The Twilight Zoneis one of the most acclaimed television shows in history,with some of the most iconic episodesthat remain memorable today for their imaginative concepts. Created and narrated byRod Serling, the fantasy, horror, and science fiction anthology show is known for its unexpected dark twists that comment on political views and societal norms. However, there was a particular episode that diverted from the show’s usually sinister tone, with which Serling aimed to make a light-hearted comedic episode called “The Mighty Casey”. Aimed to be about a stoic male robot that is hired to lead a down-on-its-luck baseball team to victory, this easy-going episode took anunprecedented dark turn that would result in Serling ordering a reshootof the entire episode, even if he had to pay for it himself.
What is The Twilight Zone Episode “The Mighty Casey” About?
The episode focuses on “Mouth” McGarry, the manager of the Hoboken Zephyrs, an underdog baseball team that has not won any games. Scientist Dr. Stillman (Abraham Sofaer), meets him in the field and introduces him to Casey (Robert Sorrells),a robot he created to reshape the Zephyrs to be the best in the nation.He shows the incredible skills and strength that Casey has at throwing curveballs, superfast balls, and super-slow balls, which quickly convinces McGarry to enlist him in the team. Casey gives the Zephyrs the advantage of becoming undefeatable, which helps them rise to the top and gain high recognition from the newspapers and everyone in the city. However, when he takes a hard hit to the head during a game, the team doctor inspects him and discovers that he has no heartbeat. The commissioner of the National Baseball League immediately bans him from the team for not being human, setting the Zephyrs back into ruin.
This ‘Twilight Zone’ Episode Might Be the Most Relevant One of Our Modern Times
It’s also one of the episodes that cemented the show’s legacy.
In an attempt to solve this issue,Dr. Stillman gives Casey an artificial heart to pass him off as a human.However, that does not work out too well for McGarry or the Zephyrs, as it causes Casey to develop human emotions. Even with an artificial heart, Casey is effectively now a human capable of empathy, and he does not want to hurt or invoke any kind of physical or emotional pain in his fellow man, which throws off his game. He explains to McGarry and Dr. Stillman, “I just couldn’t strike those poor fellas out there. I didn’t have it in me to do that.” He is beginning to feel compassion, so he decides to go into social work because he wants to help people. Serling ends the episode with the classic closing narration that implies that McGarry ended up making a team full of robots to make them champions.
“The Mighty Casey” was intended to be a jovial story of a robot who gains empathy with an artificial heart that was not expected to make himfeel. However, it took a dark turn when the originalactor who was cast to play McGarry died a day after filming wrapped.The entire production of the episode was originally filmed withPaul Douglasas the manager. Douglas was a stage-turned-screen actor who starred ina couple of popular baseball filmssuch asIt Happens Every Spring(1949) and the originalAngels in the Outfield(1951). Based on his love for baseball, Douglas first got his start as a radio announcer for CBS in Philadelphia. However, things changed when he got into acting as he picked up drinking.
According toMarc Scott Zicree’s book, “The Twilight Zone Companion”,Rod Serling said that Douglas was a heavy drinker and didn’t look so well on day one of production.Serling called Douglas' agent to scold him, but to the agent’s knowledge, he was currently sober. Serling assumed Douglas' demeanor was due to intoxication, saying he looked “even in black and white, mottled…high color, semi-diffuse, a breath so short that he couldn’t continue one short staccato sentence without [gasping for breath].” Yet, unbeknownst to everyone, Douglas suffered from an incipient coronary during production, which was a result of the years of drinking.
Serling soon decided that the best thing to do was to reshoot the entire episode, so that it did not feature a dying man.CBS, however, did not want to pay for any reshoots,so, consequently, Serling paid $27,000 out of his pocket for the entire production. He castJack Warden(All the President’s Men) as McGarry and brought inRobert Parrish, an Academy Award winner for editingBody and Soul,to direct the episode, asAlvin Ganzer could not return. He also brought in an editor to make as few edits as possible to make the episode look seamless. The end result was not as engaging as Serling wanted, but the true story of a dying man losing his breath on screen made this one ofThe Twilight Zone’smost unintentionally formidable episodes. What makes the story behind “The Mighty Casey” compelling is that the ironic opening lines of the episode, which were meant to be about an underdog baseball team, are sadly reminiscent of this tragedy: “What you’re looking at is a ghost, once alive but now deceased.” And boy, were we met with a ghost.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.
