1.47 --- The Leprechaun-Artist

Directed by : Tommy Lee Walace Written by : Tommy Lee Walace (story by James Crocker) Starring : Cork Hubbert, Bradley Gregg, Joey Green, Danny Nucci First aired : 21st of February, 1986. An Irish leprechaun (Cork Hubbert, Legend), vacationing in the United States, is spotted and caught by three young boys, Richie (Bradley Gregg, Stand By Me), J.P. (Joey Green) and Buddy (Danny Nucci, Alive, Crimson Tide). The leprechaun informs them that they can all have one wish, and Buddy picks first. His wish is to have x-ray vision. Next morning, he is amazed to find out he can really look under girls clothes. But when he focuses more, instead of seeing them naked, he sees their internal organs ! When J.P. and Richie turn to talk to him, he sees their skulls instead of their faces. Obviously, it was not the best of wishes, and the leprechaun, seeing Buddy learned his lesson, reverses it. J.P.'s wish comes next, and he wishes for all of their parents to do only what they tell them. When Buddy makes his folks bark like a dog and sing the national anthem, it looks like a job well done. Until, that is, they discover the wish was too literal - they have to tell their parents everything, including how to cook and drive home after dropping them off. The leprechaun reverses it again, and now they have one last wish to request. Extra careful after the last two experiences, Richie asks for a state-of-the-art "hot" car, with a driver who has a mind of his own. The leprechaun grants it and disappears, and the boys are amazed to find a neat white limo with a chauffeur waiting for them. But again - it's a trick. The driver does "have a mind of his own", and when the cops start tailing them for driving too fast, he tries to outrace them ! They eventually come to a standstill - the driver disappears, and the boys are taken to the precinct. There, they have to explain what were they exactly doing on a back seat of a stolen car ("hot", remember ?). They are lost for words, but suddenly, they spot the leprechaun in the room, smiling. He reverses this one as well, and the boys, having learn their lesson, merrily run out of the station unharmed. *** While not exactly a great piece of work for TZ standards, The Leprechaun-Artist is a pleasant, well-told story with a swallowable moral to it. Again, we have a non-Irish actor hamming it up like your average paddy (see The Little People of Killany Woods for further reference), but Cork Hubbert sells his act pretty good, and the kids are all pretty watchable. The main concept, while adapted from a short story by James Crocker (who previously wrote Chameleon and A Little Peace and Quiet), is hardly original though - Serling did this in the original series not once but twice, with The Man in the Bottle (7th of October, 1960.) and I Dream of Genie (21st of March, 1963.). This was also Tommy Lee Wallace's third and last directing job on the new Twilight Zone. *** On a personal note, sorry for the recent lack of updates. Real life can be pretty annoying at times. No worries, I'm not giving up on this ;)