June 25, 2025 • 40 mins
Join Jimbo and 80's E as they continue their episodic adventure thru the fifth dimension of the original Twilight Zone Series. Find out what happens when a little girl falls into another dimension and is trapped in the walls of her house!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
There's a podcast that lies between the imagination of two
simple minded Earthlings. Travel with these two longtime friends, Jimbo
and eighties E as they attempt to explore the fifth dimension.
Follow along with them as they take the key and
unlock the door to the vast space between shadow and substance.
(00:24):
This podcast is one of trivia, of insight, and of
sounds and ideas from one of the greatest television shows
ever produced. You are embarking on a timeless journey. There
is your signpost up ahead. You are entering the Tragedy
of Cinemas Twilight.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Zone missing one frightened little girl name Bettina Miller. Description
six years of age, average heightened build, like brown hair,
quite pretty. Last scene being tucked in bed by her
mother a few hours ago.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Last heard, Hi, 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.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
All right, guys, welcome back to the Tragy of Cinema podcast,
the Twilight Zone series.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I'm your host Jimbo, and I'm your co host eighties E.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Eighties.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
We have finally reached episode number ninety one over all
of the Twilight Zone Lost one. Oh my goodness, And
what episode did you actually come on? Was it episode two?
I know you weren't on the first episode at least. No,
I don't think I was on the first couple of episodes. Actually,
that's a good trivia for next time. We'll get that
(01:51):
next time, because I don't. I just remember redoing the
episode over and over and over because we were a
little Oh the Chance to Dream, I remember that one.
That's the one I came in with the first one. Yeah,
that was we recorded from my house remotely. Yeah, we
had a few struggles and trying to work those kinks out.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
I never want to watch that episode ever again.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. Well, for a lot of reasons, mainly because our
quality of our podcast was not great back then. Hopefully
we've gotten a little better and learned a little more
as we've gone along. But let's talk about the episode
at hand, and it's entitled Little Girl Lost. It's the
Twilight Zone season number three, episode number twenty six in
(02:34):
season three, and ninety one overall. If you're keeping count
at home, this one comes in with an IMDb rating
of eight point zero. Jimbo says, it's high. Hi, it's
right on target for me. But here we go. The
episode was first broadcast on March the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two.
(02:59):
It was directed by Paul Stewart and it was written
by Richard Matheson. Interesting note that the short story was
written by Richard Matheson. This was like a story out
of his own life, and I think we have that
in the trivia. But again, it was first rolled out
March sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, and you already know what
(03:19):
time it is. You know, we love this segment in
our episode. It's the segment we like to call on
this day in history. Okay, March sixteenth, nineteen sixty two,
let's go way back to March sixteenth, nineteen thirty four.
(03:40):
Let's go back several decades. The Academy Award statuette is
first called an Oscar in print by Sidney Sklowski. So
that's an interesting note. And movie, and of course we're
going to cover little movies, a little sports, a little maybe,
a little music, you know, three main categories. So the Oscar,
(04:02):
you know, the award it was dubbed back on March sixteenth,
nineteen thirty four in some kind of print publication. So
let's deep dive a little bit where the origins come from.
All right, So the origin for the nickname is kind
of in question. The name Oscar for the Academory Award
is a bit of a mystery, and here are a few
(04:23):
competing stories about how it came to be. The first
one is Margaret Herrick's comment. The most widely accepted story
is that Margaret Herrick, a librarian for the Academy later
called its executive director, said that the statue looked like
her uncle Oscar when she first saw it in the
nineteen thirties. Reporters picked up on that comment and the
(04:44):
name stuck. So that's one explanation. Number two is that
Betty Davis claim. The actor Betty Davis claimed that she
named the award after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson,
because the packs of the statue reminded her of him.
The backside, so I don't know backside of the Yeah, okay,
(05:07):
I won't they have.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
The golden backside?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, the golden back Number three Hollywood commune not communist.
Hollywood columnist Sid Schlowski also claimed he took credit, saying
that he used the name Oscar in his nineteen thirty
four column as a casual nickname to make the award
sound less pretentious. So there you go, you take your
(05:30):
pick dealer's choice, which story do you think is true?
I don't have much by way of trivia other than
that Oscar trivia. Let's talk about a couple famous birthdays though,
on this day, So for March the sixteenth, nineteen twenty
six American comedian of Martin and Lewis the MDA telethon
(05:52):
one very owned Jerry Lewis. He was born in Newark,
New Jersey, on March the sixteenth, nineteen twenty six, and
passed away in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Did you like the old Jerry Lewis movies there?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I wasn't a big fan of Jerry Lewis, to be
honest with you. And I'm not really familiar with the
Dean Martin Jerry Lewis Martin and Lewis, but I did
hear a clip of him not too long ago where
I guess he went to Dean Martin and like they
put a caper on it, like after an eleven year run,
(06:26):
like they guess they could have kept doing it, But
there might have been some tension maybe between Dean and Jerry,
because Jerry was a lot more famous than Dean, and
Dean was a talented singer obviously an actor in his
own right, but you know, Jerry had kind of edged
him out in popularity and fame, and in order to
sort of salvage the relationship, they decided that they were
(06:47):
gonna do their last show on this day, and they
sort of, you know, went a hard stop on it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, but he did do a lot of great work
for the MDS or whatever he did.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Do you remember the fireman at the at the stoplights
with the over labor day weekend and the you know,
you put the money in the fireman's boot? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Did you ever put money in the boot?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I did?
Speaker 5 (07:06):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well my dad, yeah, my dad did. I was a
kid like my dad put the money in.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Oh you didn't. You didn't bull down your window?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And I got on the backseat.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
That was pretty cool, wasn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, it was. It was. It takes you back. So
another famous birthday. We just have two. So on March
the sixteenth, nineteen fifty five, American rapper Flavor Flave of
Public Enemy was born nineteen fifty nine. He was also
a reality TV star You.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Got a Little Too Excited and the surreal life and
not like it's e mc hammer or anything.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah right, I know, it's only flavor Flave, Big Clock
Flavor Flave. He was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York.
So one flavor Flave March sixteenth, nineteen fifty nine. Back
to our episode at hand, let's talk about some dollars
and cents so that the total production costs of this
episode is right on the money at fifty thousand and
(08:00):
thirty five dollars and thirty four cents fifty grand on
the button. And by the way, let me just insert
in here, the cinematography for this episode was cutting edge
like for the time it was. It was outstanding.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. We're gonna have a
long episode, then.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah we are, because I mean, hopefully you don't have
Caesar's kids, because you're definitely gonna have one.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
All right, So let's talk about dates rehearsal. There are
two of them. January twenty ninth and thirtieth, nineteen sixty two.
Dates of filming are three January thirty first, February first,
and February second of nineteen sixty two. I don't have
any trivia as far as I know that this episode
was filmed out of order. It was done more like
(08:49):
a movie, because I do remember I think it is
in the trivia. I may be repeating myself, but they
had to the lines on the wall in the episode
where the portal was. They had to erase those and
put the bed back into place so that Rod could
do his introduction, and so they had to remember a
little trivia about that. Jimbo, let's hear about this very
(09:12):
shortcast in this episode that I know that you love so.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
So much, just so much, probably in my top ten
list at.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
The delight that you I know this, I know you well.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You just wait.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I'm gonna it's gonna be buried long and forgotten. But
uh so, we had Sarah Marshall who played Ruth Miller.
