History Recap / TheTwilightZone1959S4E18TheBard

!!Tropes:

* BrattyHalfPint: Twice in the episode, while practicing his summoning ritual, Julius is interuppted by a neighbor girl named Cora, who heckles and patronizes his failed works.

Julius Moomer, 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 Creator/WilliamShakespeare 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.

->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' 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.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The leading male in ''The Tragic Cycle'' is played by Rocky Rhodes, who is a blatantly obvious parody of Creator/MarlonBrando, being a temperamental [[MethodActing method actor]] who is well known for starring in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' and ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof''. Shakespeare is disgusted by his manners and appearance, even punching him in the face he asks him what he has against Stanislavski. In playing the character, Creator/BurtReynolds imitated Brando's distinctive voice and speech patterns.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: 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 [[UsefulNotes/TheCivilWar Robert E. Lee]], UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, [[Series/DanielBoone Daniel Boone]], UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, and Creator/BenjaminFranklin as his new "staff".

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: 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, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, [[Series/DanielBoone Daniel Boone]], UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, and Creator/BenjaminFranklin as his new "staff".

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: 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, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, UsefulNotes/DanielBoone, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, and Creator/BenjaminFranklin as his "consultants".

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: 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, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, and Creator/BenjaminFranklin as his "consultants".

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The leading male in ''The Tragic Cycle'' is played by Rocky Rhodes, who is a blatantly obvious parody of Creator/MarlonBrando, being a temperamental [[MethodActing method actor]] who is well known for starring in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. Shakespeare is disgusted by his manners and appearance, even punching him in the face he asks him what he has against Stanislavski. In playing the character, Creator/BurtReynolds imitated Brando's distinctive voice and speech patterns.

* WritersSuck: 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 ''Series/TheMillionaire'' 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.

* TomeOfEldritchLore: ''Ye Book of Ye Black Arte'', the 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.

** At the beginning of the episode, Gerald reminds Julius that one of his failed ideas for a pitch was to take ''Series/TheMillionaire'' 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 gact 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.

A TV writer accidentally summons the ghost of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

----

* AlliterativeName: The star of ''The Tragic Cycle'' is the acclaimed young actor Rocky Rhodes.
* BlackMagic: 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 script. He accidentally summons the ghost of Shakespeare, who writes a television film script for him entitled ''The Tragic Cycle''.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Shakespeare is a major character. Julius later summons the ghosts of Robert E. Lee, UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and Creator/BenjaminFranklin.
* NapoleonDelusion: {{Discussed|Trope}}. Julius tells his agent Gerald Hugo, the network executive Mr. Bramhoff and the sponsor Mr. Shannon that Shakespeare is a cousin on his mother's side who believes that he is Shakespeare.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Rocky Rhodes, a temperamental [[MethodActing Method actor]] who is well known for starring in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'', is a parody of Creator/MarlonBrando. Shakespeare is disgusted by his manner and appearance and punches him when Rhodes asks him what he has against Stanislavski. In playing the character, Creator/BurtReynolds imitated Brando's distinctive voice and speech patterns.
* PostModernMagik: Julius inadvertently summons William Shakespeare back from the dead using ''Ye Book of Ye Black Arte''. Shakespeare then proceeds to write a television script.
* RunningGag: Shakespeare [[ReferencedBy/WilliamShakespeare frequently quotes lines from his plays]] and then cites the title, act and scene that they come from. This is accompanied by the sound of a trumpet.
* ShoutOut: Julius describes Jeremy, the protagonist of the rewritten version of ''The Tragic Cycle'', as "kind of a ''Series/DrKildare'', ''[[Series/BenCasey Dr. Casey]]'' type." He tells Shakespeare that [[MedicalDrama doctor shows]] are very big this season.
* ShowWithinAShow: Shakespeare writes the script for a television film called ''The Tragic Cycle'', which is credited to Julius.
* TakeThat: The entire episode is one against the American television industry. The network makes numerous changes to Shakespeare's script ''The Tragic Cycle'', changing character details, motivations and fates to make it supposedly more believable, please the sponsor and avoid potentially offending the audience. Shakespeare is aghast at a tender love scene set on a balcony being relocated to a subway. Furthermore, one of Julius' bad ideas is to take the half-hour show ''Series/TheMillionaire'' and expand it to an hour under the name ''The Multi-Millionaire''. Hugo mentions that he was laughed out of the office when he made this suggestion. This refers to ''The Twilight Zone'' being extended to an hour for its fourth season. It returned to its original half-hour format for its fifth and final season.
----

* TakeThat: The entire episode is one against the American television industry. The network makes numerous changes to Shakespeare's script ''The Tragic Cycle'', changing character details, motivations and fates to make it supposedly more believable, please the sponsor and avoid potentially offending the audience. Shakespeare is aghast at a tender love scene set on a balcony being relocated to a subway. Furthermore, one of Julius' bad ideas is to take the half-hour show ''The Millionaire'' and expand it to an hour under the name ''The Multi-Millionaire''. Hugo mentions that he was laughed out of the office when he made this suggestion. This refers to ''The Twilight Zone'' being extended to an hour for its fourth season. It returned to its original half-hour format for its fifth and final season.

* ShoutOut: Julius describes Jeremy, the protagonist of the rewritten version of ''The Tragic Cycle'', as "kind of a ''Film/DrKildare'', ''[[Series/BenCasey Dr. Casey]]'' type." He tells Shakespeare that [[MedicalDrama doctor shows]] are very big this season.

* AllilerativeName: The star of ''The Tragic Cycle'' is the acclaimed young actor Rocky Rhodes.

A T.V. writer accidentally summons the ghost of William Shakespeare.