Steel (The Twilight Zone)

2nd episode of the 5th season of The Twilight Zone

"Steel"

The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.| Season 5
Episode 2
Directed by| Don Weis
Written by| Richard Matheson
Based on| "Steel"
by Richard Matheson
Featured music| Van Cleave
Production code| 2602
Original air date| October 4, 1963 (1963-10-04)
Guest appearances
Lee Marvin: Tim "Steel" Kelly
Joe Mantell: Pole
Tipp McClure: Battling Maxo
Chuck Hicks: Maynard Flash
Merritt Bohn
Frank London
Episode chronology
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"In Praise of Pip"  | Next →
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"

|

The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
List of episodes

"Steel" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Set in the near future, its premise is that human professional boxing has been banned and replaced by android boxing. The story follows a once-famous human boxer who works as a manager for an antiquated android while struggling to come to grips with his career having been taken over by machines.

The episode is based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson first published in the May 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

## Opening narration

[edit]

> Sports item, circa 1974: Battling Maxo, B2, heavyweight, accompanied by his manager and handler, arrives in Maynard, Kansas, for a scheduled six-round bout. Battling Maxo is a robot, or, to be exact, an android, definition: 'an automaton resembling a human being.' Only these automatons have been permitted in the ring since prizefighting was legally abolished in 1968. This is the story of that scheduled six-round bout, more specifically the story of two men shortly to face that remorseless truth: that no law can be passed which will abolish cruelty or desperate need—nor, for that matter, blind animal courage. Location for the facing of said truth: a small, smoke-filled arena just this side - of the Twilight Zone.

## Plot

[edit]

In the near-future year of 1974, boxing between human fighters has been abolished and the sport is dominated by fighting robots. Former boxer Timothy "Steel" Kelly manages a robot called "Battling Maxo", an older model that is no longer in demand. Kelly and his partner, Pole, have used the last of their money to get to the fight venue. They are being given this chance because one of the scheduled fighters was damaged in transport. Kelly has to assure fight promoter Nolan and his assistant Maxwell that Maxo will be able to fight. After they leave Nolan's office, Kelly and Pole argue repeatedly over Maxo's fitness. Kelly claims Maxo should be able to go through with the fight despite its age and condition. A spring in Maxo's arm fails when they test it, leaving it unable to fight since the part has been discontinued and they do not have a spare.

Kelly decides he will disguise himself as Maxo to collect the money necessary for repairs. Despite a valiant effort, he is unable to damage Maynard Flash, an opponent of a more advanced model than Maxo, even when he lands an unblocked punch directly to the back of its head. He is nearly killed but manages to last the first round. The crowd jeers and boos at "Maxo's" performance.

Afterward, the fight promoter pays Kelly only half of the agreed-on $500 fee due to poor performance. Kelly does not protest to prevent recognition. Badly bruised but stubborn as ever, he tells Pole they will use the money to repair Maxo and get him ready to fight again.

## Closing narration

[edit]

> Portrait of a losing side, proof positive that you can't outpunch machinery. Proof also of something else: that no matter what the future brings, man's capacity to rise to the occasion will remain unaltered. His potential for tenacity and optimism continues, as always, to outfight, outpoint and outlive any and all changes made by his society, for which three cheers and a unanimous decision rendered from the Twilight Zone.

## Production

[edit]

This was the first episode sponsored by Procter & Gamble (alternating sponsorship with American Tobacco), who usually "pitched" Crest toothpaste, Lilt Home Permanent, and Prell shampoo, among their other products. Serling was not required to endorse any of P&G's products at the end of their episodes.

Serling, in his narration, had predicted that professional boxing would be outlawed within five years of the episode's airing; at the time, the sport was mired in controversy after Emile Griffith killed his opponent Benny Paret in a nationally televised and particularly brutal 1962 match. With Paret's death at Griffith's hands, as well as the death of Davey Moore from a neck injury sustained in a March 1963 contest,[1] the specter of the sport being outlawed was a realistic possibility at the time "Steel" was broadcast.[2] Serling's prediction did not come to fruition; although boxing declined in popularity in the succeeding years, it has never been outlawed.

Each of the five credited cast members appeared in one other episode — Lee Marvin starred in "The Grave" (October 1961), Joe Mantell starred as "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" (October 1960), Chuck Hicks had an uncredited bit part as a mover in "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" (December 1963, two months after this episode), Merritt Bohn was billed at the bottom of the cast list in a bit part as a truck driver in Twilight Zone's second episode, "One for the Angels" (October 1959) and Frank London was billed third from the end in a bit part as a driver in ""A Penny for Your Thoughts" (February 1961).

## See also

[edit]

* Real Steel, a 2011 American science fiction film also based on Richard Matheson's short story
* "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", a 2004 episode of The Simpsons with a similar plot
* "Raging Bender" from the second season of Futurama also depicts a hidden human controller of a robotic boxer.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ AP (March 25, 1963). "Moore Second Champ to Die Within Year". Star-Gazette. p. 10. Retrieved May 31, 2017 - via Newspapers.com.
2. ^ "Boxing changed forever when one man fought to the death -- on live television". SFGate. Retrieved April 22, 2017.

* DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
* Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
* Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

## External links

[edit]

* "Steel" at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes

Season 1|

* "Where Is Everybody?"
* "One for the Angels"
* "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"
* "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine"
* "Walking Distance"
* "Escape Clause"
* "The Lonely"
* "Time Enough at Last"
* "Perchance to Dream"
* "Judgment Night"
* "And When the Sky Was Opened"
* "What You Need"
* "The Four of Us Are Dying"
* "Third from the Sun"
* "I Shot an Arrow into the Air"
* "The Hitch-Hiker"
* "The Fever"
* "The Last Flight"
* "The Purple Testament"
* "Elegy"
* "Mirror Image"
* "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
* "A World of Difference"
* "Long Live Walter Jameson"
* "People Are Alike All Over"
* "Execution"
* "The Big Tall Wish"
* "A Nice Place to Visit"
* "Nightmare as a Child"
* "A Stop at Willoughby"
* "The Chaser"
* "A Passage for Trumpet"
* "Mr. Bevis"
* "The After Hours"
* "The Mighty Casey"
* "A World of His Own"

Season 2|

* "King Nine Will Not Return"
* "The Man in the Bottle"
* "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room"
* "A Thing About Machines"
* "The Howling Man"
* "Eye of the Beholder"
* "Nick of Time"
* "The Lateness of the Hour"
* "The Trouble with Templeton"
* "A Most Unusual Camera"
* "The Night of the Meek"
* "Dust"
* "Back There"
* "The Whole Truth"
* "The Invaders"
* "A Penny for Your Thoughts"
* "Twenty Two"
* "The Odyssey of Flight 33"
* "Mr. Dingle, the Strong"
* "Static"
* "The Prime Mover"
* "Long Distance Call"
* "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim"
* "The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
* "The Silence"
* "Shadow Play"
* "The Mind and the Matter"
* "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"
* "The Obsolete Man"

Season 3|

* "Two"
* "The Arrival"
* "The Shelter"
* "The Passersby"
* "A Game of Pool"
* "The Mirror"
* "The Grave"
* "It's a Good Life"
* "Deaths-Head Revisited"
* "The Midnight Sun"
* "Still Valley"
* "The Jungle"
* "Once Upon a Time"
* "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"
* "A Quality of Mercy"
* "Nothing in the Dark"
* "One More Pallbearer"
* "Dead Man's Shoes"
* "The Hunt"
* "Showdown with Rance McGrew"
* "Kick the Can"
* "A Piano in the House"
* "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank"
* "To Serve Man"
* "The Fugitive"
* "Little Girl Lost"
* "Person or Persons Unknown"
* "The Little People"
* "Four O'Clock"
* "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"
* "The Trade-Ins"
* "The Gift"
* "The Dummy"
* "Young Man's Fancy"
* "I Sing the Body Electric"
* "Cavender Is Coming"
* "The Changing of the Guard"

Season 4|

* "In His Image"
* "The Thirty-Fathom Grave"
* "Valley of the Shadow"
* "He's Alive"
* "Mute"
* "Death Ship"
* "Jess-Belle"
* "Miniature"
* "Printer's Devil"
* "No Time Like the Past"
* "The Parallel"
* "I Dream of Genie"
* "The New Exhibit"
* "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
* "The Incredible World of Horace Ford"
* "On Thursday We Leave for Home"
* "Passage on the Lady Anne"
* "The Bard"

Season 5|

* "In Praise of Pip"
* "Steel"
* "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
* "A Kind of a Stopwatch"
* "The Last Night of a Jockey"
* "Living Doll"
* "The Old Man in the Cave"
* "Uncle Simon"
* "Probe 7, Over and Out"
* "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms"
* "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain"
* "Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
* "Ring-a-Ding Girl"
* "You Drive"
* "The Long Morrow"
* "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"
* "Number 12 Looks Just Like You"
* "Black Leather Jackets"
* "Night Call"
* "From Agnes—With Love"
* "Spur of the Moment"
* "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
* "Queen of the Nile"
* "What's in the Box"
* "The Masks"
* "I Am the Night—Color Me Black"
* "Sounds and Silences"
* "Caesar and Me"
* "The Jeopardy Room"
* "Stopover in a Quiet Town"
* "The Encounter"
* "Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
* "The Brain Center at Whipple's"
* "Come Wander with Me"
* "The Fear"
* "The Bewitchin' Pool"

* v
* t
* e

Richard Matheson

Novels|

* I Am Legend (1954)
* The Shrinking Man (1956)
* A Stir of Echoes (1958)
* The Beardless Warriors (1960)
* Hell House (1971)
* Bid Time Return (1975)
* What Dreams May Come (1978)
* Earthbound (1982)

Short stories|

* "Born of Man and Woman" (1950)
* "Button, Button" (1970)

Screenplays|

* The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
* House of Usher (1960)
* "The Last Flight" (1960)
* "Nick of Time" (1960)
* "A World of Difference" (1960)
* "A World of His Own" (1960)
* Master of the World (1961)
* The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
* "The Invaders" (1961)
* "Once Upon a Time" (1961)
* Night of the Eagle (1962)
* Tales of Terror (1962)
* "Little Girl Lost" (1962)
* "Young Man's Fancy" (1962)
* The Raven (1963)
* "Death Ship" (1963)
* "Mute" (1963)
* "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963)
* "Steel" (1963)
* The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
* The Last Man on Earth (1964)
* "Night Call" (1964)
* "Spur of the Moment" (1964)
* Fanatic (1965)
* The Young Warriors (1966)
* "The Enemy Within" (1966)
* The Devil Rides Out (1968)
* De Sade (1969)
* Duel (1971)
* The Night Stalker (1972)
* The Night Strangler (1973)
* The Legend of Hell House (1973)
* Dying Room Only (1973)
* Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974)
* The Morning After (1974)
* Scream of the Wolf (1974)
* Trilogy of Terror (1975)
* Dead of Night (1977)
* The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977)
* The Martian Chronicles (1980)
* Somewhere in Time (1980)
* Jaws 3-D (1983)
* Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
* "Button, Button" (1986)
* Loose Cannons (1990)
* The Dreamer of Oz (1990)
* Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994)
* Trilogy of Terror II (1996)

Adaptations
by others|

* "And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959)
* "Third from the Sun" (1960)
* Cold Sweat (1970)
* The Omega Man (1971)
* The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
* What Dreams May Come (1998)
* Stir of Echoes (1999)
* "Dance of the Dead" (2005)
* "My Ambition" (2006)
* I Am Legend (2007)
* I Am Omega (2007)
* The Box (2009)
* "The Splendid Source" (2010)
* Real Steel (2011)

Related|

* Richard Christian Matheson (son)
* Chris Matheson (son)

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