The Big Tall Wish
| "The Big Tall Wish" | |
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |
Ivan Dixon, Steven Perry and Kim Hamilton
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| 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 appearance(s) | |
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"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.
Bolie Jackson is a washed-up boxer who accidentally breaks the knuckles of his hand right before his big comeback fight. He is knocked down and just about to be counted out when he suddenly, 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. His manager tells Bolie that he must be crazy, that he was never knocked down at all. Bolie figures his knuckles must have only been bruised.
However, there is one other person who knows Bolie lost. Henry Temple, the young son of Bolie's girlfriend Frances, not only remembers, he also has an explanation for what happened. Henry tells Bolie that he made "the biggest, tallest wish" he could come up with for Bolie, for the two boxers to switch positions, and it came true.
Bolie cannot accept this. Henry warns him that the only way the wish can have its power is if you believe in it. If Bolie does not believe, the wish will not work. But ultimately he is unswayed. As soon as he finally rejects the idea that a wish could have been responsible for what happened, he is returned to the fight, on the canvas. This time the referee finishes counting Bolie out.
Neither Bolie nor Henry have any memory of the alternate outcome. Henry remembers making the biggest wish he possibly could for Bolie, but obviously it did not work, so 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...there's not enough people around to believe..."
The all-black principal cast was a novelty 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.
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