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The Best Episodes Written By Richard Matheson

Every TV Episode Written by Richard Matheson Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters

  • Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
    8.1/10(28)

    #1 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • The Doll
    8.0/10(11)

    #2 - The Doll

    Season 1 Episode 22

    Aired 5/4/1986

    The lonely, loveless life of a shy bachelor takes an astounding turn when he buys a special doll, exquisitely hand-crafted by a mysterious German toymaker. He tries to track down the woman who modeled for it.

    Director: Phil Joanou

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Nick of Time
    7.8/10(25)

    #3 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • And When the Sky Was Opened
    7.7/10(37)

    #4 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • Third from the Sun
    7.5/10(26)

    #5 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • The Invaders
    7.5/10(24)

    #6 - The Invaders

    Season 2 Episode 15

    Aired 1/27/1961

    An old woman in an isolated farmhouse encounters tiny, hostile aliens.

    Director: Douglas Heyes

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • The Last Flight
    7.4/10(25)

    #7 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • One For the Books
    7.3/10(9)

    #8 - One For the Books

    Season 1 Episode 23

    Aired 5/11/1986

    An elderly college janitor amazes himself, his wife and the scientific community when his brain turns into a sponge that soaks up more and more incredible knowledge of every subject taught at the school - until a shocking event changes everything.

    Director: Lesli Linka Glatter

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • A World of His Own
    7.3/10(22)

    #9 - A World of His Own

    Season 1 Episode 36

    Aired 7/1/1960

    Coming home, Victoria catches her husband Gregory flirting with a beautiful woman in his study. His explanation that characters come to life before his eyes when he speaks into his dictation machine, leads Victoria to question his sanity.

    Director: Ralph Nelson

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Death Ship
    7.3/10(10)

    #10 - Death Ship

    Season 4 Episode 6

    Aired 2/7/1963

    A three-man spacecraft lands on a planet only to discover the wreckage of a spacecraft identical to their own. Two of the crew are convinced that they are dead, but the captain refuses to see the truth.

    Director: Don Medford

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • The Enemy Within
    7.2/10(57)

    #11 - The Enemy Within

    Season 1 Episode 5

    Aired 10/6/1966

    A transporter malfunction causes Captain Kirk to split into his "good" and "evil" selves, and a landing party will freeze to death if they don't merge the two back together.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Once Upon a Time
    7.2/10(16)

    #12 - Once Upon a Time

    Season 3 Episode 13

    Aired 12/15/1961

    Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962 - then promptly breaks down!

    Director: Norman Z. McLeod

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • A World of Difference
    7.2/10(26)

    #13 - 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

    Comments

    0
  • Little Girl Lost
    7.1/10(15)

    #14 - Little Girl Lost

    Season 3 Episode 26

    Aired 3/16/1962

    A six-year-old girl rolls under her bed and vanishes into a fourth dimension. Her parents and a neighbor struggle to free her before the hole between the dimensions closes forever.

    Director: Paul Stewart

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • The Return of Andrew Bentley
    7.0/10(1)

    #15 - The Return of Andrew Bentley

    Season 2 Episode 12

    Aired 12/11/1961

    A man inherits his uncle's estate on the condition that he spend twenty-four hours a day in the house and guard his uncle's grave against a supernatural intruder.

    Director: John Newland

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • First Anniversary
    7.0/10(2)

    #16 - First Anniversary

    Season 2 Episode 7

    Aired 2/16/1996

    As he celebrates his first wedding anniversary, Norman Glass thinks he's the luckiest man alive. His wife Ady, whom he met after the tragic death of her first husband, is stunningly beautiful and talented. She loves him more than anyone alive. They have two great friends, Dennis and Barbara, who were arried on the same day and are just as madly in love as Norman and Ady. But suddenly things start to change. First, Dennis leaves Barbara. Then, Norman must struggle with the strange, growing revulsion he feels when he touches, smells, tastes or sees his lovely wife. Norman thinks he's going crazy, but Barbara and Ady know better. Is love blind? Is beauty only skin-deep? Guess again.

