20th episode of the 3rd season of The Twilight Zone

"Showdown With Rance McGrew" is episode 85 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

Some one-hundred-odd years ago, a motley collection of tough mustaches galloped across the West and left behind a raft of legends and legerdemains, and it seems a reasonable conjecture that if there are any television sets up in cowboy heaven and any one of these rough-and-wooly nail-eaters could see with what careless abandon their names and exploits are being bandied about, they're very likely turning over in their graves—or worse, getting out of them. Which gives you a clue as to the proceedings that will begin in just a moment, when one Mr. Rance McGrew, a 3,000-buck-a-week phoney-baloney discovers that this week's current edition of make-believe is being shot on location—and that location is the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Actor Rance McGrew, who stars in a TV series as the fictional heroic marshal of the same name, arrives late to shoot the final scenes of an episode in which his character pursues Jesse James. According to the script, Rance turns away from a seemingly-beaten Jesse, who then tries to shoot him in the back. The man playing Jesse says Jesse James fighting dishonorably is historically inaccurate, and asks permission to shout at Rance before firing, but Rance argues that shouting out a warning to a gunman who has already proven himself to be a better fighter makes no sense.

Suddenly, Rance finds himself in a real Old West saloon. The real Jesse James walks in and says that he, Billy the Kid, and other famous outlaws are not pleased with the way that they are portrayed on McGrew's show. Calling Rance nothing but a fraud who makes his living off the reputations of true gunslingers, Jesse challenges Rance to a fast draw showdown. Rance quickly realizes that he has no chance against a real gunfighter, but Jesse will not allow him to walk away. When the countdown finishes, Rance struggles for several seconds to get his gun out of its holster, then unintentionally flings it in the air in his panic. His point made, an amused Jesse contemptuously remarks, "Just like I figured. This guy couldn't outdraw a crayon." As Jesse aims his gun at Rance's forehead, Rance drops to his knees, pleading that he will do anything if Jesse spares him. Jesse accepts and disappears.

Rance finds himself back on the set, and his agent is announced. The agent turns out to be Jesse James himself, in Hollywood garb. He insists that the episode be revised so that instead of trying to shoot Rance in the back, Jesse James throws Rance McGrew out the saloon window and makes his escape. The scene is shot to Jesse's satisfaction. As Jesse drives Rance back home, he goes over revisions to future episodes in which Rance McGrew fights Jesse's afterlife buddies. From now on, Rance's TV series will show what those men could really do instead of just making Rance look good.

Closing narration

The evolution of the so-called 'adult' western, and the metamorphosis of one Rance McGrew, formerly phony-baloney, now upright citizen with a preoccupation with all things involving tradition, truth and cowpoke predecessors. It's the way the cookie crumbles and the six-gun shoots in the Twilight Zone.

Cast

Sources