Stopover in a Quiet Town

"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.

Opening narration
Bob and Millie Frazier, average young New Yorkers who attended a party in the country last night and on the way home took a detour. Most of us on waking in the morning know exactly where we are; the rooster or the alarm clock brings us out of sleep into the familiar sights, sounds, aromas of home and the comfort of a routine day ahead. Not so with our young friends. This will be a day like none they've ever spent - and they'll spend it in the Twilight Zone.

Plot
A married couple, Bob and Millie Frazier, wake up in an unfamiliar bedroom in an unfamiliar house. Millie remembers only that Bob drank too much at a party the night before, and that after drinking a couple and while driving him home to Manhattan, a large shadow appeared over their car near Riverdale.

Figuring some strangers took them in, they discover that the house is mostly props. The telephone has no connection, the cabinetry is merely glued-on facing, and the refrigerator is filled with plastic food and empty cartons. They hear a girl's laughter and go outside to find the child. However, once outside, they discover that the houses are props and the town is unfamiliar and deserted; not even birds are heard. They find a stuffed squirrel, knock on the door of another house, and since it is Sunday, search for help in a church, which is also vacant. Bob rings the bell in the church's bell tower to attract attention. When no one comes, the increasingly desperate couple discovers no one is there, all the while hearing the young girl's laughter intermittently. They find even the trees are fake. A sudden fire on the ground reveals that the grass is papier-mâché. They see a parked car near some stores, and find only a mannequin in the driver's seat. Although the keys are in the ignition, the car will not start since it has no engine.

Millie begins to panic, proposing that they actually had crashed and died, and that they are in Hell. Bob gives her a cigarette to calm her nerves, They hear a train whistle thinking there is a railroad here and, eager to leave the strange town, rush to the train station where they find the ticket booth closed and board the empty train. As the train pulls away from the station (revealed to be in "Centerville"), they begin a lighthearted conversation, vastly relieved, admitting that Millie had been drinking as well. However, when the train comes to a stop again, they realize it has only gone in a circle, and they are back where they started.

They leave the train and begin walking out of town, once again hearing a little girl's laughter. As they prepare for the long road ahead of them to hopefully leave Centervile, a large shadow falls over them and they flee, remembering it was a giant hand that fell over their car during the night before on their way home. they run around the streets and stumble only to be scooped up by the hand of a gigantic child. The town is now revealed to be a model village with a miniature railway running around it. An even taller figure emerges and says, "Be careful with your pets, dear--daddy brought them all the way from Earth." Which reduces that the couple have been abducted by the hand of the little girl’s father and to a planet inhabited by beings many times the size of humans. At her mother's bidding, the little girl drops the couple back into the town. Bob and Millie hopelessly continue their running, apparently looking for a place to hide.

The episode ends with the implication that they are stuck in the town forever and are unable to do anything about their predicament and will be forced to live the rest of their lives as playthings to the giant little girl.

Closing narration
The moral of what you've just seen is clear. If you drink, don't drive. And if your wife has had a couple, she shouldn't drive either. You might both just wake up with a whale of a headache in a deserted village in the Twilight Zone.