The Big Tall Wish

"**The Big Tall Wish**"
"The Big Tall Wish"
The Twilight Zone episode
	Ivan Dixon, Steven Perry and Kim Hamilton in a specially posed publicity shot for "The Big Tall Wish"
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 27
Directed by	Ron Winston
Written by	Rod Serling
Featured music	Jerry Goldsmith with harmonica solos
Production code	173-3630
Original air date	April 8, 1960
Guest appearances
	Ivan Dixon as Bolie Jackson; Stephen Perry as Henry Temple; Kim Hamilton as Frances Temple; Walter Burke as Joe Mizell; Charles Horvath as Joey Consiglio; Carl McIntire as Announcer;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Execution"	Next →; "A Nice Place to Visit"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 1)
	List of episodes

"The Big Tall Wish" is episode twenty-seven of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, with an original score by Jerry Goldsmith. It originally aired on April 8, 1960, on CBS. This was one of a few Twilight Zone episodes to feature black actors in lead roles, a rarity for American television of the era.

Opening narration

In this corner of the universe, a prizefighter named Bolie Jackson, 183 pounds and an hour and a half away from a comeback at St. Nick's Arena. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who, by the standards of his profession is an aging, over-the-hill relic of what was, and who now sees a reflection of a man who has left too many pieces of his youth in too many stadiums for too many years before too many screaming people. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who might do well to look for some gentle magic in the hard-surfaced glass that stares back at him.

Plot

Washed-up boxer Bolie Jackson spends time before a comeback fight with his young friend Henry Temple, the young son of Bolie's neighbor Frances. Henry says he is going to make "the biggest, tallest wish" for Bolie, who then departs for the fight. After Bolie accidentally punches the wall and injures his knuckles in a backstage argument, he proceeds with the fight anyway. He is knocked down and just about to be counted out, when suddenly, he magically switches places with the other boxer. Bolie is now standing over his vanquished opponent.

Bolie celebrates his victory, though he cannot understand what happened. He remembers being knocked down and has no memory of getting back up to win, nor can he figure out why his knuckles feel fine; he figures they must have only been bruised. His manager is stumped as to why Bolie thinks he was knocked down and explains that this did not happen.

Upon returning home, Henry has an explanation for what happened. Henry tells Bolie about the wish he made during the fight, and that it came true. Bolie cannot accept this, but Henry warns him that wishes only have power if people believe in them. Bolie tells Henry that he has been wishing for success all his life, but only has scars to show for it. Henry begs Bolie to believe in the wish, but Bolie insists he cannot. Suddenly, he is transported back to the fight, lying on the canvas after his knockdown, and the referee finishes counting him out.

Neither Bolie nor Henry has any memory of the alternate outcome. Henry remembers making the biggest wish he possibly could for Bolie, but since it did not work, he declares with resignation that he will not be making any more wishes. "There ain't no such thing as magic, is there?" he asks Bolie. "I guess not, Henry," Bolie replies sadly. "Or maybe...maybe there is magic. And maybe there's wishes, too. I guess the trouble is...I guess the trouble is there's not enough people around to believe."

Closing narration

Mr. Bolie Jackson, 183 pounds, who left a second chance lying in a heap on a rosin-spattered canvas at St. Nick's Arena. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who shares the most common ailment of all men, the strange and perverse disinclination to believe in a miracle, the kind of miracle to come from the mind of a little boy, perhaps only to be found in the Twilight Zone.

Production notes

The all-black principal cast was groundbreaking for television in 1960. Said Rod Serling at the time (quoted in The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree):

Television, like its big sister, the motion picture, has been guilty of the sin of omission... Hungry for talent, desperate for the so-called 'new face,' constantly searching for a transfusion of new blood, it has overlooked a source of wondrous talent that resides under its nose. This is the Negro actor.

A few other Twilight Zones followed the example of this episode and cast black actors in significant roles, including the pastor in "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" (also played by Ivan Dixon), a child in the mall in "The Night of the Meek", and the electrician in "The Brain Center at Whipple's". These inclusions, though seemingly insignificant by modern standards, were so revolutionary at the time that The Twilight Zone was awarded the Unity Award for Outstanding Contributions to Better Race Relations in 1961.

Originally cast in the lead role was champion boxer Archie Moore, who later exclaimed, "Man, I was in the Twilight Zone!" when describing the punch delivered by his opponent Yvon Durelle.

This is one of several episodes from season one where some broadcast prints have the opening title sequence replaced with that of season two. This was done during the summer of 1961 to help the season one shows fit in with the new look the show had taken during the following season.

The hallway shown in this episode is also used in "Mr. Bevis", episode 33, but slightly altered. However, the door and stair railings remain the same.

The boxing match takes place at "St. Nick's Arena", which was the name of a boxing arena in New York City, the St. Nicholas Rink.^[1]^[2]

References

^ Episode page: The Big Tall Wish, TV.com
^ Crocker, John, "The Twilight Zone episode guide: The Big Tall Wish", "The Original Twilight Zone Episode Guide".

External links

"The Big Tall Wish" at IMDb

[1] Episode page: The Big Tall Wish, TV.com

[2] Crocker, John, "The Twilight Zone episode guide: The Big Tall Wish", "The Original Twilight Zone Episode Guide".

[1]

[2]

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"