Once Upon a Time — Trivia

16 trivia items

• The old-fashioned clothes wringer that Buster Keaton is using to wash his pants in the beginning is the same kind of wringer that crushed his right forefinger when he was three years old. A curious little boy, he got his finger caught in the rollers and a doctor had to amputate it at the first knuckle. In this short, he gets the same finger caught in the wringer for laughs.

• According to Rod Serling's promo in the previous episode, Richard Matheson wrote this script especially for Buster Keaton.

• During Rod Serling's closing monologue, The Twilight Zone Theme can briefly be heard played in an unusual "Silent Movie/Honkey-Tonk Piano" arrangement, in tribute to the story's motif.

• According to "The Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree, producer Buck Houghton found Buster Keaton "absolutely wonderful" to work with. He even relied on Buster's comedic expertise to help perfect some of the gags in the story.

• The dial on the "Time Helmet" starts at 1890 and ends at 1990, jumping at 10- and 20-year intervals

• The 1890s scenes were shot on MGM's "Western Street." It was very popular because of its flexibility; the architecture could be used for late old west, or early 20th century small town. On one end was a large courthouse. This building, and the grounds in front of it, were also used for A Stop at Willoughby (1960) in Season 1, where Gart visits his imaginary hometown. Or in Season 5, The Old Man in the Cave (1963), where most all of the street is featured. Outside of the series the street and grounds appear in many films, such as the territorial courthouse in Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High (1968).

• Buster Keaton was once one of the biggest stars of the silent era, and this episode featuring him was intended as an homage to that work. One sequence, occurring almost immediately after traveling to the episode's present day, is a near exact replication of a gag Keaton introduced some 41 years earlier in a Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle film titled The Garage (1919).

• Woodrow's last name 'Mulligan' is a golf term for a 'second chance' or a 'do-over.' Appropriate since Woodrow gets a second chance to go back to his own time period.

• Jesse White (Repair Man) later played the "Maytag repairman" in television commercials and other media from 1967 to 1988.

• The parts set in the 1890s are done in the style of a silent film with intertitles and feature only a soundtrack of a saloon piano (and Rod Serling's customary opening and closing narration). The music was composed by William Lava and was performed by veteran Hollywood studio and session pianist Raymond Turner.

• Leslie Goodwins was uncredited for writing the fix-it shop episode more than a month after production of the episode had ended and the bulk of the photography was finished. He came down to do the pick ups.

• Sparklers, the kind used on 4th of July, were used to make the time machine helmet.

• This episode takes place in March 1890 and 1962.

• The repair shop is called Jack's Fix-It.

• The magazines on the newsstand include the October 1959 issue of "Screen Stars" and the April 7, 1961 issue of "Time".

• Director Norman Z. McLeod's comedy directing career didn't quite extend as far back as Buster Keaton's heyday, but his credentials were impeccable. He worked with The Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, both separately and together, and helmed Danny Kaye's classic The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).