Burgess Meredith returns for his fourth go-round in The Twilight Zone (he was also in Time Enough at Last from Season 1 and Mister Dingle, the Strong and The Obsolete Man, both from Season 2). This time he plays the devil himself, who has descended upon a small-town paper that is just about to fold. The publisher has declared that he would do anything to save the paper, and guess who has shown up to make a deal to do just that?
As it turns out, Mr. Smith, as he calls himself, makes some small modifications to the linotype machine that allow whatever he types to come true. This in turn allows the paper to be right on top of any and every story that comes out. Unfortunately this also means that a terrible number of calamities happen to the small town, and suddenly the publisher wants out, but unfortunately he has no way out – until he decides to use the machine to write himself a new ending and get rid of the devil in the process. Lucky for him it works just as advertised.
