8.1/1027 votes#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
8.0/1011 votes#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
7.8/1025 votes#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
7.7/1036 votes#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
7.5/1026 votes#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
7.5/1024 votes#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
7.4/1025 votes#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
7.3/109 votes#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
7.3/1022 votes#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
7.3/1010 votes#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
7.3/1053 votes#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
7.2/1016 votes#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
7.1/1025 votes#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
7.1/1015 votes#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
7.0/101 votes#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
7.0/102 votes#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
7.0/101 votes#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
7.0/101 votes#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
6.8/1010 votes#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
6.4/109 votes#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
6.2/108 votes#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
6.0/1010 votes#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
5.4/108 votes#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
4.6/1039 votes#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 naïve girl learns of the dangers of the outside world and the sacrifices made to guarantee her survival.
Director: Tobe Hooper
Writer: Richard Matheson
2.0/101 votes#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 Badham
Writer: Richard Matheson
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The Best Episodes Written By Richard Matheson
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Richard Matheson Ratings Summary
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is the best rated episode written by Richard Matheson. It scored 8.148/10 based on 27 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".