Tag Archives: Nick of Time

My True Friend, Nick

So back in the day, when I was working in Hollywood, I had a lot of True Friends who were in the show business. One of the fellows I got to know had a feature part on an episode of The Twilight Zone, called Nick of Time. He got to play himself, Nick.

In this show, his body was grey-screened out of the shot and his head was superimposed over a napkin holder, so that it would look like it the napkin holder was his body. His main acting function was to bobble his head around, like this:

"My True Friend, Nick, as a Bobble Head on a Napkin Dispenser" animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

“My True Friend, Nick, as a Bobble Head on a Napkin Dispenser” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

Attached to the napkin holder was a coin collector, a lever, and a fortune dispenser. In the episode, Captain Kirk comes along with his girlfriend of the week and gets addicted to putting pennies in the napkin dispenser, and then my friend Nick keeps shoving the fortunes out at him.

"Nick, as a Fortune-Telling Napkin Dispenser," animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Nick, as a Fortune-Telling Napkin Dispenser,” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

I think my True Friend Nick really did a good job of predicting the future on that day. Remember, it was 1960 when this episode was filmed — that’s three years before I got my gig on The Twilight Zone, and look at how prescient Nick was! I say he got 4/4 correct!

"Nick Makes Kirk Loose his Sense" animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

“Nick Makes Kirk Loose his Sense” animatedGIF by @iamTalkyTina

I wonder where my friend Nick is now. He never stopped being a True Friend, we just lost touch. 🙁