Ruth Miller is the wife in this episode, and can
I just say.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
She is over the top.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
That's what I was ridiculous over acting, you know what.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
You remember that scene and airplane where they go and
they start shaking that lady and slapping her over and
over and over. Even the rabbi slapping her. That's what
I wanted to do to this lady. Not that I would,
but I mean, that's how annoying.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
She is in our movie. Hey, Reality Reality Check.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But h you know, Richard Matheson, this is based on
a story from which we'll talk about here in a minute. Correct,
But he named the character Ruth.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It's his wife's name.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
I don't know if there's any subtle hints in there
that this is how his wife is, but I'm just
saying if it's based on his true life story, possibily
could be there. Then you had Robert Samson. I kind
of wondering why he didn't name it Richard Miller. But
he played Chris Miller if it's going off, you know,
his real life, So he played the dad Chris Miller
in this. Again he was just kind of he's kind
(10:38):
of weird in this too, because oh, let's go look
under the foundation of the house stuff like that. Then yeah,
Charles Aidman, he played a Bill you might remember him
from and when the Sky Was Opened, another Twilight's Own
episode we had covered. He was probably the best one
of the episode. If if I had to give a
(10:58):
high point. He's probably the best one. The physicist or
whatever he was. Yeah, Tracy Strafford playing Tina Miller. Now
notice I said playing Ton and Miller because she did
not do any of the voice, which we'll talk about here.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
In a second. Yeah, it kind of had a oh
I got something, thank you. Yeah, Yeah, that was kind
of bad.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
So so she again, Richard Matheson named it after his
own daughter, and I might as well throw this in here.
So this was based off of the story where Richard
Matheson went in one day he heard his daughter crying
and they said, it's really weird because it was only
like an army cotch. She he was sleeping on. The
apartment was pretty small, but she had fallen off the
bed and rolled to the wall and when he reached
out of.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
The bed, he was reaching he couldn't fill her. Yeah,
so that's where he got this episode from. So that's
very interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, good inspiration.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
He named Tina after his daughter. So and then you
have Rhoda Williams, who did Tina's voice, and Eric this.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sounds is where I needed to put the Yeah, this.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Is where he needed to put this because she was
thirty two years old and it sounded like a thirty
two year old woman trying to portray a woman's voice,
and it was so cringe worthy.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It was kind of funny.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
But you right recognize her voice. She was in the
Disney's animation Classic Cinderella, where she played Drizsella, one of
the stepsisters. M So, of course, then you have Rod Sterling.
But yeah, there's your cast and don't want want want
for that?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
No, no, what do you mean you gave me two
want once already? The Williams why did not give the
girl high point? Know, that was a big time miss
step in my opinion too. Yeah, it loses points for that. Oh,
it lost a lot of points. Well not the whole episode.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Didn't lose points for the wife being annoying.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's a criticism we'll get We'll get there, man, We're
never gonna get done if we didn't even get out
off the block with the cast.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
You made me do the cast.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Let's let's go to the plot. When he hears his
young daughter Tina calling out to him in the night,
Chris Miller goes to her room but finds she isn't there.
At first, he thinks that she has fallen off the
bed or slid herself under it, but despite hearing her
call out, she's nowhere to be seen. He gets help
(13:04):
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.
And that was by Gary mcd on IMDb his plot summary.
Let's talk about an outline. There's three act outline for
(13:26):
this Twilight Zone. The first act is the disappearance, the
second act is the discovery, and the third act is
the rescue and aftermath. So let's start in the first
act for the disappearance. It's late at night. This is
kind of a repeat. Tina's young cries wake up her parents,
Chris and Ruth. Chris searches but finds her bed empty,
(13:46):
though he can still hear her voice. Nearby. The dog
Mac also acts strangely. The parents realize something impossible. Tina
seems to be missing from the physical world, even though
they can hear her cries.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Might have been the best part of this episode.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Mac go get her Mac. The mystery sets in and
the tension rises. They can't figure out what's happening, so
I know you're not going to give you much input
because you don't like this episode.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
But oh, I've got plenty of inputs. Okay, Well, you
may not want to.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Talk about these first opening scenes. You know, it's a
typical night. Parents are asleep, child wakes up with nightmares.
We've all experienced where parents.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Right, I was getting ready ask you that, did you
ever have a child that, like, like one of my
kids was afraid of the dark, like I like he
wanted to have like his closet light left on it.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
I don't know if it was monster's inky watched.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
But I mean, man, those days, I'm glad those are
over because there were some long rights right nights.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, I can't nothing sticks out in particular.
I'm sure there were. Well one it wasn't necessarily a nightmare.
But one time my daughter was in middle school. She'd
come home from a middle school trip to Chicago, and
she'd eaten a bunch of U Hogo's pizza if you
will up and she came home. We picked her up
from the school abound midnight. They got home from like
(15:07):
you know, a field trip, comes home, lays down for
an hour and then just barfs. It was the nastiest smelling.
To this day, it just I get shutters. I had
to clean it up.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
I got one better when we were growing up my sister.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Oh you're gonna tell on her after what she did? Oh?
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Yeah, she posts that picture, so it's it's fair game now.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
But I remember we had I had popcorn and I'm
laying to bed and all of a sudden I heard that,
you know, you know the sound, you know, And you
go out in the hallway from her bedroom all the
way down. So there's chunks of popcorn laying on the
floor all the way to the bathroom.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It's everywhere, so man.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And there's just something about the smell of vomit that
just that vile ditch not good. It's yeah, it was
pretty bad. So Becca had a case of the popcorn pukes.
I hate to hear that, all right. I don't have
a whole lot about the disappearance. Where can we pick
up here in our episode? We're kind of trucking quite
(16:13):
along here. We've kind of summarized the first act. I
think the Rod's revelation and monologue is kind of cool.
The camera pans down by his feet under the bed
and then it pans up towards him and he gives
his monologue, and he gives a description about Tina the
daughter here and just one thing just while I'm thinking
(16:35):
of it, off the top of my head, and we'll
get to it. And act number two in The Discovery,
Chris decides to call his friend Bill, who is a physicist.
Your first thought as a parent, it's call the police.
It isn't to keep hunting in the apartment or you know,
I guess, like, hey, let me call my friend Bill.
He's a physicist, and he I understand why he has
(16:59):
to come into play here because a lot this, a
lot of the dialogue is no Chris Ruth. No, like,
there's not a lot. So Bill comes in and he
has to paint the picture right of what's happening. So
his dialogue is kind of heavy. So good on Charles
Aidman as Bill, because he really has carrying picture of
what's actually happening from a scientific point of view, if
(17:22):
you will. So he he comes in for help, and
again just reiterated, that's interesting that that's Chris's first instinct.
And you know, Chris says, Bill's coming over, and she says, honey,
Ruth says, honey, Bill, Well, he's a physicist. Maybe he
can help us out. I don't know. I couldn't think
(17:43):
of anything else. So Chris punts very early. He's like,
I just had to call Bill because I don't know
what to do.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
I wonder Bill even has any kids, but.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Some random neighbor or something you.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Don't even have a less famous is Bill?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Bill? That was a little odd. So Bill examines Tina's
room you know, and act too, and he uncovers the
invisible portal that we've talked about in the wall, in
this rift into another dimension. And Bill says, if it's
what I think, it's kind of a gap, an opening
to another dimension, probably the fourth dimension. It just shouldn't be.
(18:20):
It's not laid out like our world, he says.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Can I just say, I don't know if we got
to it yet.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
But where He's like, put the books here, and put
the books here because this is where our feet should be.
And they move the bed and they're filling around trying
to see if she's there, like invisible, remember, right, and
he's like, oh, there, we got to cover every inch
of this, don't step on her. Yeah, ridiculous, Eric, can
(18:46):
you like this episode.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I thought it was an episode that lends two
greater things cinematically, and we'll get to that in a minute.
So right now, you know, Chris is on the phone
with Bill. The dog is barking his head off, it's
going nuts. Mac is outside the sliding glass door, so
in frustration, you know, and Chris lets the dog in
and then the dog immediately runs under the bed and
(19:10):
vanishes into the portal, and Bill explains the situation with
you know, with his scientific theories we already talked about that.
He's he's explaining that there's some kind of fourth dimension
and that the dog has also vanished into this dimension.
