Way Out — Season 1, Episode 6: The Croaker
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy • 25 min • 1 season, 14 episodes • ★ 7.0/10
Episode synopsis
Mr. Rana (latin for ""Frog"") is a strange man who has moved into the neighborhood. He gets pestered by a rascally kid named Jeremy Keeler (think: ""Dennis the Menace"") who does stuff like letting pet dogs loose, so he can get a reward from their owners for their return. Mr. Rana raises frogs, and offers Jeremy 25 cents per jar with flies, so he can feed the frogs; Jeremy balks at first, but after Mr. Rana tells him how much mischievous fun he will have knocking over peoples' garbage cans to collect the flies, Jeremy accepts. Jeremy, meanwhile, sends Mr. Tench over to Rana's house to get his dog back. Mr. Rana slips him a potion that turns Tench into a frog. Next day, Mrs. Tench is filing a missing person's report. Sergeant McGoogin reads his notes, ""Hair color: yellow. Eyes narrow and close together. Weak chin; drools."" He asks, ""Is that your dog or your husband?"" Mrs. Tench quips, ""Both."" Later, a large frog chases Mrs. Tench over to Mr. Rana's place; he slips her a potion, an
About Way Out
Way Out was a 1961 fantasy and science fiction television anthology series hosted by writer Roald Dahl. The macabre 25-minute shows were introduced by Dahl's dry delivery of a brief introductory monologue, sometimes explaining a method of murdering a spouse without getting caught. The taped series began because CBS suddenly needed a replacement for a Jackie Gleason talk show that network executives were about to cancel, and producer David Susskind contacted Dahl to help mount a show quickly. The series was paired by the network with the similar The Twilight Zone for Friday evening broadcasts, running from March through July 1961 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, under the primary sponsorship of Liggett & Myers. Writers included Philip H. Reisman, Jr. and Sumner Locke Elliott. The premiere episode, "William and Mary", adapted from a Roald Dahl short story, told of a wife getting revenge on her husband. In "Dissolve to Black", an actress cast as a murder victim at a television studio goes through a rehearsal, but the drama merges with reality as she finds herself trapped on the show's near-deserted set. Other dramas offered startling imagery: a snake slithering up a carpeted staircase inside a suburban home, a disembodied brain in a jar, a headless woman strapped to an electric chair, with a light bulb in place of her head and half of a man's face erased.