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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 7606 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".

  • Where Is Everybody?
    7.9/107,606 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

  • One for the Angels
    7.6/106,445 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

  • Mr. Denton on Doomsday
    7.1/105,472 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

  • The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine
    6.8/105,314 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

  • Walking Distance
    8.2/106,424 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

  • Escape Clause
    7.3/104,924 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

  • The Lonely
    8.1/105,705 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

  • Time Enough at Last
    8.9/108,207 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

  • Perchance to Dream
    7.4/104,779 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

  • Judgment Night
    7.3/104,377 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

  • And When the Sky Was Opened
    8.3/105,314 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

  • What You Need
    8.0/104,616 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

  • The Four of Us Are Dying
    7.1/104,075 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

  • Third from the Sun
    8.1/104,749 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

  • I Shot an Arrow into the Air
    7.6/104,252 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

  • The Hitch-Hiker
    8.2/105,528 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

  • The Fever
    6.6/104,031 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

  • The Last Flight
    8.0/104,318 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

  • The Purple Testament
    7.3/103,671 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

  • Elegy
    7.5/103,859 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

  • Mirror Image
    7.9/104,565 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

  • The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
    8.9/106,498 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

  • A World of Difference
    7.6/103,841 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

  • Long Live Walter Jameson
    8.0/104,066 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

  • People Are Alike All Over
    8.1/104,189 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