Uncle Simon
| "Uncle Simon" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Scene from "Uncle Simon" |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 128 |
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| Directed by | Don Siegel | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling | ||
| Featured music | Stock | ||
| Production code | 2604 | ||
| Original air date | November 15, 1963 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Cedric Hardwicke: Simon Polk |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"Uncle Simon" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Barbara Polk has lived with her aged, sadistic uncle, Simon Polk, for 25 years — even though she hates him — as she is his only heir. After berating Barbara in the basement, Simon raises his cane as if to strike her. Barbara catches his cane, and Simon falls down the stairs, breaking his back. Frustrated with his feebleness, nagging, and constant demands of hot chocolate, Barbara allows him to succumb to his injuries.
After Barbara's uncle's death, his lawyer, Mr. Schwimmer, reading over the will with the "grieving" niece, points out that there is a stipulation in his will requiring her to look after his last invention, which is a robot that acts and eventually sounds just like him — right down to the old gentleman's limp, which it develops after she unsuccessfully attempts to destroy it by pushing it down a flight of stairs. The lawyer has explained that he will make regular visits to ensure that Barbara is in compliance with her uncle's will or else she will be disinherited. At the end of the episode, responding to the robot, in exactly the same tone she used when Polk was alive, "Yes, Uncle Simon".
[edit] Episode notes
- As the primary sponsor of the series this season, American Tobacco insisted that Rod and several of his guest stars "light up" during most of the episodes, the better to keep viewers in a more "favorable" mood for the Pall Mall commercials shown during the program.
- The robot suit is Robby the Robot, the same one used in the film Forbidden Planet. Robby also appeared in the episodes, "The Brain Center at Whipple's" and "One for the Angels."
[edit] References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
