"Kick the Can" is episode 86 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 9, 1962 on CBS. Opening narration Plot Charles Whitley, a retiree at Sunnyvale Rest Home, thinks he has discovered the secret of youth. He is convinced that if he acts young, he will become young. His oldest and best friend Ben Conroy, whom he has known since childhood, thinks he is going crazy, and is able to persuade the home's superintendent, Mr. Cox that this is the case. Mr. Cox decides to put Charles in isolation and under observation. Ben tries to convince Charles to act as sedate as the other residents in order to avoid this fate, to no avail. While Ben sees aging as an inescapable fact of life, Charles is convinced that Ben's thinking of himself as old is what made him old. That night, Charles convinces a number of residents to play a game of kick the can with him. He tries to talk Ben into joining them, but Ben refuses. The residents light a firecracker and throw it out a window, the noise drawing the nurse's attention so they can sneak out the door. Meanwhile, Ben alerts Mr. Cox to what the other residents are up to. They run outside to find a group of children playing kick the can instead. Ben recognizes one of the children as Charles, who has become young again. He begs young Charley for a chance to go with him, but the boy seems not to know him, and dashes away into the darkness. Mr. Cox searches elsewhere for the elderly residents, while Ben walks slowly to the front steps of Sunnyvale and sits there with the can, alone, knowing that Mr. Cox can look all he wants for the residents... and that he will never find them. Closing narration Cast Ernest Truex as Charles Whitley Barry Truex as Charles' son Russell Collins as Ben Conroy John Marley as Mr. Cox Burt Mustin as Carlson Earle Hodgins as Agee Hank Patterson as Freitag Marjorie Bennett as Mrs. Summers Lenore Shanewise as Mrs. Densley Eve McVeagh as Night nurse Anne O'Neal as Mrs. Wister Remake "Kick the Can" was remade into a segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Scatman Crothers as Mr. Bloom. In this version, an old man named Mr. Bloom has just moved