Episode no. Season 3
Episode 21 Written by George Clayton Johnson Original air date February 9, 1962 | Directed by Lamont Johnson Production code 4821 | |
Featured music Stock (many cues taken from Bernard Herrmann's score to Walking Distance) | ||
"Kick the Can" is episode 86 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 9, 1962 on CBS.
Contents
Plot
Charles Whitley (Ernest Truex), a retiree at Sunnyvale Rest Home, thinks 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 (Russell Collins), who he has known since childhood, thinks he is going crazy, and is able to persuade the home's superintendent, Mr. Cox (John Marley) that this is the case. Mr. Cox decides to put Charles in isolation and under observation. Ben tries to convince Charles to act as sedate as the other residents in order to avoid this fate, to no avail. While Ben sees aging as an inescapable fact of life, Charles is convinced that Ben's thinking of himself as old is what made him old.
That night, Charles convinces a number of residents to play a game of kick the can with him. He tries to talk Ben into joining them, but Ben refuses. The residents light a firecracker and throw it out a window, the noise drawing the nurse's attention so they can sneak out the door. Meanwhile, Ben alerts Mr. Cox to what the other residents are up to. They run outside to find a group of children playing kick the can instead. Ben recognizes one of the children as Charles, become young again. He begs young Charley for a chance to go with him, but the boy seems not to know him, and dashes away into the darkness. Mr. Cox searches elsewhere for the elderly residents, while Ben walks slowly to the front steps of Sunnyvale and sits there with the can, alone.
Cast
Remake
"Kick the Can" was remade into a segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie with the segment being directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Scatman Crothers as Mr. Bloom.
In this version, an old man named Mr. Bloom has just moved into Sunnyvale Retirement Home. Upon his arrival, he sits around kindly and smiles as he listens to the other elders reminisce about the joys they experienced in their youth. Mr. Bloom implies to them just because they are old does not mean they cannot enjoy life anymore, and that feeling young and active has to do with your attitude, not your age. He tells them that later that night, he will wake them and that they can join him in a game of kick the can. All agree; however, Leo Conroy (Bill Quinn) disagrees, saying that now that they are all old they cannot engage in physical activity and play the games they once did as children.
That night, Mr. Bloom gathers the rest of the optimistic residents outside and plays the game, during which they are transformed into childhood versions of themselves. Although they are extremely ecstatic to be young again and engage in the activities they once enjoyed so long ago, they also realize that being young again means you not only experience the good aspects of life again but also the bad. They request to be old again, which Mr. Bloom grants to them. Leo Conroy witnesses one resident, Mr. Agee (Murray Matheson, who had a role in "Five Characters in Search of an Exit") that still remains young, and says that he wants to go with him before the boy runs off. Conroy realizes that he does not have to stop enjoying life because of his old age.
The segment ends with Mr. Bloom leaving to another retirement home and Conroy outside happily kicking a can around the yard, having learned being young at heart is what really matters.