The Uncle Devil Show (''The Twilight Zone'')
"The Uncle Devil Show" | |
---|---|
The Twilight Zone episode | |
scene from The Uncle Devil Show | |
Episode no. |
Season 1 Episode 10b |
Directed by | David Steinberg |
Written by | Donald Todd |
Original air date | November 29, 1985 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Wendy Phillips: Mom | |
"The Uncle Devil Show" is the second segment of the tenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Plot
The story opens with a young boy named Joey being given a gift by his father: A video called "Tim Ferrit and Friends". As Joey pops in the video, his parents discuss how some people are terrible parents who need to get more involved in their children's lives. Personal attention is the key to being a good parent, Joey's father states authoritatively; meanwhile, his son is being taught some rather odd lessons by Uncle Devil, the obviously demonic host of a Bozo The Clown/Mister Rogers-like children's show on the video.
Uncle Devil, along with telling children to eat more sweets and not to brush their teeth, teaches real magic tricks. Joey attempts to repeat the tricks Uncle Devil teaches, first trying his hand at a trick which, when performed by Uncle Devil, makes flowers appear out of an urn. When Joey attempts this feat, however, cockroaches come out of his urn. Every trick Joey tries makes the world around him stranger and stranger—one trick mutates the dog—while his parents remain oblivious. The story climaxes when Uncle Devil teaches the "Big Wish". Joey wishes that his toy dinosaur were real, and outside, a life-sized dinosaur attempts to enter the house. The TV show ends, the world seemingly returns to normal, and Joey is called to dinner. As Joey runs out of the living room, a new episode titled "Tim Ferrit in Hell' begins and a comic-looking cockroach crawls out of the urn...