And Chris ultimately decides to risk everything here in the
(19:30):
second act, and he enters that dimension to try to
rescue Tina and Mac, with more overacting by.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
His wife the mom.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I can't be too critical.
I mean, how would you respond in a situation like that,
Like you're gonna be just beside yourself? What's Tina probably
like four or five years old? Maybe right in this episode,
she's probably like four or five. Can you imagine one
of your kids disappearing in your own house, you know,
(20:02):
being four or five. Here, here's the part where you
talked about they sort of lay the books out where
the bed would be. Yeah, and he's crouching down. He's
sort of the karate move. Yeah, but he's trying to
get a feel Bill, trying to get a feel of
where this portal might be. So we'll skip on. We'll
(20:24):
do Jimbo a favor. Now I thought this this, we'll
get to it and the wall action and how they
did the illusion of the false put his hand through
it was kind of cool. You got to give him them.
Let's move on to the rescue in the aftermath inside
the surreal distorted other dimension, which Jimbo hates. It's a
it's like a fish eye camera lens.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Right, So it's what they used when we landed on
the moon.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I mean, who knows what they used when we quote
unquote landed on Do you think we landed on the moon.
Skeptical let's not talk about that. I used to think
it was one hundred percent done deal, you know, like
we did we did. It's not so no, it's not
so one hundred percent. Wow, I have my questions and yeah,
(21:13):
so maybe we maybe they will save that for another podcast.
So getting back to our episode, Chris, really, I mean,
that's that kind. There's not a lot of action here.
A lot of the end of the episode is Chris
struggling to find Tina, which can somewhat be laborious, like
he's just calling out to her, come on, Mac, you know,
(21:35):
bring it to me, and all that that does sort
of gets a little long in the tooth.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I watched this twice last night because I want to
make sure that all my feelings were on point. But
as I was sitting there watching it and high definition,
you know, and it's trolling, I'm getting dizzy. I mean,
I have bad ear problems anyway. So no, but I'll
save it for the end because I can't. I can't
get going right now. We won't make it through.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, let's get through it. So Bill and Ruth
are on one side of the portal. Of course, Chris
is inside the fourth dimension, and he's trying desperately to
get Tina back to him so he can physically grab
her and get her out of the fourth dimension. And
he tries to use the dog. You know, the dog
(22:19):
is listening to the sound of Chris's voice, and again
there's a lot of topsy turvy and a lot of
camera work there where it can be dizzy. So Tina
and Mac safely get through. Bill reveals to Chris that
he was almost severed in two because the portal was
nearly shut, underscoring the dangerous unknowns they faced, and the
(22:43):
family reunited, but the lingering mystery of the Fourth Dimension
remains unsolved, and so we kind of close down the
episode with there's no real resolution. Could this happen again?
Could this happen? You know? It's this what is this?
We don't really know. There's been a lot of sci fi,
(23:03):
you know, movies dealing with like fourth Dimension. Interstellar comes
to Moolter. Well, that's not that's the This episode is
the inspiration for Poulter Guys, and I've got an admission
to make about Poultry guys. I was so scared of
Poulter Guys as a kid. I still haven't seen it
to this day because they're back that like that trailer
(23:24):
or that whatever it was that I saw as a kid,
Like it scared me to death. That American werewolf in
London and that movie scared me to death and I've
only seen bits and pieces of it. It's scared me
so much as a kid.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I'm gonna have to watch your daughter and tell her
to make you watch it tonight with her.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, I don't know. Hopefully I can make it through
any comments on the episode. Are you going to wait
and wrap it up?
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Let me anything, let me let me throw this out
right now, so so we have this out of the way. Okay,
the dad what was his name, Chris? They bill's yelling
at him to hey, have her grab the collar of
the dog, right and now in the whole disney and
information of the spinning of the episode on that you
(24:13):
see a scene where the dog is kind of like
got a hold of her stress and pulling it. Yeah,
that's after she supposedly supposed to have hold of the collar.
A little bit later she she she has the collar
when she's walking.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He's five years old, right.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
The other thing I have. So this portal opens, right,
and they do this chalk out line on the wall.
Then all of a sudden, it's going to how can
he tell it's closing If he did this chalk out
line on the wall by the time the guy went in,
it should have been it should have been closing at
(24:48):
a at a certain speed rate of speed. Right, that's
not that's not We don't know how the other world work. No,
But what I'm saying is the guy said, hey, we
seen you get there. Oh look, we had to get
you out of here because this was closing.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Oh, se, how do you know? How does he know speed?
It's closed?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's closing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I got that.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
That's that's it, you know, because then your chalcout line
gets smaller and smaller and smaller. It didn't show that
to me. He just he just did the one chalkout
line and it was, hey, this is the this is
the portal right here, the door to the portal. So
that was an issue I had because you don't know, Hey,
how did he know you only had a few seconds left?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Fair enough?
Speaker 5 (25:24):
He is a physicist, but I don't know that means anything.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He is a physicist, right, it's not Rocket Side happens
to be their neighbor, right, Key and handy. In this episode,
let's talk about some trivia, shall we you? Or were
you finished? I'll go ahead, because okay, you're you're you're
powering up to I'm lay the boom.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Like the energizer. Buddy, man, what's I going? I just
get so it keeps going and going.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The teleplay by Richard mathes is. We already talked about that.
We will labor that. Matheson wrote a short story based
on real life incident. We've already talked about that. We
won't be labor that anymore. There was something interesting about
the musician Bernard Herman. He is credited before the director
Paul Stewart in this episode. This marks the only episode
(26:08):
of the series in which the musician received top billing
over the director. I know that was kind of interesting.
Herman was in Paris, France at the time, and he
was approached to do the score. He first composed it
in February of nineteen sixty two, and then later the
entire score, including the closing theme. Apparently, I guess the
closing theme is a little bit different than so was
(26:30):
the intro. Okay, I didn't even take notice of that.
So he did both of those things, and they were
recorded in Paris on March sixth, so he was out
of the country. Now here's a bit of confusing trivia here,
I guess, maybe a little confusing. The dog featured in
this episode was actually named Rags okay, and it was
(26:54):
used by the trainer only on the first day of filming.
In the story, the dog's name was actually Mags m
Ags to ensure the dog would react when called with
a name similar to its own. But the dog's name
close caption comes up is Mac. So it's not Mag's
and it's not it's Mac. So who knows what the
(27:19):
dog's name is. I guess at least he got credited, right.
I mean, he was brave to go in the fourth dimension.
That's all we know. We don't know his name, but
he went in after Tina. The role of Tina was
played by Tracy Stratford. She was unbilled during the closing credits,
but Roda Williams was supplied the voice of Tina Young.
(27:41):
Tracy was only needed for the final day of filming,
but Williams stayed off camera to supply the voice. We've
already talked about that. That's one of the biggest marks
on this episode was they use an adult as a
voice over for a child that you know, it's not good.
And then it goes in to how they recorded her
(28:01):
voice and looped it over when they pieced the filming together,
and I think Jimbo you covered this too. She was
a voice actor on television shows like Father Knows Best
and a lot of creations from Disneyland. So like most
television programs, the scenes for this episode were not produced
(28:23):
in sequence. I talked about that a little bit at
the beginning, but they later appear as they later appeared
in the finished film. Later scenes involving Bill's attempt to
pull Tina out of the fourth dimension were shot before
the scenes in which Ruth and Chris discovered Tina isn't there.
