Television Series- The Twilight Zone: Vol. 26 [USED DVD]

Label: Image Entertainment

Released 2000

The four episodes included on The Twilight Zone, Vol. 26 focus on characters who inevitably pay a price for their tragic flaws. In "The Big Tall Wish," an aging boxer (Ivan Dixon, later to costar in TV's Hogan's Heroes) can't comprehend the influence of a little boy's magical wish that brought him a surprise victory--a victory that's sacrificed to the fighter's own cynicism. (The twist is nothing new for TZ fans, but the episode's mostly black cast was a noteworthy breakthrough for 1960 television.) "Showdown with Rance McGrew" is an amusing send-up of pampered actors, in this case a milquetoast TV cowboy whose comeuppance arrives in the form of the real Jesse James--in a real Western town--whose attitude toward phony cowboys is anything but tolerant.