| "The Prime Mover" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
 Christine White, Dane Clark, Buddy Ebsen and Jane Burgess | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 21 |
| Directed by | Richard L. Bare |
| Written by | Charles Beaumont |
| Story by | George Clayton Johnson (uncredited) |
| Featured music | Stock |
| Production code | 173-3647 |
| Original air date | March 24, 1961 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"The Prime Mover" is episode 57 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . It originally aired on March 24, 1961, on CBS.
Portrait of a man who thinks and thereby gets things done. Mr. Jimbo Cobb might be called a prime mover, a talent which has to be seen to be believed. In just a moment he'll show his friends, and you, how he keeps both feet on the ground, and his head in the Twilight Zone.
Small-time gambler Ace Larsen discovers that his partner, Jimbo Cobb, has telekinetic powers after a car overturns outside their café and Jimbo moves the car without touching it.
Ace plans to use Jimbo's powers to win big in Las Vegas, and he takes his girlfriend Kitty with them. Ace wins every bet he makes, disregarding Jimbo's headaches from the use of his powers and his growing moral concerns over what they are doing, and accumulates hundreds of thousands of dollars in winnings. Kitty becomes disgusted with Ace's behavior and leaves, so Ace hires the casino's cigarette girl as his companion for the night and has the manager call Phil Nolan, a notorious gangster from Chicago. Ace and Nolan begin a private game of craps, with Ace winning roll after roll. Ignoring Jimbo's interruptions, Ace decides to bet all his money on the next roll but unexpectedly loses; Jimbo says afterward that his powers had suddenly failed him. The loss awakens Ace to the reality of what he has become, and he and Jimbo have a good laugh over their misfortune and return home with Kitty.
Back at the café, Ace asks Kitty to marry him just as Jimbo drops his broom. She flips a coin, and Ace calls "heads". Without showing Ace the coin or telling him the result of the flip, she decides to accept his proposal. As they embrace, Jimbo picks up the broom telekinetically, revealing he faked his loss of power to snap Ace out of his greed.
Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, the talent becomes a curse. Jimbo Cobb knew, right from the beginning - but before Ace Larsen learned that simple truth, he had to take a short trip - through The Twilight Zone.
The crash scene re-uses footage from the 1958 film Thunder Road .
The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy or the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the belief that, if an event has occurred more frequently than expected, it is less likely to happen again in the future. The fallacy is commonly associated with gambling, where it may be believed, for example, that the next dice roll is more than usually likely to be six because there have recently been fewer than the expected number of sixes.
Charles Beaumont was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. He is remembered as a writer of classic Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Howling Man", "Static", "Miniature", "Printer's Devil", and "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You", but also penned the screenplays for several films, such as 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Intruder, and The Masque of the Red Death.
"The Fever" is the seventeenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on January 29, 1960, on CBS. The complete, original text for this story was run in the debut issue of Harvey Kurtzman’s Help!, cover dated August, 1960.
"A Nice Place to Visit" is episode 28 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode first aired on CBS on April 15, 1960. The title comes from the saying, "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
"A Penny for Your Thoughts" is episode 52 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, written by George Clayton Johnson. It originally aired on February 3, 1961, on CBS.
"Mr. Dingle, the Strong" is episode 55 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, and is the 19th episode of the second season. It was one of the many episodes in the second season written by series creator and showrunner Rod Serling, and was directed by German filmmaker John Brahm. The episode originally aired on March 3, 1961 on CBS.
The Rowan (1990) is a science fiction novel by American writer Anne McCaffrey, the first book in "The Tower and the Hive" series. It is set in the universe of the "Pegasus" trilogy, against a backdrop of a technologically advanced society in which telepathy, psychokinesis and other psychic talents have become scientifically accepted and researched. Telekinetic and telepathic powers are used to communicate and teleport spaceships through space, thus avoiding the light barrier and allowing for the colonization of other planetary systems.
George Clayton Johnson was an American science fiction writer, who co-wrote with William F. Nolan the novel Logan's Run, the basis for the MGM 1976 film. He also wrote television scripts for The Twilight Zone, and the first telecast episode of Star Trek, entitled "The Man Trap". He also wrote the story and screenplay on which the 1960 and 2001 films Ocean's Eleven were based.
"The Bard" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It was the final episode of The Twilight Zone to be one hour long. A direct satire of the American television industry, the episode features a parody of Marlon Brando by Burt Reynolds, and concerns an inept screenwriter, who through the use of black magic, employs William Shakespeare as his ghostwriter.
"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.
Racing Stripes is a 2005 American sports comedy family film directed by Frederik Du Chau. The film was produced by Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Lloyd Phillips and Edward L. McDonnell, based on a script written by David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk DeMicco and Du Chau.
Superboy is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. A modern variation on the original Superboy, the character first appeared as Superboy in The Adventures of Superman #500, and was created by writer Karl Kesel and artist Tom Grummett.
"A Piano in the House" is episode 87 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 16, 1962, on CBS.
"Jess-Belle" is an episode of the American television science fiction and fantasy anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a young woman, whose name sounds like "Jezebel", spurned by the man she loves, becomes a witch in order to make him love her.
Timewyrm: Revelation is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace, as well as cameo appearances by the Doctor's mental representations of his first, third, fourth and fifth incarnations.
"A Losing Streak" is the third episode of series 2 of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 4 November 1982. In the episode, Del Boy plays a high-stakes game of poker with Boycie. Also, this is the only episode in the series in which Boycie serves as an antagonist.
"Put On" is a song by American recording artist Young Jeezy featuring Kanye West, from Jeezy's third studio album The Recession. The song was released as the album's lead single on June 3, 2008. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and was featured in the video games Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Skate 3.
"Dynamic Duets" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American musical television series Glee, and the seventy-third episode overall. Written and directed by series co-creator Ian Brennan, it aired on Fox in the United States on November 22, 2012.
"Sadie Hawkins" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the American musical television series Glee, and the seventy-seventh episode overall. Written by Ross Maxwell and directed by Bradley Buecker, it aired on Fox in the United States on January 24, 2013.
"Girls On Film" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of the American musical television series Glee, and the eighty-first episode overall. Written by Michael Hitchcock and directed by co-creator Ian Brennan, it aired on Fox in the United States on March 7, 2013, and features the 500th musical number filmed by Glee since its inception.
