Kick the Can

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“Kick the Can”
The Twilight Zone episode

Scene from "Kick the Can"
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 86
Written by George Clayton Johnson
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Guest stars Ernest Truex : Charles Whitley
Barry Truex : Charles' son
Russell Collins : Ben Conroy
John Marley : Mr. Cox
Burt Mustin : Carlson
Earle Hodgins : First old man
Hank Patterson : Second old man
Marjorie Bennett : First old lady
Lenore Shanewise : Second old lady
Eve McVeagh : Night nurse
Featured music Stock (many cues taken from Bernard Herrmann’s score to Walking Distance)
Production no. 4821
Original airdate February 9, 1962
Episode chronology
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"Showdown with Rance McGrew" "A Piano in the House"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"Kick the Can" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Contents

[edit] Opening Narration

“ Sunnyvale Rest, a home for the aged, a dying place, and a common children's game called 'kick the can' will shortly become a refuge for a man who knows that he will die in this world if he doesn't escape into the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] Synopsis

The episode's title is a double entendre – kick the can is both a children's game and a slang term meaning to die, both of which figure in the plot.

Charles Whitley, a retiree at the Sunnyvale Rest Home, thinks that he has discovered the secret of youth. He is convinced that if he acts young he will become young. His oldest and best friend, Ben Conroy, thinks he is going crazy. One night, Charles convinces a number of residents to play a game of kick-the-can with him. When he tries to talk to Ben, Ben tells Charles, "I AM old!"

The game of kick the can transforms Whitley and his other friends back into children. Conroy and the home's superintendent, Mr. Cox, go out to the street where they find the group of children playing kick-the-can in the night. Mr. Cox chases them all off except for one, who stops to look at Conroy. Ben, now seeing the miracle, begs for a second chance to go with his friend. But it's too late: He is left behind.

[edit] Closing Narration

“ Sunnyvale Rest, a dying place for ancient people who have forgotten the fragile magic of youth. A dying place for those who have forgotten that childhood, maturity and old age are curiously intertwined and not separate. A dying place for those who have grown too stiff in their thinking to visit the Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Shortly after this episode aired, George Clayton Johnson got an idea for an expanded ending to the story: “What will become of these children who have been magically transformed from old to young?” he asked. “I propose adding the following scenes:”
At first the playing children run excitedly as they play kick the can. But now it begins to grow late. They are tired. They are hungry. However, there are no beds for them in this town, since they lived here as children many decades ago. One of the children wants to go to the bathroom. The smallest one begins to cry. All the fun is gone.
There is only one place for them to seek refuge from the cold and the night: the old folks’ home. They sneak back inside to sleep. One of them asks fearfully, “Will it be all right, Charles? Are we doing the right thing?”
“Yes,” says Charles, realizing what will happen, “It will be all right.”
They say their prayers: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...”
As they close their eyes, we see another transformation as the children once again become old people.
And now Mr. Conroy and Mr. Cox return from looking for the old people to discover them sleeping soundly in their beds. Mr. Conroy, who was convinced that his friends had become children, now reverts to his practical-minded self. With relief they tiptoe away so that the old people can get their well-deserved rest.
—George Clayton Johnson, excerpt from “An Afterward” published in the October 1983 edition of The Twilight Zone Magazine
A variant of Johnson's new ending was eventually filmed as Steven Spielberg’s segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie.

[edit] Themes

Similar themes are explored in “Ninety Years Without Slumbering” and “The Big Tall Wish”.

[edit] References

  • Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

[edit] External links

[edit] Twilight Zone links

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