The Worst Episodes of The Twilight Zone

Angry with his adult life, a man, Gus Rosenthal, returns to his childhood stomping ground in Ohio and while digging up an old toy soldier finds himself transported back to when he was a boy. Taking on the guise of a writer he meets himself as a child - angry, frustrated and misunderstood. Taking the name of 'Harry Rosenthal', Gus tries to guide his younger self but sickens from his place out-of-time. When he has to leave he tells his younger self to stay behind...which was what frustrated himself as a child and led to him being so angry throughout his life. Returning to his own time, the old Gus returns to his life, sadder but wiser.

Director: Don Carlos Dunaway

Writer: Alan Brennert

An overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated secretary uses a Xerox machine and wakes up in a parallel reality where no one has heard of her. In this reality, however, secretaries are a revered, rare commodity.

Director: N/A

Writer: Alan Brennert, Martin Pasko

Onboard a spaceship an astrophysicist and a priest learn they have discovered a planet long dead and a transmitter emitting a signal for eons. They discover that the planet holds the last remains of a civilization, which died when their star went supernova.

Director: Gerd Oswald

Writer: Alan Brennert

An old Irishman has often been called a fool for his stories about Leprechauns. He catches the leader of "The Little People" and gets greedy.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

A young man has had his heart broken recently. At a Chinese restaurant, he reads a fortune about finding new love and it comes true. His life seems perfect until he becomes greedy with his good luck. He only wants to read the fortune cookies. The old Chinese owner advises him of the bad luck of not finishing his meal before reading his fortune.

Director: Allan Arkush

Writer: Rockne S. O'Bannon

An alien ship arrives at the UN and the alien representative declares his disappointment at Earth's progress. The UN ambassadors plead for 24 hours to resolve their differences. In 24 hours the ambassadors manage to arrange world peace and nuclear disarmament. When the alien returns the ambassadors realize they have misunderstood him entirely.

Director: Claudia Weill

Writer: Alan Brennert

A depressed dentist, Myron Mandel, is visited by the Tooth Fairy, who grants him the wish to be incredibly popular and loved. The wish is granted in full force, and soon Mandel can't handle the endless stream of visitors singing his praises. He flees, only to find himself on a train with a bunch of other hobo/dentists who similarly wished for the same thing.

Director: Robert Downey Jr.

Writer: N/A

A screenwriter is having writer's block when strange impish creatures start haunting him. Sadly, only he can see them.

Director: Peter Medak

Writer: Rockne S. O'Bannon

A mysterious man offers a couple a bizarre deal: if they will push a button on a box that will kill one person they don't know, they will get a million dollars. After some contemplation, the couple goes ahead and pushes the button. The man tells them that they will indeed get the money. And somewhere, sometime, another couple will get the same box, and the same offer...

Director: Peter Medak

Writer: Richard Matheson

A KGB investigator is sent to Siberia to investigate the deaths of communist party officials. Later, he discovers that Stalin's exiles are alive and well. He also discovers dead people drained of blood.

Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Writer: Michael Cassutt

A college group holds their "Devil's Alphabet" meeting every year. When one of them dies, all the rest expect foul play.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Landing a new job at a private library a girl is warned never to look at the books. Taking a peek she learns that there's a book for everyone alive. When a neighbor pesters her, she rewrites his biography.

Director: John D. Hancock

Writer: Anne Collins

An opera singer is having a hard time. Her sister is at the hospital dying. Her sick sister leaves a gift: a glimpse into the future when the singer is a world-famous star.

Director: Peter Medak

Writer: N/A

A modern-day miner has an argument with his wife and then goes off to work in the local mine. A collapse traps him, but he finds another survivor - a miner who claims to be from 1912. The two men figure out that somehow they have become connected through time. The modern-day man helps the 1912 miner to survive, and the latter is rescued. The modern-day miner appears trapped...but the rescuers look in an unexpected spot and find him. It turns out the 1912 miner wrote a letter marked for delivery 74 years later directing them where to search.

Director: Bill Duke

Writer: Virginia Aldridge

A survivalist traps himself in his bomb shelter when a nuclear blast finally comes.

Director: Martha Coolidge

Writer: N/A

On board an airplane, a lightning storm transforms a boy's walkman into a telepathic tuning device that informs him that the man sitting next to him is carrying a bomb.

Director: Peter Medak

Writer: N/A

In the far future an expedition returns to a desolate barren Earth where a scientist begins to see the ghosts of those who died years ago.

Director: Curtis Harrington

Writer: Alan Brennert

An attorney and his wife have successful careers. They feel something is lacking in their marriage. Soon, they encounter younger versions of their mates.

Director: N/A

Writer: J. M. DeMatteis

In 1916 a girl and a young man from a reformatory for wayward boys fall in love and try to get away from her father, the superintendent. He finds out and doesn't approve of their love, locking away his daughter and punishing the boy. With the help of a wandering vagrant the girl finds a way to use a book to transfer both her and the boy into a primordial world where they become wolves and can live free and together.

Director: Noel Black

Writer: Anthony Lawrence

Vacationing in the United States, an Irish leprechaun is caught by three boys. To be freed, he must grant them three wishes.

Director: N/A

Writer: James Crocker

A compulsive spender accepts "The Card" to keep up her habit. Unfortunately stringent penalties kick in for late payments.

Director: Bradford May

Writer: Michael Cassutt

When Dr. Dennis Barrows's car breaks down, he goes to an unusual town where visitors are disliked and townspeople are terrified of lighthouse and where it might shine. The house where Barrows stays the night is shined upon by the lighthouse. It holds a sick child, one which he helps with his medicine. The child recovers, but when Barrows goes to the lighthouse, the townfolk confront him with the truth: the lighthouse keeper is long dead, but in return for ensuring the town's prosperity, it demands the occasional sacrifice. Since Barrows saved the girl and was in the house where the light shined, he becomes the townsfolks' next sacrifice.

Director: Gerd Oswald

Writer: Martin Pasko, Rebecca Parr Cioffi

Finding an old trunk, a couple realizes that it has a false bottom containing a 70-year-old film from the Amazon.

Director: Peter Medak

Writer: N/A

An actor arrives at a radio station to perform a radio play. An old voodoo stick is accidentally activated and the play becomes more real that anything anyone expected.

Director: Gus Trikonis

Writer: Martin Pasko

Roger, a curmudgeonly man in a retirement home, has nightmares of an unknown woman trying to hold back some strange creature behind a door in a room filled with candles. He is shocked when that woman, a cataleptic, becomes his next-door neighbor. Roger soon comes to realize that he is somehow tied to the woman, and that even in the dream he can be hurt and possibly killed. The next time he is drawn into the dream he tries to help her, only to realize that she is holding something in - the spirit of her dead husband, as she can't let go of his memory. Roger releases him to pass on to the other side, and slowly begins to reconcile with the woman as she comes back to life.

Director: Allan King

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski