The Twilight Zone "The Mighty Casey" (lost unaired original version of TV episode; 1960)
The only known remaining shot of Paul Douglas in the episode's final cut.
Status: Lost
The Mighty Casey is the 35th episode of the first season of the 1959 anthology TV series The Twilight Zone.[1] It originally aired on June 17, 1960, on CBS. The plot involves a run-down Major League Baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs, who allow a robot named Casey to join the team because he can throw super-fastballs that are nearly impossible to hit.[2]
Production
The final aired episode has Jack Warden portraying Zephyrs manager "Mouth" McGarry, but the episode was originally shot and finished with actor Paul Douglas as McGarry. During shooting, Douglas was suffering from what turned out to be the onset of a massive heart attack and was visibly ill throughout. On September 11, 1959, the day after shooting finished, Douglas died.[3]
Feeling that these circumstances cast an unavoidable pall over what was intended as a lighthearted comedic fantasy, writer and executive producer Rod Serling decided a reshoot was necessary. Since CBS refused to finance it, his own company Cayuga Productions paid for it. The episode that aired on television and appeared in all subsequent releases is the reshot version.
Status
The original Paul Douglas episode has never been screened and may no longer exist. However, Rod Serling insisted that as much original footage as possible be recycled for the final cut, thus there is one shot of Paul Douglas that remains in the episode: the very last one, in which he is seen with his back to the camera and from a great distance.