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The Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone

Every episode of The Twilight Zone ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone!

A series of unrelated stories containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyMysteryDrama
Network:CBS

Best Episodes Summary

"Eye of the Beholder" is the best rated episode of "The Twilight Zone". It scored 9.1/10 based on 6596 votes. Directed by Douglas Heyes and written by Rod Serling, it aired on 11/11/1960. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "To Serve Man".

  • Eye of the Beholder
    9.1/106,596 votes
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    #1 - Eye of the Beholder

    Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/1960

    A young woman lying in a hospital bed awaits the outcome of an experimental treatment in an attempt to make her look normal.

    Director: Douglas Heyes

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • To Serve Man
    9.0/105,493 votes
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    #2 - To Serve Man

    Season 3 Episode 24 - Aired 3/2/1962

    The Kanamits, 9 foot tall aliens, arrive on Earth with one lofty goal: To Serve Man.

    Director: Richard L. Bare

    Writer: Rod Serling, Damon Knight

  • Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
    9.0/105,773 votes
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    #3 - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

    Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/1963

    No one can see the gremlin tearing apart an airplane's wing, except a newly released mental patient.

    Director: Richard Donner

    Writer: Richard Matheson

  • Time Enough at Last
    8.9/108,249 votes
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    #4 - Time Enough at Last

    Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/20/1959

    A bank teller, obsessed with reading, faces conflicts at work and home because of his passion for literature.

    Director: John Brahm

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
    8.9/106,527 votes
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    #5 - The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

    Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 3/4/1960

    Paranoia strikes the residents of Maple Street when they believe human-looking aliens have invaded the neighborhood.

    Director: Ron Winston

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
    8.7/104,586 votes
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    #6 - Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

    Season 2 Episode 28 - Aired 5/26/1961

    State Troopers follow the tracks from a frozen pond, into a diner. Inside they find a soda jerk, a bus driver and his seven passengers. The bus driver is certain only six people boarded his bus…

    Director: Montgomery Pittman

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • Living Doll
    8.7/103,913 votes
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    #7 - Living Doll

    Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1963

    Erich is displeased when his wife buys an expensive doll for his step-daughter. He becomes even more displeased when the doll tells him it doesn't like him!

    Director: Richard C. Sarafian

    Writer: Charles Beaumont, Jerry Sohl

  • The Obsolete Man
    8.6/104,332 votes
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    #8 - The Obsolete Man

    Season 2 Episode 29 - Aired 6/2/1961

    In a future state where religion and books have been banned, a librarian is judged obsolete and sentenced to death.

    Director: Elliot Silverstein

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Shelter
    8.6/103,766 votes
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    #9 - The Shelter

    Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1961

    When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.

    Director: Lamont Johnson

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • It's a Good Life
    8.6/104,799 votes
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    #10 - It's a Good Life

    Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/3/1961

    Little Anthony Fremont controls an entire town with his ability to read minds and make people do as he wishes. Which is a real good thing.

    Director: James Sheldon

    Writer: Rod Serling, Jerome Bixby

  • The Masks
    8.6/103,454 votes
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    #11 - The Masks

    Season 5 Episode 25 - Aired 3/20/1964

    A wealthy dying man invites his family to a Mardi Gras party and insists that they wear masks specially made for them, threatening to cut off their inheritance if they refuse.

    Director: Ida Lupino

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • A Stop at Willoughby
    8.5/104,987 votes
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    #12 - A Stop at Willoughby

    Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 5/6/1960

    Riding home on the train one day, a stressed businessman falls asleep and dreams it is 1888, and he is entering a small, idyllic town called Willoughby.

    Director: Robert Parrish

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • Five Characters in Search of an Exit
    8.5/104,072 votes
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    #13 - Five Characters in Search of an Exit

    Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 12/22/1961

    A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.

    Director: Lamont Johnson

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The After Hours
    8.4/104,806 votes
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    #14 - The After Hours

    Season 1 Episode 34 - Aired 6/10/1960

    Puzzled and unsettled by the odd behavior of the salespeople, a woman discovers that the floor of a department store, on which she bought a gold thimble, doesn't exist.

    Director: Douglas Heyes

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Silence
    8.4/103,550 votes
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    #15 - The Silence

    Season 2 Episode 25 - Aired 4/28/1961

    A talkative man takes an offer to keep silent for a year for $500,000.

    Director: Boris Sagal

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Midnight Sun
    8.4/104,049 votes
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    #16 - The Midnight Sun

    Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 11/17/1961

    The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising eminent destruction.

    Director: Anton Leader

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • And When the Sky Was Opened
    8.3/105,337 votes
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    #17 - And When the Sky Was Opened

    Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1959

    Recovering in the hospital after a space mission, Major William Gart is visited by his co-pilot Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes, who insists on the existence of a third astronaut.

    Director: Douglas Heyes

    Writer: Richard Matheson, Rod Serling

  • Nick of Time
    8.3/104,344 votes
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    #18 - Nick of Time

    Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/18/1960

    A superstitious newlywed becomes obsessed by a penny fortune-telling machine when he and his new wife are stranded with car trouble.

    Director: Richard L. Bare

    Writer: Richard Matheson

  • Nothing in the Dark
    8.3/103,594 votes
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    #19 - Nothing in the Dark

    Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 1/5/1962

    A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting "Mr. Death."

    Director: Lamont Johnson

    Writer: George Clayton Johnson

  • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
    8.3/102,849 votes
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    #20 - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

    Season 5 Episode 22 - Aired 2/28/1964

    As a Confederate spy is about to be hanged, the rope breaks and he falls to the water below. Finally free, he races for his home where his family awaits... as does the terrible truth of his future...

    Director: Robert Enrico

    Writer: N/A

  • Walking Distance
    8.2/106,450 votes
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    #21 - Walking Distance

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1959

    A stressed advertising executive, driving through the country, leaves his car and starts to walk toward his hometown, Homewood. He finds things exactly as they were when he was a child.

    Director: Robert Stevens

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Hitch-Hiker
    8.2/105,547 votes
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    #22 - The Hitch-Hiker

    Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/22/1960

    Alone on a cross-country trip, a woman continually encounters the same mysterious hitch-hiker who inexplicably reappears at various points in her journey.

    Director: Alvin Ganzer

    Writer: Rod Serling, Lucille Fletcher

  • The Howling Man
    8.2/104,336 votes
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    #23 - The Howling Man

    Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 11/4/1960

    A man on a walking trip of post-World War I Europe gets caught in a storm. He comes across a remote monastery with a mysterious prisoner.

    Director: Douglas Heyes

    Writer: Charles Beaumont

  • The Changing of the Guard
    8.2/102,932 votes
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    #24 - The Changing of the Guard

    Season 3 Episode 37 - Aired 6/1/1962

    An elderly private school teacher wonders if his life has meant anything as he contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve and is reminded by former students that he has, indeed, made an effect on the lives of his students over the years.

    Director: Robert Ellis Miller

    Writer: Rod Serling

  • The Lonely
    8.1/105,728 votes
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    #25 - The Lonely

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1959

    In 2046, imprisoned for murder on a distant asteroid, Corry receives an unexpected present that brings a semblance of companionship during his isolation.

    Director: Jack Smight

    Writer: Rod Serling