The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

In Praise of Pip (1963)

Jack Klugman: Max Phillips

Photos 

Quotes 

• Max Phillips : Wait, you're ten years old again, Pip. How come you're ten years old again?

  Young Pip : That's what I am, Pop. I'm ten years old.

• Max Phillips : Who's your best buddy, Pip?

  Young Pip : You, Pop. You're my best buddy.

• Max Phillips : Work the gun, not the jaws.

• Max Phillips : Hey, God? Hey, God. I'll make a deal with you. I give you... I give you the sodden carcass of a... of an aging, weak idiot. I give you me. All you have to give back is Pip.

  [crying] 

  Max Phillips : Please, God. Don't take my boy. Please... take me. Take me.

  [dies] 

• Max Phillips : You have to understand this. You have to try and listen and understand. Those times when I wasn't around, and when I was conning, and being a shill or too drunk... and when I dragged you from one rooming house to another...

  Young Pip : It doesn't make any difference now, pop.

  Max Phillips : It makes a difference, Pip. it does make a difference, because I want you to know that no man... oh, listen to me, son. No man ever, ever loved a boy any more than I love you. It was because... well, because I dreamed instead of did, you know? And I wished and hoped instead of tried. But as God as my witness, Pip, I loved you. See, I wouldn't be able to put it into words because there isn't any language. But... but I love you.

• Max Phillips : My son is dying in a place called Vietnam. There isn't even supposed to be a war going on, but my son is dying.