Because of this, at the end of the first day
of filming, the chalk marks were removed from the wall
(28:45):
and the bed was replaced so that Serling's entrance scene
could be filmed.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Do you think that's hard as an actor to film
out of order like that?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yea. I always I didn't even know that they did
that until, like I always was under the dunk impression
that they filmed movies they shot it as it went along.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I mean, because if you're filming a scene like let's
say one of your parents died before you know, emotionally.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Acting, right, that's acting. So uh. The they were a
little like pencil marks basically, that were they put light
pencil marks were put on the wall to mark where
the portal was going to be once they reshot the
scenes again. The Little Girl Lost was parodied in homer
as segment The Treehouse of Horror, an episode of the
(29:34):
seventh season of The Simpson In the episode, the two
dimensional characters attempt to retrieve Homer from the third dimension,
not the fourth third dimension.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
I hope the portal was through the fridge, so.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Homer likens his entrance to the third dimension to something
out of that Twilight show about that zone, not the.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Show where the vampires sparkle. I thought Twilight.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
An area of the queue for the Twilight Zone Tower
of Terror in theme park attractions in California and Paris,
that's I think disney World or Disneyland uses subtle effects
to simulate air currents coming out of a solid wall,
as well as playing a subtle recording of the girl's
dialogue in intervals. Hopefully they use an actual child's voice
(30:21):
for that exhibit, because hopefully not adult woman's voice. I
don't know why I had such a problem with that,
but it was bad. In the exit of the Florida
version of the attraction, there is an area of the
wall outlined in chalk, exactly like the portal of the episode.
Some including Richard Matheson and including Jimbo as well, have
(30:44):
noted the similarities between the episode and the nineteen eighty
two film Poultergeist. Apparently that was an.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Need to watch it. I'm scared, We're all scared.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Son Charles Aidman. Bill would later serve as the narrator
of The Twilight Zone of the eighties series that remake
in the eighties series nineteen eighty five. There were two
seasons of that and finally Trivia. The shots of the heart,
the heart, the hand passing through the wall were done
(31:16):
in the camera. The wall was actually in two pieces
and there was a gap between, and then that gap
was flooded with light, so much light that it appeared
that the it looked like a solid wall when they
passed their hand through it. There's one goof as the
cameraman pans up to Ron Rod Sterling for the opening narration.
He can be seen glancing off to his left for
(31:36):
a second to receive his queue to start talking. So
it's a little goof in there, and that concludes that section.
I got a couple of observations and questions, go ahead.
I wanted me to throw those at down. All right.
So this episode is praised for its haunting visual effects,
and especially scenes showing the fourth dimension, which were achieved
(31:58):
by using distorted lenses and mirrors. This gave the alternative
reality and dreamlike unsettling quality that boosted the tension and
suspense without relying heavily on special effects or technology of
the time. So no credit there at all that they
these were like revolutionary techniques and we didn't have, you know,
computers and CGI. All right, he's given me. He's giving
(32:20):
me no emotional response. And Jimbo would say this in
his observation if he could, he would concur that emotional
performances by the parents, especially Ruth Sarah Marshall, were sometimes
criticized for being a bit melodramatic, though this fits the
story's portrayal of a parent in sheer panic at losing
(32:42):
a child. Jimbo and I have my question here. Do
you think the mother overreacted in this episode? I already
asked you this question.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Well, let me look outside. Is the grass screen today?
Is the sunshining bride? Is the blue sky?
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (32:55):
It was way overreacting. I mean I've misplaced my child before,
and then you didn't see what you have.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Oh, yeah, you're horrible.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Period.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Well, I wasn't gonna say I locked him in the
car like my wife did on one day. But but
I'm just saying, even in my worst sheer panic moment
of all time, I don't think I ever overreacted like that.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, you kind of have to for the for the
sake of the group, don't you, as the dad, kind
of have to be the one who remains calm Chris,
Chris was not that any to the under control so
that everybody else doesn't freak out right, I don't know.
I think that's kind of your role as a dad.
And finally, the noted connection between Steven Spielger Steven Spielberg's
(33:37):
I can't speak today Poulter guys in nineteen eighty two.
So we've kind of hit that already, and I've already
given you my confession. Never seen it. I was really scared.
Here's these are kind of weak questions. But how is
it possible for Chris, Tina and the dog to breathe
inside the fourth alien to mens? You got to suspend
a little reality. I think that question is kind of weak.
(34:01):
We don't know what exactly, what kind of dimension Tina
fell into. You know, Rod's final narration leaves us it
somewhat ambiguous whether it was the fourth to fifth or
some other dimension, emphasizing the mystery rather than going into
a hard sci fi explanation. And yeah, that's kind of
where I'll end as far as questions and observations, Jimbo.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I think the audience would like Eric to go first
this time with his thoughts and feelings and ratings before
Jimbo goes in.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I thought it was a good story. I think it
was a good story. It might not have been executed
to your approval rating. I think the actual rating though,
I'm going to stick with what imdbave, but I think
it's a solid eight. Is it to serve? Man? Is
it a nine? No? I thought the story was really
(34:53):
well written, and I like the fact that it came
out of you know, real life and real experiences. Sometimes
the best stories come out of those. Usually the best
stories come out of real life experiences. You know, it's
a simple cast, you know, I think the story itself
drives the episode. Are the special effects dated? Of course?
(35:17):
I mean it's the Twilight Zone there, you know, It's
just like the Dinosaur and flight thirty three. You know,
it's claymation like that. That's the era in which we're in.
So going back to our previous episode, if we're gonna
give them a pass for the time and place on
storyline for the last episode about Little Jenny, then I
(35:39):
think we've got to give them a pass, you know,
when it comes to special effects and some of the cinematography.
When it comes to this episode, you know, fourth dimension,
fifth dimension, you know, I think of a lot. You know,
sci Fi's covered and again I think I referenced Interstellar.
That's a really good movie about falling into another dimension.
It's far better executed than this one. But you know,
(36:01):
I like it. I think it's good. I give it
an eight. Jimbo, let's hear your opinion on the matter.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
All right, I'm gonna start off by saying this, the
script was really well written. The execution was not okay.
The plot is so simplistic it's underwhelming. The acting is overrated,
especially the mom that's I can't stress enough. Tina's voice
sounds like a thirty two year old woman trying to
(36:30):
portray a small woman's voice, which I wish they would
have gave the little child her own voice. It might
have came off more realistic. The camera rotating is dizzying.
I didn't realize when you were in another dimension that
you're just gonna be rolling around upside down. And you know,
they hear her on the ciling. Then they run into
the living room. You gotta find her, you know. To me,
(36:53):
it's over the top. The little girl's assistant.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Diddy, mommy, where are you?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Another thing is when the dad goes through the portal,
you see his whole body go through. Okay, so how
is the guy gonna have his feet? A little unbelievable
for me there.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Oh you mean only half of his body right in
and out? Okay, yeah, because he actually went all the
way in if you watch it right. And then you
got the fog in the fifth dimension. You know, you know,
the fog machine's going off or whatever. It's kind of
to me it kind of looked like lazy, lazy camera work.
As far as the set of the other dimension, it's
just a couple of lights, a door as a fog,
(37:32):
and a spinning camera.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Whoopedie doo. Okay, And then I'll leave you with this.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
So you're saying we could replicate that right right here.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Right here, right now, right so Eric, I'm gonna leave
you this. This is my sum of the overall episode.
The only thing worse than The Little Girl Lost is
the time I lost to watch this episode twice. For me,
it's a three out of a ten. Three might be
one of the worst episodes of the Twilight Zone I've
ever seen, and that includes the comedies.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
No yes to stop you there, Well, there's no way.
I'm just telling you. Give me give me a burgess
Meredith as the strongest man in the world. Give me,
oh no, give me the Silent Era guy. If I
was his name, that's off the tip of my tongue
right now. Give me that one with he has the head,
the helmet thing that he answers to time. Give me
that one over this any day of the week, oh man.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
But if you like what you heard, hopefully the next episode.
I have like the Culture Guys though, the movie Oh Yeah,
Pulture guyst is great. Even the remake was okay okay,
so make sure you watch the original before you watch
the remake, though. But if you like what you heard,
we are the tragedy send them a podcast on Facebook.
If you want to leave this review, we'll we'll read
it on the air. I'll make Eric read it or Kyle.
