The Last Night of a Jockey

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“Last Night of a Jockey”

The Twilight Zone episode

Mickey Rooney in The Last Night of a Jockey

Episode no.

Season 5
Episode 125

Written by

Rod Serling

Directed by

Joseph M. Newman

Guest stars

Mickey Rooney : Michael Grady

Featured music

Stock

Production no.

2616

Original airdate

October 25, 1963

Episode chronology
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"A Kind of a Stopwatch"	"Living Doll"

List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Last Night of a Jockey" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

1 Opening narration
2 Synopsis
3 Closing narration
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Opening narration

“

The name is Grady, five feet short in stockings and boots, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. He happens to be one of the rotten apples, bruised and yellowed by dealing in dirt, a short man with a short memory who's forgotten that he's worked for the sport of kings and helped turn it into a cesspool, used and misused by the two-legged animals who've hung around sporting events since the days of the Colosseum. So this is Grady, on his last night as a jockey. Behind him are Hialeah, Hollywood Park and Saratoga. Rounding the far turn and coming up fast on the rail - is the Twilight Zone.

”

[edit] Synopsis

A jockey named Grady is sitting alone in his room after he's found out he's been banned from horse racing for life for fixing races by horse doping. All he ever wanted was to be a big man. He argues with his alter-ego, trying to justify his life and his actions, but the alter-ego knows better. Grady is offered the chance to change his life with one final wish. Grady says his greatest wish is to be big. After Grady wakes from his nap he finds his wish has been granted - he is now ten feet tall. He's "big".

Ecstatic, Grady calls his ex-girlfriend over the phone just to prove to the alter-ego that size actually does matter. She rejects him, but Grady remains undaunted. He boasts that he can find more girls that will actually appreciate him because of his size. The alter-ego remains unimpressed.

Grady however is confused, and asks the alter-ego what he really is, and what his business is all about. The alter-ego tries to explain it to Grady in the most simple way possible. He's "the last gasp." The alter-ego then criticizes Grady for his dumb and "cheap" wish, and gives him better ideas and suggestions for what Grady would've really wanted. The ego implies that Grady could've wished to win the Kentucky Derby, or perform a heroic act, but as it stands, Grady wished to be a "big man." Grady objects, defending his wish.

A telephone call from the racing commission informs Grady that he has been given another chance - he has been reinstated and can jockey again. But now it's too late. Grady is too tall to ride a horse. Grady, devastated, pleads with the alter-ego, "Please make me small again, please! I'll never ask for anything ever again. Please make me small!"

The alter-ego replies, "You are small, Mr. Grady. Every time you won an honest race, that's when you were a giant. Right now, they just don't come any smaller."

[edit] Closing narration

“

The name is Grady, ten feet tall, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. Unfortunately for Mr. Grady, he learned too late that you don't measure size with a ruler, you don't figure height with a yardstick, and you never judge a man by how tall he looks in a mirror. The giant is as he does. You can make a parimutuel bet on this, win, place, or show, in or out of the Twilight Zone.

”

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

With exactly one performer appearing—either in image or voice (not counting Rod Serling)—this episode features the smallest cast of any Twilight Zone episode. Close runner-ups include “Where Is Everybody?”, “King Nine Will Not Return”, “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room”, “The Invaders” and “Two”.

CBS's Program Practices department criticised this episode for use of the word "dwarf" in a negative context, suggesting that instead the terms "half-pint" or "shrimp" could be used.^[1]