    Director: Brad Turner

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Ride the Nightmare
    7.0/10(1)

    #17 - Ride the Nightmare

    Season 1 Episode 11

    Aired 11/29/1962

    When three of his childhood pals break out of prison, Christopher Martin is in trouble. When he was younger, he and his pals committed a crime. All except Christopher were caught and sent to jail. Each of them vowed revenge. Christopher confesses his crime to his wife Helen though he fears she will leave him. Helen is shocked at first, but she agrees to help him proving that his fears were groundless. Together they foil the three prison escapees when they show up looking for revenge.

    Director: Bernard Girard

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • The Thirty First of February
    7.0/10(1)

    #18 - The Thirty First of February

    Season 1 Episode 15

    Aired 1/4/1963

    Andrew Anderson is an advertising executive who discovers the body of his deadwife laying at the bottom of the basement stairs. An investigating detective named Sgt. Cresse believes Mr. Anderson is guilty of murder. He wants to trick him into making a confession by making Mr. Anderson believe that his wife is still alive and that she is having an affair with one of his fellow workers at the advertising agency. Eventually Mr. Anderson is proven innocent of murder, but Cresse's hounding has left him hopelessly insane.

    Director: Alf Kjellin

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Night Call
    6.8/10(10)

    #19 - Night Call

    Season 5 Episode 19

    Aired 2/7/1964

    An elderly, wheelchair-bound lady receives strange anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night.

    Director: Jacques Tourneur

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Steel
    6.4/10(9)

    #20 - Steel

    Season 5 Episode 2

    Aired 10/4/1963

    A small-time promoter desperately in need of money takes the place of his broken-down robot in a prize fight where humans are barred from participating.

    Director: Don Weis

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Spur of the Moment
    6.2/10(8)

    #21 - Spur of the Moment

    Season 5 Episode 21

    Aired 2/21/1964

    After being chased on horseback by a terrifying, unidentified figure in black, Anne Henderson faces the biggest decision of her life.

    Director: Elliot Silverstein

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Mute
    6.0/10(10)

    #22 - Mute

    Season 4 Episode 5

    Aired 1/31/1963

    A 12-year-old girl who lost her parents in a fire doesn't speak because she has grown up in a secret telepathic community. The couple who take her in, and her teacher, are determined to help her adapt to their society, no matter the cost.

    Director: Stuart Rosenberg

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Young Man's Fancy
    5.4/10(8)

    #23 - Young Man's Fancy

    Season 3 Episode 34

    Aired 5/11/1962

    When a newlywed couple briefly return to the groom's childhood home, the ties of the past prove too strong to resist.

    Director: John Brahm

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Dance of the Dead
    4.6/10(39)

    #24 - Dance of the Dead

    Season 1 Episode 3

    Aired 11/11/2005

    This story revolves around a post-apocalyptic town where re-animated corpses of friends and enemies dance on stage for the few people who survived a nuclear holocaust. Peggy a naive girl learns of the dangers of the outside world and the sacrifices made to guarantee her survival.

    Director: Tobe Hooper

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0
  • Green Fingers / The Funeral / The Tune in Dan's Cafe
    2.0/10(1)

    #25 - Green Fingers / The Funeral / The Tune in Dan's Cafe

    Season 2 Episode 15

    Aired 1/5/1972

    An unscrupulous tycoon takes drastic steps to force an old widow off her land. A vampire plans his belated, lavish -and noisy-final obsequy. A couple stopping at a roadside diner encounter a jukebox that plays only one song, a tune connected with a tragic romance.

    Director: John Meredyth Lucas

    Writer: Richard Matheson

    Comments

    0

Richard Matheson Ratings Summary

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is the best rated episode written by Richard Matheson. It scored 8.143/10 based on 28 votes. It was directed by Richard Donner. It aired on 10/11/1963 and is rated 0.1 points higher than their second-best episode, "The Doll".