But with that being said, I think this episode's coming
(38:42):
to a close, and that's rep.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
And cut.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
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.
There's a podcast that lies between the imagination of two
simple minded Earthlings. Travel with these two longtime friends, Jimbo
and eighties E as they attempt to explore the fifth dimension.
Follow along with them as they take the key and
unlock the door to the vast space between shadow and substance.
(00:24):
This podcast is one of trivia, of insight, and of
sounds and ideas from one of the greatest television shows
ever produced. You are embarking on a timeless journey. There
is your signpost up ahead. You are entering the Tragedy
of Cinemas Twilight.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Zone missing one frightened little girl name Bettina Miller. Description
six years of age, average heightened build, like brown hair,
quite pretty. Last scene being tucked in bed by her
mother a few hours ago.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Last heard, Hi, 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.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
All right, guys, welcome back to the Tragy of Cinema podcast,
the Twilight Zone series.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I'm your host Jimbo, and I'm your co host eighties E.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Eighties.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
We have finally reached episode number ninety one over all
of the Twilight Zone Lost one. Oh my goodness, And
what episode did you actually come on? Was it episode two?
I know you weren't on the first episode at least. No,
I don't think I was on the first couple of episodes. Actually,
that's a good trivia for next time. We'll get that
(01:51):
next time, because I don't. I just remember redoing the
episode over and over and over because we were a
little Oh the Chance to Dream, I remember that one.
That's the one I came in with the first one. Yeah,
that was we recorded from my house remotely. Yeah, we
had a few struggles and trying to work those kinks out.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
I never want to watch that episode ever again.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. Well, for a lot of reasons, mainly because our
quality of our podcast was not great back then. Hopefully
we've gotten a little better and learned a little more
as we've gone along. But let's talk about the episode
at hand, and it's entitled Little Girl Lost. It's the
Twilight Zone season number three, episode number twenty six in
(02:34):
season three, and ninety one overall. If you're keeping count
at home, this one comes in with an IMDb rating
of eight point zero. Jimbo says, it's high. Hi, it's
right on target for me. But here we go. The
episode was first broadcast on March the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two.
(02:59):
It was directed by Paul Stewart and it was written
by Richard Matheson. Interesting note that the short story was
written by Richard Matheson. This was like a story out
of his own life, and I think we have that
in the trivia. But again, it was first rolled out
March sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, and you already know what
(03:19):
time it is. You know, we love this segment in
our episode. It's the segment we like to call on
this day in history. Okay, March sixteenth, nineteen sixty two,
let's go way back to March sixteenth, nineteen thirty four.
(03:40):
Let's go back several decades. The Academy Award statuette is
first called an Oscar in print by Sidney Sklowski. So
that's an interesting note. And movie, and of course we're
going to cover little movies, a little sports, a little maybe,
a little music, you know, three main categories. So the Oscar,
(04:02):
you know, the award it was dubbed back on March sixteenth,
nineteen thirty four in some kind of print publication. So
let's deep dive a little bit where the origins come from.
All right, So the origin for the nickname is kind
of in question. The name Oscar for the Academory Award
is a bit of a mystery, and here are a few
(04:23):
competing stories about how it came to be. The first
one is Margaret Herrick's comment. The most widely accepted story
is that Margaret Herrick, a librarian for the Academy later
called its executive director, said that the statue looked like
her uncle Oscar when she first saw it in the
nineteen thirties. Reporters picked up on that comment and the
(04:44):
name stuck. So that's one explanation. Number two is that
Betty Davis claim. The actor Betty Davis claimed that she
named the award after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson,
because the packs of the statue reminded her of him.
The backside, so I don't know backside of the Yeah, okay,
(05:07):
I won't they have.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
The golden backside?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, the golden back Number three Hollywood commune not communist.
Hollywood columnist Sid Schlowski also claimed he took credit, saying
that he used the name Oscar in his nineteen thirty
four column as a casual nickname to make the award
sound less pretentious. So there you go, you take your
(05:30):
pick dealer's choice, which story do you think is true?
I don't have much by way of trivia other than
that Oscar trivia. Let's talk about a couple famous birthdays though,
on this day, So for March the sixteenth, nineteen twenty
six American comedian of Martin and Lewis the MDA telethon
(05:52):
one very owned Jerry Lewis. He was born in Newark,
New Jersey, on March the sixteenth, nineteen twenty six, and
passed away in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Did you like the old Jerry Lewis movies there?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I wasn't a big fan of Jerry Lewis, to be
honest with you. And I'm not really familiar with the
Dean Martin Jerry Lewis Martin and Lewis, but I did
hear a clip of him not too long ago where
I guess he went to Dean Martin and like they
put a caper on it, like after an eleven year run,
(06:26):
like they guess they could have kept doing it, But
there might have been some tension maybe between Dean and Jerry,
because Jerry was a lot more famous than Dean, and
Dean was a talented singer obviously an actor in his
own right, but you know, Jerry had kind of edged
him out in popularity and fame, and in order to
sort of salvage the relationship, they decided that they were
(06:47):
gonna do their last show on this day, and they
sort of, you know, went a hard stop on it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, but he did do a lot of great work
for the MDS or whatever he did.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Do you remember the fireman at the at the stoplights
with the over labor day weekend and the you know,
you put the money in the fireman's boot? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Did you ever put money in the boot?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I did?
Speaker 5 (07:06):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well my dad, yeah, my dad did. I was a
kid like my dad put the money in.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Oh you didn't. You didn't bull down your window?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And I got on the backseat.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
That was pretty cool, wasn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, it was. It was. It takes you back. So
another famous birthday. We just have two. So on March
the sixteenth, nineteen fifty five, American rapper Flavor Flave of
Public Enemy was born nineteen fifty nine. He was also
a reality TV star You.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Got a Little Too Excited and the surreal life and
not like it's e mc hammer or anything.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah right, I know, it's only flavor Flave, Big Clock
Flavor Flave. He was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York.
So one flavor Flave March sixteenth, nineteen fifty nine. Back
to our episode at hand, let's talk about some dollars
and cents so that the total production costs of this
episode is right on the money at fifty thousand and
(08:00):
thirty five dollars and thirty four cents fifty grand on
the button. And by the way, let me just insert
in here, the cinematography for this episode was cutting edge
like for the time it was. It was outstanding.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. We're gonna have a
long episode, then.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah we are, because I mean, hopefully you don't have
Caesar's kids, because you're definitely gonna have one.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
All right, So let's talk about dates rehearsal. There are
two of them. January twenty ninth and thirtieth, nineteen sixty two.
Dates of filming are three January thirty first, February first,
and February second of nineteen sixty two. I don't have
any trivia as far as I know that this episode
was filmed out of order. It was done more like
(08:49):
a movie, because I do remember I think it is
in the trivia. I may be repeating myself, but they
had to the lines on the wall in the episode
where the portal was. They had to erase those and
put the bed back into place so that Rod could
do his introduction, and so they had to remember a
little trivia about that. Jimbo, let's hear about this very
(09:12):
shortcast in this episode that I know that you love so.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
So much, just so much, probably in my top ten
list at.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
The delight that you I know this, I know you well.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You just wait.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I'm gonna it's gonna be buried long and forgotten. But
uh so, we had Sarah Marshall who played Ruth Miller.
