Twilight Zone: The Mighty Casey

"The Mighty Casey" is the thirty-fifth episode of season one of the American science fiction television series The Twilight Zone. The episode was directed by Robert Parrish and Alvin Ganzer with a script written by Rod Serling. It first aired on CBS on June 17th, 1960. In this episode, a scientist named Doctor Stillman creates a life-like android named "Casey", who becomes a pitcher for the Hoboken Zephyrs. Casey's super-pitch turns this down-and-out team into the most phenomenal overnight sensation in the league.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Twilight Zone was created by Rod Serling, who was also the narrator host of the series. He is also the executive producer for Cayuga Productions.


 * This episode was adapted as a short story by Rod Serling in the book  Stories From the Twilight Zone.


 * Actor Don Kelly is credited as Don O'Kelly in this episode.


 * Actor Robert Sorrells, who played Casey in this episode, did not go on to have the brightest of futures. On July 24th, 2004, Robert walked into The Regency Lounge in Simi Valley and shot two customers, killing one, and seriously injuring another. He was sentenced to thirty-two years in prison. He was 74-years-old at the time of his arrest.

Allusions

 * The title of this episode, as well as that of the main character is inspired by the poem "Casey at the Bat", which was written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. It has become one of the best-known poems in American literature.


 * Mouth McGarry makes reference to several different actual baseball teams including the New York Giants, the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies (which he refers to as just Philadelphia).


 * Reference is made to Joe DiMaggio in this episode. Joe DiMaggio was an actual professional baseball player and a center fielder for the New York Yankees from 1936 to 1951.

Bloopers

 * When Mouth McGarry talks to Casey about Joe DiMaggio, he pronounces his name with a New York accent (Di-maaa-gee-oh). Casey, who had never heard the name before, repeats it without an accent, but pronounces the name correctly.

Quotes

 * Narrator: Once upon a time there was a major-league baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs who, during the last year of their existence, wound up in last place and shortly thereafter wound up in oblivion. There's a rumor, unsubstantiated of course, that a manager named McGarry took them to the West Coast and wound up with several pennants and a couple of world's championships. This team had a pitching staff that made history. Of course, none of them smiled very much, but it happens to be a fact that they pitched like nothing human. And if you're interested as to where these gentlemen came from, you might check under "B" for baseball, in the Twilight Zone.

....
 * Narrator: What you're looking at is a ghost, once alive but now deceased. Once upon a time, it was a baseball stadium that housed a major-league ballclub known as the Hoboken Zephyrs. Now it houses nothing but memories and a wind that stirs in the high grass of what was once an outfield, a wind that sometimes bears a faint, ghostly resemblance to the roar of a crowd that once sat here. We're back in time now, when the Hoboken Zephyrs were still a part of the National League and this mausoleum of memories was an honest-to-Pete stadium. But since this is strictly a story of make-believe, it has to start this way. Once upon a time, in Hoboken, New Jersey, it was tryout day. And though he's not yet on the field, you're about to meet a most unusual fellow, a left-handed pitched named Casey.