Five Characters in Search of an Exit

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The Twilight Zone original series Season three (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) Fall 1961 – Summer 1962 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: Two The Arrival The Shelter The Passersby A Game of Pool The Mirror The Grave It's a Good Life Deaths-Head Revisited The Midnight Sun Still Valley The Jungle Once Upon a Time Five Characters in Search of an Exit A Quality of Mercy Nothing in the Dark One More Pallbearer Dead Man's Shoes The Hunt Showdown With Rance McGrew Kick the Can A Piano in the House The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank To Serve Man The Fugitive Little Girl Lost Person or Persons Unknown The Little People Four O'Clock Hocus-Pocus and Frisby The Trade-Ins The Gift The Dummy Young Man's Fancy I Sing the Body Electric Cavender Is Coming The Changing of the Guard

“Five Characters in Search of an Exit” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 79
Season: 3
Production code: 4805
Original air date: December 22, 1961
Writer: Rod Serling from the story “The Depository” by Marvin Petal
Director: Lamont Johnson
Music: Stock

[edit] Cast

Major: William Windom
Clown: Murray Matheson
Ballerina:Susan Harrison
Tramp: Kelton Garwood
Bagpiper:Clark Allen

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

An Army major in dress uniform, a clown, a hobo, a ballet dancer and a bagpiper find themselves in a giant cylinder with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They hear a loud sound, that knocks them down when they try to escape. Although the major is able to escape the cylinder, he is put back inside by a little girl. It is revealed that he is nothing more than a doll in a charity drive's sidewalk barrel.

[edit] Trivia

The little girl who appears at the end of this episode was portrayed by the daughter of longtime Twilight Zone producer Buck Houghton.

The title is an allusion to Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello.

This episode was remade as Child's Play, a 1986 episode of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense directed by Val Guest. The story was updated with a science fiction theme, featuring robot dolls trapped inside a futuristic doll house.

Vincenzo Natali named this episode as an inspiration for his film Cube. Additionally, it has been stated that Toy Story was inspired by it.^{[citation needed]}