- 7.9/107,667 votes
#1 - Where Is Everybody?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1959
Mike Ferris finds himself in a town strangely devoid of people. But despite the emptiness, he has the odd feeling that he's being watched...
Director: Robert Stevens
Writer: Rod Serling
- 7.6/106,485 votes
#2 - One for the Angels
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1959
A street salesman cleverly eludes Death. But if he lives, a little girl must die in his place.
Director: Robert Parrish
Writer: Rod Serling
- 7.1/105,500 votes
#3 - Mr. Denton on Doomsday
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/1959
A has-been, drunk gunslinger finds his fast-draw abilities magically restored.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: Rod Serling
- 6.8/105,340 votes
#4 - The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/23/1959
An aging, former movie star lives and dreams in the past, constantly watching her old movies alone in her room.
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writer: Rod Serling
- 8.2/106,461 votes
#5 - 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
- 7.3/104,949 votes
#6 - Escape Clause
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/6/1959
A hypochondriac exchanges his soul for immortality and indestructibility.
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writer: Rod Serling
- 8.1/105,737 votes
#7 - 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
- 8.9/108,256 votes
#8 - 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
- 7.4/104,810 votes
#9 - Perchance to Dream
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/27/1959
A man with a heart condition explains to his psychiatrist that he feels extremely tired, because he is terrified of falling asleep for fear he might die.
Director: Robert Florey
Writer: Charles Beaumont
- 7.3/104,405 votes
#10 - Judgment Night
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1959
In 1942, a German wonders why he's on the deck of a British steamship, with no memory of how he got there.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: Rod Serling
- 8.3/105,349 votes
#11 - 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
- 8.0/104,643 votes
#12 - What You Need
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/25/1959
A two-bit thug thinks he's found the key to a better life in an old sidewalk salesman who has the uncanny ability to tell people what they need the most.
Director: Alvin Ganzer
Writer: Rod Serling, Lewis Padgett
- 7.1/104,104 votes
#13 - The Four of Us Are Dying
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/1/1960
In this noirish tale, a man with the ability to change his face to resemble others gets into hot water with gangsters.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: Rod Serling, George Clayton Johnson
- 8.1/104,779 votes
#14 - Third from the Sun
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/8/1960
With all-out nuclear war about to ignite, a scientist and his pilot friend plot to escape on an experimental spaceship.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Richard Matheson, Rod Serling
- 7.6/104,279 votes
#15 - I Shot an Arrow into the Air
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/15/1960
Three astronauts crash-land on an unknown planet and must confront survival challenges, unraveling their unity in the face of desperation.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Writer: Rod Serling, Madelon Champion
- 8.2/105,554 votes
#16 - 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
- 6.6/104,053 votes
#17 - The Fever
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/1960
Tight fisted Franklin Gibbs is not pleased when his wife wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. But things change when he falls under the spell of a slot machine that calls his name.
Director: Robert Florey
Writer: Rod Serling
- 8.0/104,344 votes
#18 - The Last Flight
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 2/5/1960
A World War I flying ace flies through a mysterious cloud - and lands at a modern U.S. air base in the year 1959!
Director: William Claxton
Writer: Richard Matheson
- 7.3/103,691 votes
#19 - The Purple Testament
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/12/1960
Lieutenant Fitzgerald, serving in World War II, possesses the disquieting ability to foresee impending death by observing a strange glow on the faces of his men before battle.
Director: Richard L. Bare
Writer: Rod Serling
- 7.5/103,880 votes
#20 - Elegy
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/19/1960
Three astronauts land on what looks like Earth 200 years before they left--only all of the people seem frozen in time.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Charles Beaumont
- 7.9/104,587 votes
#21 - Mirror Image
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/26/1960
In a bus depot, Millicent Barnes experiences odd events, leading to concerns about her sanity.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: Rod Serling
- 8.9/106,537 votes
#22 - 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
- 7.6/103,861 votes
#23 - A World of Difference
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 3/11/1960
Arthur Curtis, a successful businessman sitting in his office discovers that he is on a film set and everyone refers to him as Gerry Reagan, a movie star struggling with alcoholism and a declining career.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: Richard Matheson
- 8.0/104,088 votes
#24 - Long Live Walter Jameson
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/18/1960
Walter Jameson, a popular history professor, is suspected by his fiancée's father, another professor at the college, to be an immortal.
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: Charles Beaumont
- 8.1/104,214 votes
#25 - People Are Alike All Over
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/25/1960
After a space exploration crash-lands on Mars, the lone surviving astronaut is surprised to find that Martians are human-looking and friendly.
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writer: Rod Serling, Paul W. Fairman
The Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone Season 1
Every episode of The Twilight Zone Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Twilight Zone Season 1!
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
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Where Is Everybody?" is the best rated episode of "The Twilight Zone" season 1. It scored 7.9/10 based on 7667 votes. Directed by Robert Stevens and written by Rod Serling, it aired on 10/2/1959. This episode is rated 0.3 points higher than the second-best, "One for the Angels".