picks up speed, and encounters a strange blinding flash that makes them travel back in time when the dinosaurs were still roaming the Earth. They try to get back to the present. They pick up speed again, and again encounter the flash, but discover that they haven't come far enough.

As the episode closes, they are still trying to get back. Rod Serling closes with, "If you hear the sound of hungry engines at night, send up a flare. It will be Flight 33, still trying to get home."

Answer: "Mr. Dingle, The Strong"

Luther Dingle, is a small milquetoast type who hangs out at O'Toole's bar. He is constantly tormented by Callahan, who likes to use Dingle as his personal punching bag. Two invisible Martians observe this, and decide to give Dingle the strength of 300 men. Dingle uses this gift for, as the Martians put it, "petty exhibition". Disgusted, they remove the power just as Dingle is about to lift up the building, causing Callahan to lose money on bets he had made that Dingle could accomplish the feat. Callahan beats him up again.

Then two invisible Venusians give Dingle the intelligence of a genius, and the episode closes with Dingle wandering off into the night, solving all of the world's problems, but keeping the information to himself.

Answer: "The Rip Van Winkle Caper"

Four men, Farwell, Brooks, Erbe and DeCruz steal a million dollars in gold bars, and put themselves to sleep by suspended animation so that they could wake up one hundred years in the future and be free to spend the gold. The plan seems to work. When they wake, they find that the sleeping gas escaped from one of the glass coffins that they slept in, and that Erbe is now a skeleton. Brooks is killed after an argument with DeCruz. DeCruz and Farwell fill knapsacks with gold, and start down the highway looking for a town. Farwell loses his water canteen, and DeCruz charges him one gold bar for every drink of water. Farwell ends up killing DeCruz, but collapses from exhaustion.

He sees a car pull up, and offers the driver all of the gold for a drink of water, but dies from exposure before the man can help.

It turns out that in this future world, gold was no longer valuable, as they had found a way to manufacture it.

Answer: "The Shelter"

Dr. William Stockton is the only one on the block who foresees a possible nuclear attack and builds a shelter for his family. On his birthday, he, his wife and several neighbors are celebrating when Stockton's son announces that there is an emergency broadcast on the radio.

The radio announces that there are several "unidentified flying objects" being detected, and in "the interest of national security" asks everyone to get into a shelter. Suddenly, Dr. Stockton's shelter seems very attractive to the entire neighborhood, and fights break out as to who will enter the shelter with Dr. Stockton's family. Dr. Stockton refuses entry to anyone, as the shelter was only big enough for his own family. Just as the neighbors smash in the shelter door, the radio announces that the "unidentified flying objects" have been identified as being satellites, and that there is no danger.

Answer: "Walking Distance"

Martin Sloan, a stressed-out ad executive, decides to escape from pressure and return to the small town of Homewood. He leaves his car at a gas station in the country and walks the two miles to Homewood. To his surprise, the town hasn't changed at all. He soon learns that he has somehow gone back in time and meets himself as a young boy.

Answer: "Living Doll"

Telly Savalas stars as Erich Streator. He is upset when his wife buys Talky Tina, a very expensive talking doll for his step-daughter. He becomes very unnerved when he finds the doll talks to him, telling him that she doesn't like him and wants to kill him!