Ruth Miller is the wife in this episode, and can
I just say.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
She is over the top.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
That's what I was ridiculous over acting, you know what.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
You remember that scene and airplane where they go and
they start shaking that lady and slapping her over and
over and over. Even the rabbi slapping her. That's what
I wanted to do to this lady. Not that I would,
but I mean, that's how annoying.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
She is in our movie. Hey, Reality Reality Check.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But h you know, Richard Matheson, this is based on
a story from which we'll talk about here in a minute. Correct,
But he named the character Ruth.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It's his wife's name.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
I don't know if there's any subtle hints in there
that this is how his wife is, but I'm just
saying if it's based on his true life story, possibily
could be there. Then you had Robert Samson. I kind
of wondering why he didn't name it Richard Miller. But
he played Chris Miller if it's going off, you know,
his real life, So he played the dad Chris Miller
in this. Again he was just kind of he's kind
(10:38):
of weird in this too, because oh, let's go look
under the foundation of the house stuff like that. Then yeah,
Charles Aidman, he played a Bill you might remember him
from and when the Sky Was Opened, another Twilight's Own
episode we had covered. He was probably the best one
of the episode. If if I had to give a
(10:58):
high point. He's probably the best one. The physicist or
whatever he was. Yeah, Tracy Strafford playing Tina Miller. Now
notice I said playing Ton and Miller because she did
not do any of the voice, which we'll talk about here.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
In a second. Yeah, it kind of had a oh
I got something, thank you. Yeah, Yeah, that was kind
of bad.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
So so she again, Richard Matheson named it after his
own daughter, and I might as well throw this in here.
So this was based off of the story where Richard
Matheson went in one day he heard his daughter crying
and they said, it's really weird because it was only
like an army cotch. She he was sleeping on. The
apartment was pretty small, but she had fallen off the
bed and rolled to the wall and when he reached
out of.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
The bed, he was reaching he couldn't fill her. Yeah,
so that's where he got this episode from. So that's
very interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, good inspiration.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
He named Tina after his daughter. So and then you
have Rhoda Williams, who did Tina's voice, and Eric this.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sounds is where I needed to put the Yeah, this.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Is where he needed to put this because she was
thirty two years old and it sounded like a thirty
two year old woman trying to portray a woman's voice,
and it was so cringe worthy.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
It was kind of funny.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
But you right recognize her voice. She was in the
Disney's animation Classic Cinderella, where she played Drizsella, one of
the stepsisters. M So, of course, then you have Rod Sterling.
But yeah, there's your cast and don't want want want
for that?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
No, no, what do you mean you gave me two
want once already? The Williams why did not give the
girl high point? Know, that was a big time miss
step in my opinion too. Yeah, it loses points for that. Oh,
it lost a lot of points. Well not the whole episode.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Didn't lose points for the wife being annoying.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
That's a criticism we'll get We'll get there, man, We're
never gonna get done if we didn't even get out
off the block with the cast.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
You made me do the cast.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Let's let's go to the plot. When he hears his
young daughter Tina calling out to him in the night,
Chris Miller goes to her room but finds she isn't there.
At first, he thinks that she has fallen off the
bed or slid herself under it, but despite hearing her
call out, she's nowhere to be seen. He gets help
(13:04):
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.
And that was by Gary mcd on IMDb his plot summary.
Let's talk about an outline. There's three act outline for
(13:26):
this Twilight Zone. The first act is the disappearance, the
second act is the discovery, and the third act is
the rescue and aftermath. So let's start in the first
act for the disappearance. It's late at night. This is
kind of a repeat. Tina's young cries wake up her parents,
Chris and Ruth. Chris searches but finds her bed empty,
(13:46):
though he can still hear her voice. Nearby. The dog
Mac also acts strangely. The parents realize something impossible. Tina
seems to be missing from the physical world, even though
they can hear her cries.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Might have been the best part of this episode.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Mac go get her Mac. The mystery sets in and
the tension rises. They can't figure out what's happening, so
I know you're not going to give you much input
because you don't like this episode.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
But oh, I've got plenty of inputs. Okay, Well, you
may not want to.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Talk about these first opening scenes. You know, it's a
typical night. Parents are asleep, child wakes up with nightmares.
We've all experienced where parents.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Right, I was getting ready ask you that, did you
ever have a child that, like, like one of my
kids was afraid of the dark, like I like he
wanted to have like his closet light left on it.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
I don't know if it was monster's inky watched.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
But I mean, man, those days, I'm glad those are
over because there were some long rights right nights.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, I can't nothing sticks out in particular.
I'm sure there were. Well one it wasn't necessarily a nightmare.
But one time my daughter was in middle school. She'd
come home from a middle school trip to Chicago, and
she'd eaten a bunch of U Hogo's pizza if you
will up and she came home. We picked her up
from the school abound midnight. They got home from like
(15:07):
you know, a field trip, comes home, lays down for
an hour and then just barfs. It was the nastiest smelling.
To this day, it just I get shutters. I had
to clean it up.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
I got one better when we were growing up my sister.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Oh you're gonna tell on her after what she did? Oh?
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Yeah, she posts that picture, so it's it's fair game now.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
But I remember we had I had popcorn and I'm
laying to bed and all of a sudden I heard that,
you know, you know the sound, you know, And you
go out in the hallway from her bedroom all the
way down. So there's chunks of popcorn laying on the
floor all the way to the bathroom.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
It's everywhere, so man.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And there's just something about the smell of vomit that
just that vile ditch not good. It's yeah, it was
pretty bad. So Becca had a case of the popcorn pukes.
I hate to hear that, all right. I don't have
a whole lot about the disappearance. Where can we pick
up here in our episode? We're kind of trucking quite
(16:13):
along here. We've kind of summarized the first act. I
think the Rod's revelation and monologue is kind of cool.
The camera pans down by his feet under the bed
and then it pans up towards him and he gives
his monologue, and he gives a description about Tina the
daughter here and just one thing just while I'm thinking
(16:35):
of it, off the top of my head, and we'll
get to it. And act number two in The Discovery,
Chris decides to call his friend Bill, who is a physicist.
Your first thought as a parent, it's call the police.
It isn't to keep hunting in the apartment or you know,
I guess, like, hey, let me call my friend Bill.
He's a physicist, and he I understand why he has
(16:59):
to come into play here because a lot this, a
lot of the dialogue is no Chris Ruth. No, like,
there's not a lot. So Bill comes in and he
has to paint the picture right of what's happening. So
his dialogue is kind of heavy. So good on Charles
Aidman as Bill, because he really has carrying picture of
what's actually happening from a scientific point of view, if
(17:22):
you will. So he he comes in for help, and
again just reiterated, that's interesting that that's Chris's first instinct.
And you know, Chris says, Bill's coming over, and she says, honey,
Ruth says, honey, Bill, Well, he's a physicist. Maybe he
can help us out. I don't know. I couldn't think
(17:43):
of anything else. So Chris punts very early. He's like,
I just had to call Bill because I don't know
what to do.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
I wonder Bill even has any kids, but.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Some random neighbor or something you.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Don't even have a less famous is Bill?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Bill? That was a little odd. So Bill examines Tina's
room you know, and act too, and he uncovers the
invisible portal that we've talked about in the wall, in
this rift into another dimension. And Bill says, if it's
what I think, it's kind of a gap, an opening
to another dimension, probably the fourth dimension. It just shouldn't be.
(18:20):
It's not laid out like our world, he says.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Can I just say, I don't know if we got
to it yet.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
But where He's like, put the books here, and put
the books here because this is where our feet should be.
And they move the bed and they're filling around trying
to see if she's there, like invisible, remember, right, and
he's like, oh, there, we got to cover every inch
of this, don't step on her. Yeah, ridiculous, Eric, can
(18:46):
you like this episode.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I thought it was an episode that lends two
greater things cinematically, and we'll get to that in a minute.
So right now, you know, Chris is on the phone
with Bill. The dog is barking his head off, it's
going nuts. Mac is outside the sliding glass door, so
in frustration, you know, and Chris lets the dog in
and then the dog immediately runs under the bed and
(19:10):
vanishes into the portal, and Bill explains the situation with
you know, with his scientific theories we already talked about that.
He's he's explaining that there's some kind of fourth dimension
and that the dog has also vanished into this dimension.
And Chris ultimately decides to risk everything here in the
(19:30):
second act, and he enters that dimension to try to
rescue Tina and Mac, with more overacting by.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
His wife the mom.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I can't be too critical.
