Episode no. Season 5
Episode 30 Written by Earl Hamner, Jr. Production code 2611 | Directed by Ron Winston Featured music Uncredited Original air date April 24, 1964 | |
"Stopover in a Quiet Town" is episode 150 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone starring Barry Nelson and Nancy Malone. It originally aired on April 24, 1964.
Contents
Plot
A married couple, Bob and Millie Frazier, wake up in an unfamiliar house. They remember only that they both drank too much at a party the night before, and that on the way home, a large shadow had appeared over their car.
They soon discover that the house is mostly props—the telephone has no connection, the cabinetry is merely glued-on facing, the refrigerator is filled with plastic food. They hear a girl's laughter and go outside to find the child. However, once outside, they discover that the town is deserted. They find a stuffed squirrel in a (later discovered fake) tree, search for help in a vacant church, and ring the bell in the church's bell tower hoping someone will come to their aid. When no one comes to help them, the increasingly desperate couple discovers even the trees are fake and the grass is papier-mâché. The exasperated Millie begins to think that perhaps she crashed their car on the way home, and they are now in Hell. They hear a train whistle and, thinking they have finally found a way out of the town, rush to the train station and board the empty train. As the train leaves the station (revealed to be in "Centerville"), they begin a light-hearted conversation, vastly relieved. However, when the train soon comes to a stop again in Centerville, they realize it has only gone in a circle, and they are back where they started.
They leave the train and return to the center of town, once again hearing a little girl's laughter, A shadow falls over them, and they flee, only to be scooped up by the hand of a gigantic child. The little girl's mother says, "Be careful with your pets, dear--your father brought them all the way from Earth." At her mother's bidding, the little girl drops the couple back into the town, which is now revealed to be a model village with a miniature railway running around it.
As the terrified couple stumblingly resume their running, Rod Serling, in voiceover, sardonically reminds the viewer not to drink and drive.
Uses in other media
The episode is referenced in the second verse of the Rush song "The Twilight Zone," recorded in 1976: "You wake up lost in an empty town/Wondering why no one else is around/Look up to see a giant boy/You've just become his brand new toy."
This Twilight Zone episode is referenced in the sixth episode of the fourth season of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Inmate counselor Healy mentions the episode to the paranoid prisoner Lolly to convey that he understands that she confuses fantasy with reality in much the same way as Healy's mother did.