Rod Serling: You've just witnessed opportunity, if not knocking, at least scratching plaintively on a closed door. Mr. Julius Moomer, a would-be writer who, if talent came twenty-five cents a pound, would be worth less than car fare. But, in a moment, Mr. Moomer, through the offices of some black magic, is about to embark on a brand-new career. And although he may never get a writing credit on The Twilight Zone, he's to become an integral character in it.
Air date: May 23, 1963
Julius Moomer (Jack Weston), a bumbling streetcar conductor-turned-television writer, is desperate for one of his many failed scripts to be greenlit. By chance, he is given the opportunity to take over another writer's pitch for a series about black magic. While doing some research at a bookstore, Julius happens to discover an actual book of black magic titled Ye Book of Ye Black Arte, taking it home with him. By "completing" a ritual housed in his new tome, Julius accidentally summons William Shakespeare (John Williams) from the dead, who claims that he is at Julius' call and beck. Ecstatic to be working with the greatest writer who ever lived, Julius introduces Shakespeare to the concept of television and has him write a new script. The resulting work is a television film titled The Tragic Cycle, and though the network is skeptical that Julius could write something so poetic and fluent, they greenlight it. Unfortunately for Shakespeare, when Julius brings him to the set of his script, he's horrified at the numerous changes the network made to his work.
The Bard's Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: The star of The Tragic Cycle is an acclaimed young actor named Rocky Rhodes.
- Black Magic: Julius buys a book of black magic called Ye Book of Ye Black Arte at a second hand bookshop in order to research a pilot for a series centered around black magic. By performing a ritual in the book, albeit with poor substitutes for the ingriedients, he accidentally summons William Shakespeare from the grave. After learning that the Bard is at his service, Julius enlists him in writing the script for a television film he calls The Tragic Cycle.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Twice in the episode, while practicing his summoning ritual, Julius is interrupted by a neighbor girl named Cora, who heckles and patronizes his failed works.
- Clingy MacGuffin: Ye Book of Ye Black Arte is capable of moving on its own, leaping at Julius when he's in the bookstore, and jumping right into his arms when he's thrown off the bus.
- Denser and Wackier: As part of its vicious satire of the TV industry, the episode goes absolutely bonkers on the comedy, using many comedic stings whenever Julius or someone else says something funny, playing trumpets when Shakespeare quotes lines from his works, and featuring a parody of Marlon Brando played by a young Burt Reynolds, who Shakespeare outright punches out.
- Executive Meddling: In-Universe. The network makes extensive changes to The Tragic Cycle as a means of pleasing both the audience and the sponsor. Shakespeare is devastated to see what has become of his work, even punching Rocky in the face when he asks the Bard what he has against Stanislavski, and then ditches Julius for allowing this to happen.
- Happy Ending: For Julius, who finally becomes one of the greatest writers ever like he's always wanted, even after Shakespeare ditches him.
- Here We Go Again!: Rather than lamenting the fact that The Tragic Cycle was essentially a flop, Julius still gets to keep his writing job, being assigned a TV special on American history. The end of the episode has him repeating the ritual he used to summon Shakespeare to summon several historical figures from the grave, who he says are acting as his consultants.
- Historical Domain Character: William Shakespeare is a major character. At the end, Julius is tasked with a writing a TV special about American history, and he is shown to have used the same ritual that summoned Shakespeare to bring in Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Pocahontas, Daniel Boone, Theodore Roosevelt, and Benjamin Franklin as his new "staff".
- Ignored Expert: Deciding that he's obviously unfit for being a writer, Gerald asks Julius why he keeps on trying to sell his work, then advises him to get out of television and go back to his former occupation as a streetcar conductor. Julius rebuts that he can't go back to that line of work, since the march of progess rendered streetcars obsolete. That, and he also gets motion sickness.
- Imperfect Ritual: The ingredients needed for the ritual to summon someone from the dead include feathers from a falcon, sand from the deserts of Egypt, and three legs of a spider. Julius is forced to use feathers from a pigeon, sand from Jones Beach that was still in his sneakers, and three legs of an ant as substitutes. Despite this, the ritual still manages to bring Shakespeare back from the dead, as well as all of Julius' other "consultants" in the final scene.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Gerald reminds Julius that one of his ideas, expanding The Millionaire to an hour, got him laughed right out of the office. This is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that the series itself was forced to be extended to an hour in its fourth season, which ends with this episode.
