A Game of Pool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “A Game of Pool” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters in A Game of Pool |
|||||||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 70 |
||||||
| Written by | George Clayton Johnson | ||||||
| Directed by | Buzz Kulik | ||||||
| Guest stars | Jack Klugman : Jesse Cardiff Jonathan Winters : Fats Brown |
||||||
| Featured music | Stock | ||||||
| Production no. | 4815 | ||||||
| Original airdate | October 13, 1961 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"A Game of Pool" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Jesse Cardiff, pool shark, the best on Randolph Street, who will soon learn that trying to be the best at anything carries its own special risks, in or out of the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
It is after hours at Lister's Pool Room, and once more pool shark Jesse Cardiff is alone, polishing his pool game. Jesse bitterly muses that he would be considered the greatest pool player of all time, if it were not for the memory of the late Fats Brown overshadowing him. "I'd give anything, anything to play him one game!" he declares aloud.
"At your service!" comes a sudden voice from the corner of the room. It is indeed James Howard Brown — "known to his friends as Fats" — who has been dead for fifteen years, but who has come from the afterlife to answer Jesse's challenge. Fats tells Jesse it is time for him to put his money where his mouth is and play a game of pool to see who the best truly is. But Fats ups the stakes: If Jesse wins, he will indeed be acknowledged as the greatest. If he loses.... it means his life.
Jesse is undaunted, and the ultimate high stakes pool game begins. All throughout the game, Fats subtly tries to warn Jesse; he laments that Jesse has done nothing with his life but play pool. Jesse ignores Fats' comments, convinced that Fats is just trying to get Jesse's mind off the game. When it comes down to one final, easy shot for Jesse to win the title, Fats again warns him that he does not understand the burdens that come with it. But Jesse ignores him and sinks the shot. He exults in his victory; he is now the best ever.
Fats' response is to thank Jesse for beating him. Jesse is angered, declaring that Fats is a sore loser. Only years later, after he has died, does Jesse finally understands Fats' warnings. Jesse is obliged to spend his afterlife defending his title, going from pool room to lonely pool room, to play against challenger after challenger, just as Fats must have had to do until he finally lost.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | Mr. Jesse Cardiff, who became a legend by beating one, but who has found out after his funeral that being the best of anything carries with it a special obligation to keep proving it. Mr. Fats Brown, on the other hand, having relinquished the champion's medal, has gone fishing. These are the ground rules, in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Alternate ending
Johnson's script originally featured an alternate ending in which Jesse loses the game. Seeing that Jesse is bedazzled that he has lost a life-or-death game and is still alive, Fats explains that he will die "as all second raters die: you'll be buried and forgotten without me touching you. If you'd beaten me, you'd have lived forever." This ending was eventually filmed when this episode was remade in 1988, during the first revival of The Twilight Zone.
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
