The Little People
| "The Little People" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Scene from "The Little People" when Craig proudly plants one of his massive feet over the tiny city, crushing it. |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 93 |
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| Directed by | William Claxton | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling | ||
| Featured music | Stock | ||
| Production code | 4822 | ||
| Original air date | March 30, 1962 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Joe Maross: Peter Craig |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"The Little People" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Astronauts William Fletcher and Peter Craig – each of whom happens to be the chief thorn in the other's side – set down in a canyon on another planet to repair their ship. While scouting around, Craig finds a city populated by people no bigger than ants.
He begins terrorizing the population by crushing three of their buildings (Fletcher interferes with his destruction), proclaiming himself a god; although Fletcher said that the people are no different than we are, but Craig believes that they've "been created in his image" - even going so far as forcing them to build a life-size statue of him. Fletcher comes to inform him the repairs are done and they can depart, but Craig pulls a gun on him and orders Fletcher to leave him alone; there's no room for two gods.
Fletcher leaves disgustedly, and immediately another ship lands. Two spacemen, big as mountains, emerge (they're repairing their ship). One of them picks Craig up and accidentally crushes him. The Little People rejoice at the death of their bullying "god", pulling the statue of Craig down, on top of his lifeless body.
[edit] Production notes
The weapons as well as the two towering spacemen uniforms are from the MGM film Forbidden Planet.[citation needed] Since the little people are so small, they have high-pitched chattering voices because they are smaller than ants compared to the astronauts.
[edit] Legacy
This episode has been parodied several times in pop culture: The Simpsons in the "Treehouse of Horror VII" segment, 'The Genesis Tub', South Park in the episode "The Simpsons Already Did It", and Futurama in the episode "Godfellas".
[edit] References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