- Loser Protagonist: Julius, a talentless hack of the highest order and an all-around bumbling boob who keeps writing scripts that turn out to be flops and gets heckled by everyone around him.
- Meaningful Name: Julius gets his name from Julius Caesar, which is appropriate given that he summons the man who wrote it from the dead.
- Napoleon Delusion: Discussed. As a means of keeping the truth about Shakespeare hidden from his agent Gerald, network executive Mr. Bramhoff, and the sponsor of The Tragic Cycle, Mr. Shannon, Julius tells them that Shakespeare is actually a cousin on his mother's side who thinks that he's Shakespeare.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The leading male in The Tragic Cycle is played by Rocky Rhodes, who is a blatantly obvious parody of Marlon Brando, being a temperamental
method actor who is well known for starring in A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Shakespeare is disgusted by his manners and appearance, even punching him in the face when he asks him what he has against Stanislavski. In playing the character, Burt Reynolds imitated Brando's distinctive voice and speech patterns. - Post-Modern Magik: Julius inadvertently summons William Shakespeare from beyond the grave using a ritual detailed in Ye Book of Ye Black Arte. Shakespeare then proceeds to write the script for a television film for Julius, the bumbling writer who hopes that it'll actually sell.
- Punny Name: Rocky Rhodes is very notably named after a classic flavor of ice cream.
- Running Gag: Shakespeare spends a good deal of the episode quoting lines from his plays, accompanied by the sound of a trumpet, and then cites the title, act, and scene that they come from.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Shakespeare, after seeing what the network does to his play, quits working for Julius storms out after socking Rocky, sarcastically wishing his former partner "Lotsa luck!" before slamming the door on him.
- Shout-Out: Julius describes Jeremy, the protagonist of the rewrite of The Tragic Cycle, as "kind of a Dr. Kildare, Dr. Casey type." He clarifies it to Shakespeare by telling him that medical shows are very big this season.
- Show Within a Show: At Julius's command, Shakespeare writes the script for a television film called The Tragic Cycle, which is credited to the former streetcar conductor.
- Stock Sound Effects: While Julius is examining the bookstore for works about black magic, Ye Book of Ye Black Arte leaps off the bookshelf and lands right at his feet with the sound of a very notable and very cartoonish "boing" sound.
- Take That!: The entire episode is a giant one against the American television industry, which is likely why it's so intentionally comedic. The network makes numerous changes to Julius and Shakespeare's script The Tragic Cycle, changing details of the characters, their motivations, and their fates to make it more believable, please the sponsor, and avoid potentially offending the audience. For instance, Shakespeare is aghast at a tender love scene, originally set on a balcony, being relocated to a grimy subway.
- At the beginning of the episode, Gerald reminds Julius that one of his failed ideas for a pitch was to take The Millionaire and expand it to an hour timeslot under the name The Multi-Millionaire, mentioning that he was laughed right out of the office when he made the suggestion. This is a reference to the fact that The Twilight Zone itself was forced to be extended to an hour for its fourth season, as it became a replacement for Fair Exchange. It returned to its original half-hour format for the fifth and final season.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Ye Book of Ye Black Arte, the self-propelling occult book that Julius finds quite literally leaping at him from the shelf. He uses a ritual inside it to summon William Shakespeare, and later various figures from American history, back from the grave.
- World of Ham: As part of the comedic satire of TV that the episode provides, quite a lot of characters stand out as total hams. The biggest would have to be Rocky Rhodes, an obvious ersatz of Marlon Brando hired to star in The Tragic Cycle.
- Writers Suck: Gerald tells Julius that most of his scripts didn't sell in the beginning of the episode. He goes into detail about some of them, such as a zombie story were a woman marries an undead ghoul and doesn't realize that he's dead, a love story about a lady scientist who falls in love with a robot, and a Western where the president of the Union Pacific Railroad turns out to be Belle Starr. He also includes a particular pitch Julius had to expand The Millionaire from 30 minutes to an hour and retitle it The Multi-Millionaire, which he says got him laughed right out of the office. When he presents the script for The Tragic Cycle to the network heads, they greenlight it, but find it utterly bizzare that a talentless hack like Julius could have written something so verbose and archaic.
Rod Serling: Mr. Julius Moomer, a streetcar conductor with delusions of authorship. And if the tale just told seems a little tall, remember a thing called poetic license, and another thing called the Twilight Zone.