I mean, how would you respond in a situation like that,
Like you're gonna be just beside yourself? What's Tina probably
like four or five years old? Maybe right in this episode,
she's probably like four or five. Can you imagine one
of your kids disappearing in your own house, you know,
(20:02):
being four or five. Here, here's the part where you
talked about they sort of lay the books out where
the bed would be. Yeah, and he's crouching down. He's
sort of the karate move. Yeah, but he's trying to
get a feel Bill, trying to get a feel of
where this portal might be. So we'll skip on. We'll
(20:24):
do Jimbo a favor. Now I thought this this, we'll
get to it and the wall action and how they
did the illusion of the false put his hand through
it was kind of cool. You got to give him them.
Let's move on to the rescue in the aftermath inside
the surreal distorted other dimension, which Jimbo hates. It's a
it's like a fish eye camera lens.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Right, So it's what they used when we landed on
the moon.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I mean, who knows what they used when we quote
unquote landed on Do you think we landed on the moon.
Skeptical let's not talk about that. I used to think
it was one hundred percent done deal, you know, like
we did we did. It's not so no, it's not
so one hundred percent. Wow, I have my questions and yeah,
(21:13):
so maybe we maybe they will save that for another podcast.
So getting back to our episode, Chris, really, I mean,
that's that kind. There's not a lot of action here.
A lot of the end of the episode is Chris
struggling to find Tina, which can somewhat be laborious, like
he's just calling out to her, come on, Mac, you know,
(21:35):
bring it to me, and all that that does sort
of gets a little long in the tooth.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I watched this twice last night because I want to
make sure that all my feelings were on point. But
as I was sitting there watching it and high definition,
you know, and it's trolling, I'm getting dizzy. I mean,
I have bad ear problems anyway. So no, but I'll
save it for the end because I can't. I can't
get going right now. We won't make it through.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, let's get through it. So Bill and Ruth
are on one side of the portal. Of course, Chris
is inside the fourth dimension, and he's trying desperately to
get Tina back to him so he can physically grab
her and get her out of the fourth dimension. And
he tries to use the dog. You know, the dog
(22:19):
is listening to the sound of Chris's voice, and again
there's a lot of topsy turvy and a lot of
camera work there where it can be dizzy. So Tina
and Mac safely get through. Bill reveals to Chris that
he was almost severed in two because the portal was
nearly shut, underscoring the dangerous unknowns they faced, and the
(22:43):
family reunited, but the lingering mystery of the Fourth Dimension
remains unsolved, and so we kind of close down the
episode with there's no real resolution. Could this happen again?
Could this happen? You know? It's this what is this?
We don't really know. There's been a lot of sci fi,
(23:03):
you know, movies dealing with like fourth Dimension. Interstellar comes
to Moolter. Well, that's not that's the This episode is
the inspiration for Poulter Guys, and I've got an admission
to make about Poultry guys. I was so scared of
Poulter Guys as a kid. I still haven't seen it
to this day because they're back that like that trailer
(23:24):
or that whatever it was that I saw as a kid,
Like it scared me to death. That American werewolf in
London and that movie scared me to death and I've
only seen bits and pieces of it. It's scared me
so much as a kid.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I'm gonna have to watch your daughter and tell her
to make you watch it tonight with her.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, I don't know. Hopefully I can make it through
any comments on the episode. Are you going to wait
and wrap it up?
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Let me anything, let me let me throw this out
right now, so so we have this out of the way. Okay,
the dad what was his name, Chris? They bill's yelling
at him to hey, have her grab the collar of
the dog, right and now in the whole disney and
information of the spinning of the episode on that you
(24:13):
see a scene where the dog is kind of like
got a hold of her stress and pulling it. Yeah,
that's after she supposedly supposed to have hold of the collar.
A little bit later she she she has the collar
when she's walking.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He's five years old, right.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
The other thing I have. So this portal opens, right,
and they do this chalk out line on the wall.
Then all of a sudden, it's going to how can
he tell it's closing If he did this chalk out
line on the wall by the time the guy went in,
it should have been it should have been closing at
(24:48):
a at a certain speed rate of speed. Right, that's
not that's not We don't know how the other world work. No,
But what I'm saying is the guy said, hey, we
seen you get there. Oh look, we had to get
you out of here because this was closing.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Oh, se, how do you know? How does he know speed?
It's closed?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's closing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I got that.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
That's that's it, you know, because then your chalcout line
gets smaller and smaller and smaller. It didn't show that
to me. He just he just did the one chalkout
line and it was, hey, this is the this is
the portal right here, the door to the portal. So
that was an issue I had because you don't know, Hey,
how did he know you only had a few seconds left?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Fair enough?
Speaker 5 (25:24):
He is a physicist, but I don't know that means anything.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He is a physicist, right, it's not Rocket Side happens
to be their neighbor, right, Key and handy. In this episode,
let's talk about some trivia, shall we you? Or were
you finished? I'll go ahead, because okay, you're you're you're
powering up to I'm lay the boom.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Like the energizer. Buddy, man, what's I going? I just
get so it keeps going and going.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The teleplay by Richard mathes is. We already talked about that.
We will labor that. Matheson wrote a short story based
on real life incident. We've already talked about that. We
won't be labor that anymore. There was something interesting about
the musician Bernard Herman. He is credited before the director
Paul Stewart in this episode. This marks the only episode
(26:08):
of the series in which the musician received top billing
over the director. I know that was kind of interesting.
Herman was in Paris, France at the time, and he
was approached to do the score. He first composed it
in February of nineteen sixty two, and then later the
entire score, including the closing theme. Apparently, I guess the
closing theme is a little bit different than so was
(26:30):
the intro. Okay, I didn't even take notice of that.
So he did both of those things, and they were
recorded in Paris on March sixth, so he was out
of the country. Now here's a bit of confusing trivia here,
I guess, maybe a little confusing. The dog featured in
this episode was actually named Rags okay, and it was
(26:54):
used by the trainer only on the first day of filming.
In the story, the dog's name was actually Mags m
Ags to ensure the dog would react when called with
a name similar to its own. But the dog's name
close caption comes up is Mac. So it's not Mag's
and it's not it's Mac. So who knows what the
(27:19):
dog's name is. I guess at least he got credited, right.
I mean, he was brave to go in the fourth dimension.
That's all we know. We don't know his name, but
he went in after Tina. The role of Tina was
played by Tracy Stratford. She was unbilled during the closing credits,
but Roda Williams was supplied the voice of Tina Young.
(27:41):
Tracy was only needed for the final day of filming,
but Williams stayed off camera to supply the voice. We've
already talked about that. That's one of the biggest marks
on this episode was they use an adult as a
voice over for a child that you know, it's not good.
And then it goes in to how they recorded her
(28:01):
voice and looped it over when they pieced the filming together,
and I think Jimbo you covered this too. She was
a voice actor on television shows like Father Knows Best
and a lot of creations from Disneyland. So like most
television programs, the scenes for this episode were not produced
(28:23):
in sequence. I talked about that a little bit at
the beginning, but they later appear as they later appeared
in the finished film. Later scenes involving Bill's attempt to
pull Tina out of the fourth dimension were shot before
the scenes in which Ruth and Chris discovered Tina isn't there.
