Miniature (The Twilight Zone)
Encyclopedia
"Miniature" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

.

Synopsis

Charley Parkes thinks he sees a figure in a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 dollhouse
Dollhouse
A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada...

 that comes alive.
Charley returns to the museum numerous times and gazes into the dollhouse. He keeps coming back and sees the doll in the house come alive.

Charley falls in love with the figure, a woman, but is institutionalized because of his belief that the figure of the woman (as well as a housekeeper
Housekeeper (servant)
A housekeeper is an individual responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the interior of a residence, including direction of subordinate maids...

 and a man) is alive. He eventually is "rehabilitated" and is returned to the care of his mother.

On the evening of his return home, his mother, sister, brother-in-law and his former girlfriend plan to celebrate his release with him, but discover that he has escaped from the house. They contact the psychiatrist who treated Charley in the hospital and surmise that he has returned to the museum and the dollhouse.

The family members, psychiatrist and museum guards search the museum but find nothing. Except for one guard, who glances into the dollhouse and sees Charley, now a miniature figure, finally together with his love in the dollhouse, sharing a stereoscope. Smiling, the guard decides to never reveal what he's witnessed.

Re-airing

Because of a lawsuit, this episode was not included in the syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 package for The Twilight Zone. It was finally re-aired in 1984. When it was re-released in 1984, a colorized
Film colorization
Film colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...

version had been created in an early public demonstration of the process.

Robert Duvall

This episode's reputation derives primarily from Robert Duvall's performance. It has been described as an "absolute tour-de-force" (IMDb.com); "a tour-de-force of underplaying" (Amazon.com); and "great acting" (TV.com). See the External Links below.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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