Miniature (The Twilight Zone)

"Miniature" is episode 110 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 21, 1963, on CBS. The story centers on a man's obsession with a dollhouse whose figures seem to be alive.

To the average person, a museum is a place of knowledge, a place of beauty and truth and wonder. Some people come to study, others to contemplate, others to look for the sheer joy of looking. Charley Parkes has his own reasons. He comes to the museum to get away from the world. It isn't really the sixty-cent cafeteria meal that has drawn him here every day, it's the fact that here in these strange, cool halls he can be alone for a little while, really and truly alone. Anyway, that's how it was before he got lost and wandered into the Twilight Zone.

Charley Parkes believes that he sees a figure in a museum dollhouse that comes alive. He returns to the museum numerous times and gazes into the dollhouse, repeatedly witnessing the doll in the house become animated. A guard tells him that the doll is not mechanical, but merely carved from a single block of wood, but this does not dissuade Charley.

Charley gradually falls in love with the figure, a woman who is in an abusive relationship with a male figure in the dollhouse. In an attempt to rescue the female doll from the male doll, Charley breaks the glass and is subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital. He pretends to be rehabilitated and is returned to the care of his mother.

On the evening of his return home, Charley's family discovers that he has secretly left the house. They contact Charley's psychiatrist and surmise that he has returned to the dollhouse. At the museum, Charley reveals his feelings for the doll.

The family, psychiatrist and museum guards search the museum for Charley but find nothing. However, one guard glances into the dollhouse and sees Charley, now a miniature figure, finally together with his love in the dollhouse. Smiling, the guard resolves to never reveal what he has witnessed.

They never found Charley Parkes, because the guard didn't tell them what he saw in the glass case. He knew what they'd say and he knew they'd be right too, because seeing is not always believing, especially if what you see happens to be an odd corner of the Twilight Zone.

Because of a pending copyright lawsuit over an earlier script that had been submitted with essentially the same concept,^[1] this episode was not included in the syndication package for The Twilight Zone. It was included in the 1984 The Twilight Zone Silver Anniversary Special with the dollhouse scenes colorized in an early public demonstration of the film colorization process.^[2][3][4][5] The colorized scenes are included as a special feature on the DVD release, however it was not carried over to the Blu-ray release.

• Robert Duvall as Charley Parkes
• Pert Kelton as Mrs. Parkes
• Barbara Barrie as Myra
• William Windom as Dr. Wallman
• John McLiam as Museum Guard
• Barney Phillips as Diemel
• Claire Griswold as The Doll (Alice)
• Lennie Weinrib as Buddy
• Joan Chambers as Harriet Gunderson
• Chet Stratton as Museum Guide
• Nina Roman as The Maid
• Richard Angarola as The Suitor
• Sally Kellerman as Office Worker

• "Miniature" at IMDb
• Transcript DB episode