Games - Kick the Can

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	Games - Kick the Can

Cast

Charles Whitley: Ernest Truex
Mr. Cox: John Marley
Ben Conroy: Russell Collins
Carlson: Burt Mustin

Synopsis

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. The game of kick the can transforms him and his friends back into children, except for his best friend, Ben Conroy, who didn’t see the point.

Trivia

Charles Whitley's son is played by Barry Truex, Ernest Truex’s son.

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.
Themes
Similar themes are explored in “Ninety Years Without Slumbering
” and “The Big Tall Wish
”.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kick the Can (The Twilight Zone) ]

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