The Bard

"The Bard"is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. This was the final episode of The Twilight Zone to be one hour long. A bumbling screenwriter, Julius K. Moomer, is in desperate need of brilliant scripts, so he conjures up the spirit of William Shakespeare by use of black magic. Shakespeare produces a riveting screenplay for the writer, but is horrified at all the revisions laid on by the sponsor, the sponsor'... more

"The Bard"is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. This was the final episode of The Twilight Zone to be one hour long. A bumbling screenwriter, Julius K. Moomer, is in desperate need of brilliant scripts, so he conjures up the spirit of William Shakespeare by use of black magic. Shakespeare produces a riveting screenplay for the writer, but is horrified at all the revisions laid on by the sponsor, the sponsor's wife and the leading man. Eventually, the poet becomes so cross that he punches the leading man, and then storms out for good. Moomer's next assignment, a TV special on American history, seems doomed to failure until he remembers his book on black magic- and uses it to conjure up a new writing staff...all of them famous American historical figures! The episode was likely written by Serling as a reaction to the ad executives he dealt with regularly while producing for television. In the book The Twilight Zone Companion Serling is quoted as... less