Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)

"Once Upon a Time"
The Twilight Zone episode
Keaton as Woodrow Mulligan
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 13
Directed by	Norman Z. McLeod (with an uncredited sequence by Les Goodwins)
Written by	Richard Matheson
Featured music	William Lava (piano score played by Ray Turner)
Production code	4820
Original air date	December 15, 1961
Guest appearance(s)
Buster Keaton Stanley Adams Jesse White James Flavin Gil Lamb Milton Parsons Warren Parker Harry Fleer George E. Stone
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Jungle" Next → "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"
List of season 3 episodes

"Once Upon a Time" is episode 78 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on December 15, 1961.

Woodrow Mulligan is a grumpy janitor in 1890, dissatisfied with his time and place: a backwater town called "Harmony" with 17-cent cuts of meat, $2 hats, freely roaming the streets, and penny-farthing bicycles that knock him down while going the speed limit (8 mph). He works for Professor Gilbert, who has just invented a time helmet.

Pouncing on the opportunity, Mulligan uses the helmet to transport himself to 1960, which, of course, turns out to be a surprise with even higher prices and more noise. He meets Rollo, a scientist and authority on the 1890s, which he regards as "charming."

Rollo tries to go back alone, but Mulligan jumps on him and they go back together. The 1890s turn out to be not entirely what Rollo thought of them. Mulligan, however, is relieved and has a new appreciation for his own time. One week later, he hears Rollo griping. ("This guy sounds worse than my mother-in-law," Mulligan observes through an intertitle). So he sets the helmet for 1960, puts it on Rollo's head, and sends him back to his own time.