The Best Episodes Written By Rod Serling

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   10.0/10(1 votes)

   #1 - The Waiting Room / Last Rites for a Dead Druid

   S2:E181/26/1972

   A gunfighter's final reckoning awaits him in a frontier saloon. When a woman buys a statue bearing an uncanny resemblance to her husband, he soon feels the influence of its model: an ancient druid sorcerer.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
2. 

   10.0/10(1 votes)

   #2 - Pamela's Voice / Lone Survivor / The Doll

   S1:E51/13/1971

   A harried husband murders his magpie wife only to find the arrangement less permanent than he'd hoped. A passing ship rescues an unconscious man in a lifeboat labeled "Titanic", three years after the liner sank. A hideous doll becomes an agent of revenge against an officer in Queen Victoria's colonial forces.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
3. 

   9.0/10(1 votes)

   #3 - The Caterpillar / Little Girl Lost

   S2:E223/1/1972

   A bored colonial on a Malaysian plantation employs an exotic accomplice, an earwig, in his gruesome plot to assassinate a romantic rival. Military strategists unwittingly plant the seeds of the apocalypse when they humor a scientific genius unbalanced by his daughter's death.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
4. 

   9.0/10(1 votes)

   #4 - The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes / Miss Lovecraft Sent Me / The Hand of Borgus Weems / Phantom of What Opera?

   S2:E19/15/1971

   A phenomenally successful young seer suddenly refuses to make further predictions. A vignette about a babysitter and her latest client. A desperate man seeks a surgeon's help when he discovers a presence that controls his right hand. The Phantom of the Opera gets the shock of his life when he menaces a beautiful young singer.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
5. 

   9.0/10(2 votes)

   #5 - They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar / The Last Laurel

   S1:E61/20/1971

   A has-been salesman is haunted by phantoms from a happier past. Astral projection is the key to a crippled athlete's bid for revenge.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
6. 

   8.6/10(32 votes)

   #6 - To Serve Man

   S3:E243/2/1962

   An alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A team of linguists sets out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce to be "To Serve Man."

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
7. 

   8.5/10(47 votes)

   #7 - Eye of the Beholder

   S2:E611/11/1960

   A young woman lying in a hospital bed awaits the outcome of an experimental treatment in an attempt to make her look normal.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
8. 

   8.4/10(17 votes)

   #8 - The Masks

   S5:E253/20/1964

   A wealthy dying man invites his family to a Mardi Gras party and insists that they wear masks specially made for them, threatening to cut off their inheritance if they refuse.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
9. 

   8.4/10(28 votes)

   #9 - The Shelter

   S3:E39/29/1961

   When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Rod Serling

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   Writer:Rod Serling
10. 

    8.2/10(66 votes)

    #10 - Time Enough at Last

    S1:E811/20/1959

    A bank teller, obsessed with reading, faces conflicts at work and home because of his passion for literature.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
11. 

    8.2/10(27 votes)

    #11 - It's a Good Life

    S3:E811/3/1961

    On an isolated family farm in Peakesville, Ohio, young Anthony Fremont, who has vast mental powers but lacks emotional development, holds his terrified family and neighbors in thrall to his every juvenile wish.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
12. 

    8.1/10(46 votes)

    #12 - The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

    S1:E223/4/1960

    Paranoia strikes the residents of Maple Street when they believe human-looking aliens have invaded the neighborhood.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
13. 

    8.1/10(29 votes)

    #13 - Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

    S2:E285/26/1961

    State Troopers follow the tracks from a frozen pond, into a diner. Inside they find a soda jerk, a bus driver and his seven passengers. The bus driver is certain only six people boarded his bus…

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
14. 

    8.0/10(23 votes)

    #14 - The Silence

    S2:E254/28/1961

    A talkative man takes an offer to keep silent for a year for $500,000.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
15. 

    8.0/10(24 votes)

    #15 - The Midnight Sun

    S3:E1011/17/1961

    The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising imminent destruction.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
16. 

    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #16 - The House / Certain Shadows on the Wall

    S1:E312/30/1970

    A former sanitarium patient discovers a house she has known all her life, but never dared enter, in a recurring dream. An ailing woman dies under the care of her sinister brother, but her accusing shadow remains indelibly cast on the parlor wall.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
17. 

    7.9/10(34 votes)

    #17 - A Stop at Willoughby

    S1:E305/6/1960

    Riding home on the train one day, a stressed businessman falls asleep and dreams it is 1888, and he is entering a small, idyllic town called Willoughby.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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18. 

    7.9/10(23 votes)

    #18 - Five Characters in Search of an Exit

    S3:E1412/22/1961

    A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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19. 

    7.8/10(47 votes)

    #19 - And When the Sky Was Opened

    S1:E1112/11/1959

    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:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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20. 

    7.8/10(13 votes)

    #20 - He's Alive

    S4:E41/24/1963

    Peter Vollmer, a small-time neo-Nazi leader, yearns for more power. Advised by a shadowy benefactor, Vollmer's following grows, as does his ego...

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
21. 

    7.7/10(56 votes)

    #21 - The Lonely

    S1:E711/13/1959

    In 2046, imprisoned for murder on a distant asteroid, Corry receives an unexpected present that brings a semblance of companionship during his isolation.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
22. 

    7.7/10(28 votes)

    #22 - People are Alike All Over

    S1:E253/25/1960

    After a space exploration crash-lands on Mars, the lone surviving astronaut is surprised to find that Martians are human-looking and friendly.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
23. 

    7.7/10(30 votes)

    #23 - The After Hours

    S1:E346/10/1960

    Puzzled and unsettled by the odd behavior of the salespeople, a woman discovers that the floor of a department store, on which she bought a gold thimble, doesn't exist.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
24. 

    7.7/10(57 votes)

    #24 - Walking Distance

    S1:E510/30/1959

    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:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling
25. 

    7.7/10(40 votes)

    #25 - What You Need

    S1:E1212/25/1959

    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:N/A

    Writer:Rod Serling

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    Writer:Rod Serling