Because of this, at the end of the first day
of filming, the chalk marks were removed from the wall
(28:45):
and the bed was replaced so that Serling's entrance scene
could be filmed.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Do you think that's hard as an actor to film
out of order like that?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yea. I always I didn't even know that they did
that until, like I always was under the dunk impression
that they filmed movies they shot it as it went along.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
I mean, because if you're filming a scene like let's
say one of your parents died before you know, emotionally.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Acting, right, that's acting. So uh. The they were a
little like pencil marks basically, that were they put light
pencil marks were put on the wall to mark where
the portal was going to be once they reshot the
scenes again. The Little Girl Lost was parodied in homer
as segment The Treehouse of Horror, an episode of the
(29:34):
seventh season of The Simpson In the episode, the two
dimensional characters attempt to retrieve Homer from the third dimension,
not the fourth third dimension.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
I hope the portal was through the fridge, so.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Homer likens his entrance to the third dimension to something
out of that Twilight show about that zone, not the.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Show where the vampires sparkle. I thought Twilight.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
An area of the queue for the Twilight Zone Tower
of Terror in theme park attractions in California and Paris,
that's I think disney World or Disneyland uses subtle effects
to simulate air currents coming out of a solid wall,
as well as playing a subtle recording of the girl's
dialogue in intervals. Hopefully they use an actual child's voice
(30:21):
for that exhibit, because hopefully not adult woman's voice. I
don't know why I had such a problem with that,
but it was bad. In the exit of the Florida
version of the attraction, there is an area of the
wall outlined in chalk, exactly like the portal of the episode.
Some including Richard Matheson and including Jimbo as well, have
(30:44):
noted the similarities between the episode and the nineteen eighty
two film Poultergeist. Apparently that was an.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Need to watch it. I'm scared, We're all scared.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Son Charles Aidman. Bill would later serve as the narrator
of The Twilight Zone of the eighties series that remake
in the eighties series nineteen eighty five. There were two
seasons of that and finally Trivia. The shots of the heart,
the heart, the hand passing through the wall were done
(31:16):
in the camera. The wall was actually in two pieces
and there was a gap between, and then that gap
was flooded with light, so much light that it appeared
that the it looked like a solid wall when they
passed their hand through it. There's one goof as the
cameraman pans up to Ron Rod Sterling for the opening narration.
He can be seen glancing off to his left for
(31:36):
a second to receive his queue to start talking. So
it's a little goof in there, and that concludes that section.
I got a couple of observations and questions, go ahead.
I wanted me to throw those at down. All right.
So this episode is praised for its haunting visual effects,
and especially scenes showing the fourth dimension, which were achieved
(31:58):
by using distorted lenses and mirrors. This gave the alternative
reality and dreamlike unsettling quality that boosted the tension and
suspense without relying heavily on special effects or technology of
the time. So no credit there at all that they
these were like revolutionary techniques and we didn't have, you know,
computers and CGI. All right, he's given me. He's giving
(32:20):
me no emotional response. And Jimbo would say this in
his observation if he could, he would concur that emotional
performances by the parents, especially Ruth Sarah Marshall, were sometimes
criticized for being a bit melodramatic, though this fits the
story's portrayal of a parent in sheer panic at losing
(32:42):
a child. Jimbo and I have my question here. Do
you think the mother overreacted in this episode? I already
asked you this question.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Well, let me look outside. Is the grass screen today?
Is the sunshining bride? Is the blue sky?
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (32:55):
It was way overreacting. I mean I've misplaced my child before,
and then you didn't see what you have.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Oh, yeah, you're horrible.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Period.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Well, I wasn't gonna say I locked him in the
car like my wife did on one day. But but
I'm just saying, even in my worst sheer panic moment
of all time, I don't think I ever overreacted like that.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, you kind of have to for the for the
sake of the group, don't you, as the dad, kind
of have to be the one who remains calm Chris,
Chris was not that any to the under control so
that everybody else doesn't freak out right, I don't know.
I think that's kind of your role as a dad.
And finally, the noted connection between Steven Spielger Steven Spielberg's
(33:37):
I can't speak today Poulter guys in nineteen eighty two.
So we've kind of hit that already, and I've already
given you my confession. Never seen it. I was really scared.
Here's these are kind of weak questions. But how is
it possible for Chris, Tina and the dog to breathe
inside the fourth alien to mens? You got to suspend
a little reality. I think that question is kind of weak.
(34:01):
We don't know what exactly, what kind of dimension Tina
fell into. You know, Rod's final narration leaves us it
somewhat ambiguous whether it was the fourth to fifth or
some other dimension, emphasizing the mystery rather than going into
a hard sci fi explanation. And yeah, that's kind of
where I'll end as far as questions and observations, Jimbo.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I think the audience would like Eric to go first
this time with his thoughts and feelings and ratings before
Jimbo goes in.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I thought it was a good story. I think it
was a good story. It might not have been executed
to your approval rating. I think the actual rating though,
I'm going to stick with what imdbave, but I think
it's a solid eight. Is it to serve? Man? Is
it a nine? No? I thought the story was really
(34:53):
well written, and I like the fact that it came
out of you know, real life and real experiences. Sometimes
the best stories come out of those. Usually the best
stories come out of real life experiences. You know, it's
a simple cast, you know, I think the story itself
drives the episode. Are the special effects dated? Of course?
(35:17):
I mean it's the Twilight Zone there, you know, It's
just like the Dinosaur and flight thirty three. You know,
it's claymation like that. That's the era in which we're in.
So going back to our previous episode, if we're gonna
give them a pass for the time and place on
storyline for the last episode about Little Jenny, then I
(35:39):
think we've got to give them a pass, you know,
when it comes to special effects and some of the cinematography.
When it comes to this episode, you know, fourth dimension,
fifth dimension, you know, I think of a lot. You know,
sci Fi's covered and again I think I referenced Interstellar.
That's a really good movie about falling into another dimension.
It's far better executed than this one. But you know,
(36:01):
I like it. I think it's good. I give it
an eight. Jimbo, let's hear your opinion on the matter.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
All right, I'm gonna start off by saying this, the
script was really well written. The execution was not okay.
The plot is so simplistic it's underwhelming. The acting is overrated,
especially the mom that's I can't stress enough. Tina's voice
sounds like a thirty two year old woman trying to
(36:30):
portray a small woman's voice, which I wish they would
have gave the little child her own voice. It might
have came off more realistic. The camera rotating is dizzying.
I didn't realize when you were in another dimension that
you're just gonna be rolling around upside down. And you know,
they hear her on the ciling. Then they run into
the living room. You gotta find her, you know. To me,
(36:53):
it's over the top. The little girl's assistant.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Diddy, mommy, where are you?
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Another thing is when the dad goes through the portal,
you see his whole body go through. Okay, so how
is the guy gonna have his feet? A little unbelievable
for me there.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Oh you mean only half of his body right in
and out? Okay, yeah, because he actually went all the
way in if you watch it right. And then you
got the fog in the fifth dimension. You know, you know,
the fog machine's going off or whatever. It's kind of
to me it kind of looked like lazy, lazy camera work.
As far as the set of the other dimension, it's
just a couple of lights, a door as a fog,
(37:32):
and a spinning camera.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Whoopedie doo. Okay, And then I'll leave you with this.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
So you're saying we could replicate that right right here.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Right here, right now, right so Eric, I'm gonna leave
you this. This is my sum of the overall episode.
The only thing worse than The Little Girl Lost is
the time I lost to watch this episode twice. For me,
it's a three out of a ten. Three might be
one of the worst episodes of the Twilight Zone I've
ever seen, and that includes the comedies.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
No yes to stop you there, Well, there's no way.
I'm just telling you. Give me give me a burgess
Meredith as the strongest man in the world. Give me,
oh no, give me the Silent Era guy. If I
was his name, that's off the tip of my tongue
right now. Give me that one with he has the head,
the helmet thing that he answers to time. Give me
that one over this any day of the week, oh man.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
But if you like what you heard, hopefully the next episode.
I have like the Culture Guys though, the movie Oh Yeah,
Pulture guyst is great. Even the remake was okay okay,
so make sure you watch the original before you watch
the remake, though. But if you like what you heard,
we are the tragedy send them a podcast on Facebook.
If you want to leave this review, we'll we'll read
it on the air. I'll make Eric read it or Kyle.
But with that being said, I think this episode's coming
(38:42):
to a close, and that's rep.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
And cut.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
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.
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