Hocus-Pocus and Frisby

"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"

The Twilight Zone episode

Frisby's Alien

Episode no.

Season 3
Episode 30

Directed by

Lamont Johnson

Story by

Frederic Louis Fox

Teleplay by

Rod Serling

Featured music

Tommy Morgan

Production code

4833

Original air date

April 13, 1962

Guest appearances

Andy Devine: Frisby
Milton Selzer: Alien #1
Larry Breitman: Alien #2
Peter Brocco: Alien #3
Howard McNear: Mitchell
Dabbs Greer: Scanlan
Clem Bevans: Old Man (Pete)

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Four O'Clock"

Next →
"The Trade-Ins"

The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 3)

List of episodes

"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" is episode 95 (season 3, number 30) of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

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Transcription

Opening narration

The reluctant gentleman with the sizable mouth is Mr. Frisby. He has all the drive of a broken camshaft and the aggressive vinegar of a corpse. As you've no doubt gathered, his big stock in trade is the tall tale. Now, what he doesn't know is that the visitors out front are a very special breed, destined to change his life beyond anything even his fertile imagination could manufacture. The place is Pitchville Flats, the time is the present. But Mr. Frisby's on the first leg of a rather fanciful journey into the place we call the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Somerset Frisby has a general store/gas station in a small town, and the townsfolk know him well for the tall tales he spins of his experiences, from his heroism in war to his inventions to his advice to presidents and captains of industry, all of which he fabricates. His friends gather in the store to hear him spin his stories, which they find very entertaining, and he often accompanies himself on harmonica.

One day, two identically dressed men pull up at the store in need of fuel for their car. Seeing their odd behavior and lack of familiarity with the vehicle, Frisby brags that he designed the American automobile and can predict the weather 24 hours in advance. The men depart, impressed with his claimed achievements and background, and say that they will see him again very soon. That afternoon, as Frisby is closing up his store for the day, the voice of one man suggests that he will have "quite an adventure" if he steps outside and walks down the road. As soon as Frisby leaves his store, he is transported onto a vessel crewed by the two visitors and several others dressed like them.

The men, actually aliens, have selected Frisby as an outstanding member of the human race and are planning to take him back to their home planet and exhibit him alongside specimens from other planets. Frisby protests that he has fabricated all his exploits and is a consummate liar, but discovers that the aliens have accepted all his tales as true since they have no concept of dishonesty. He punches one alien, causing its human disguise to break apart and expose its true face.

Unable to overpower the aliens or persuade them to release him, Frisby decides to relax by playing his harmonica. The sound causes unbearable pain to the aliens and renders some of them unconscious, and the others allow Frisby to escape. Running back to the store, he finds his friends waiting to throw him a surprise party; in the evening's excitement, he has forgotten that it is his birthday. When he tries to tell them what happened, they enjoy a laugh at what they take to be another of his tall tales and give him a "World's Greatest Liar" trophy.

Nicknames

Mr. Frisby often mentions nicknames that he supposedly has received, which pertain to his tall tales. These nicknames include (ordered as mentioned):

"Ol' Infilatin' Frisby"
"Old Cumulus Frisby"
"Ol' Archimedes Frisby"
"Rear-Engine" and "Ol' Rear-Engine Frisby"
"Stonewall Frisby" and "Stony"
"Ol' Rocket Thrust Frisby"
"Old Liquid Propellant Frisby"
"Ol' Mile-A-Minute Frisby"

For his 63rd birthday, Mr. Frisby received a trophy from his friends, declaring him to be the "World's Greatest Liar". Andy Devine himself would have been 57.

Closing narration

Mr. Somerset Frisby, who might have profited by reading an Aesop fable about a boy who cried wolf. Tonight's tall tale from the timberlands of the Twilight Zone.

References

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0-553-01416-1

External links

"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" at IMDb

v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

This page was last edited on 5 April 2024, at 15:51

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