The Big Tall Wish

I'm still gradually getting through season one of the Blu-ray set of The Twilight Zone. On Saturday night, I watched a historic episode.

The Big Tall Wish is about an ageing black boxer who apparently loses his fight. However, as he is getting counted out, the son of the boxer's neighbour makes a wish that the knockout is given to the opponent. It does. The boxer returns home and meets up with the youngster who tells him about the wish. The boxer doesn't acknowledge that the wish came true. His failure to believe that the result of the fight was the action of a wish reverses the decision. The episode ends with the boxer losing and dealing with his original fate.

The thing that stood out to me was that the majority of the cast were black. It then dawned on me that - after viewing all the episodes up until that point - I couldn't recall seeing a black actor or actress playing any of the roles before this one.

It wasn't something I had been looking out for so, to see if I was wrong or not, I did some digging around online.

I couldn't tell whether this was the first time black actors appeared in the show. What I did find out was this:

After airing this episode, with its all-black cast being revolutionary for American television, The Twilight Zone was awarded the 1961 Unity Award for Outstanding Contributions to Better Race Relations.

The episode first aired in April 1960.

I was born nineteen years after that and still cannot even get my head around how things were long before my time.