Tag: Little Girl Lost

Twilight Zone – Little Girl Lost

★★★★★  March 16, 1962 Season 3 Episode 26

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode had to inspire the 1982 movie  Poltergiest. Out of all the episodes I’ve posted…I have had more people ask about this one. It is a scary episode and the special effects were great. I can see how this would freak kids out when it was shown. Fall off of your bed and you might end up in another dimension.

This was a good story and a very good script. Charles Aidman as the physicist Bill turned in a believable performance.

I like how they portrayed the other dimension. They were very clever the way they shot it. They didn’t give much away but show you enough to know this place is not your normal place.

Richard Matheson based this story on a real-life occurrence involving his own daughter. Matheson: “she cried out one night and I went to where she was and couldn’t find her anywhere. I couldn’t find her on the bed, I couldn’t find her on the ground. She had fallen off and rolled all the way under the bed against the wall. At first, even when I felt under the bed, I couldn’t reach her. It was bizarre, and that’s where I got the idea.”

This show was written by Richard Matheson and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Missing: one frightened little girl. Name: Bettina Miller. Description: six years of age, average height and build, light brown hair, quite pretty. Last seen being tucked in bed by her mother a few hours ago. Last heard: ‘ay, there’s the rub,’ as Hamlet put it. For Bettina Miller can be heard quite clearly, despite the rather curious fact that she can’t be seen at all. Present location? Let’s say for the moment… in the Twilight Zone.

Summary

When he hears his young daughter Tina calling out in the night, Chris Miller go to her room but finds she isn’t there. At first he thinks she fallen off the bed or slid herself under it but despite hearing her call out she’s nowhere to be seen. He gets help from a friend, Bill, who concludes that Tina has slid through a portal into another dimension. They find the portal opening but Tina is lost inside and Chris goes in after her.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

The other half where? The fourth dimension? The fifth? Perhaps. They never found the answer. Despite a battery of research physicists equipped with every device known to man, electronic and otherwise, no result was ever achieved, except perhaps a little more respect for and uncertainty about the mechanisms of the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Sarah Marshall … Ruth Miller
Robert Sampson … Chris Miller
Charles Aidman … Bill
Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Tracy Stratfor … Tina Miller (uncredited)
Rhoda Williams … Tina Miller (voice) (uncredited)

…

Twilight Zone – Little Girl Lost… #6

I’m going to write about my top 10 favorite TZ episodes in the next few weeks…Most of the Twilight Zones are like songs to me…to be enjoyed over and over. The Twilight Zone is not really an ordinary TV show. It’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This is my personal choice for #6 on my list.

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: Missing: one frightened little girl. Name: Bettina Miller. Description: six years of age, average height and build, light brown hair, quite pretty. Last seen being tucked in bed by her mother a few hours ago. Last heard: ‘ay, there’s the rub,’ as Hamlet put it. For Bettina Miller can be heard quite clearly, despite the rather curious fact that she can’t be seen at all. Present location? Let’s say for the moment… in the Twilight Zone.

I always thought Poltergeist borrowed heavily from this Twilight Zone episode. Both girls were lost in another dimension and it Poltergeist plays out much like this episode. The inside of the dimension in this episode is done really well.

A couple awakens in the night to hear their daughter Tina crying. When the father, Chris, enters her bedroom, however, she is nowhere to be found. She can be heard as if she is still in the room, but not seen. Moments later, the family dog, Mac, runs into the room in a state of agitation, goes under the bed and vanishes just like Tina. Panicking, Chris and his wife Ruth call their physicist friend Bill, who comes over immediately and begins to investigate, moving the girl’s bed and looking for the “opening.”

Chris and Ruth are nonplussed, but suddenly Bills hand seems to disappear through the bedroom wall, and he explains that he thinks Tina and Mac are trapped in another dimension. He draws on the wall with chalk and outlines the opening, explaining the theories about alternate dimensions. Suddenly, Ruth realizes that she can no longer hear Tina. The adults move around the house in a frenzy and finally hear her voice again, seemingly coming from another place, as well as the dog’s barks. Bill says to let the dog lead her back out, and Chris repeatedly calls Mac… Will they get her out safely?

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration: The other half where? The fourth dimension? The fifth? Perhaps. They never found the answer. Despite a battery of research physicists equipped with every device known to man, electronic and otherwise, no result was ever achieved, except perhaps a little more respect for and uncertainty about the mechanisms of the Twilight Zone.

Cast

  • Rod Serling (Narrator)
  • Robert Sampson (Chris Miller)
  • Sarah Marshall (Ruth Miller)
  • Tracy Stratford (Tina Miller)
  • Rhoda Williams (Tina’s voice)
  • Charles Aidman (Bill)