(thing) by Glowing Fish Thu Mar 27 2014 at 3:30:39

Everyone knows what The Twilight Zone is: a venerable old television show, shown in reruns late at night. It looks and sounds like something from the early 60's, with men in suits, rocket ships, and cheap special effects. Every episode is introduced and concluded with a staccato description by Rod Serling, and it always has a twist ending. Its usually a little scary, but just the type of scary you can chuckle at while eating cookies at 1 AM. It is rather dated, but still charming in an early television type of way.

At least, that was what I knew about The Twilight Zone, until I started watching it, and started paying attention. Removing myself from what I had learned by pop culture osmosis, I saw that The Twilight Zone was made with skill and originality, and that even though some of the production values are dated, the drama and messages are not. There are some episodes of The Twilight Zone that still, fifty years later, seem fresh.

A great deal of the appeal of The Twilight Zone was that it was an anthology series. Each episode had a different cast of characters, as well as different sets and direction. And The Twilight Zone is probably unique amongst anthology shows in that it didn't just present a different story every week, but a different genre. Some episodes of The Twilight Zone were "hard" science-fiction, while others are fantasy or horror. There is always some element of the eerie or unusual, but it is not always supernatural as such. Episodes can also vary in tone from the dramatic, to the frightful, to the comedic. Some have serious moral lessons or commentaries, while others are simpler fare. Most Twilight Zone episodes have a "twist" of some sort at the ending, but it is not always blatant or abrupt. Opinions on what the best and worst episodes of the Twilight Zone were vary greatly. I have my own favorites, but even the Twilight Zone episodes that don't work well usually have some interesting element in them.

That being said, this is a list of Twilight Zone episodes. Unless marked otherwise, they were written by Rod Serling:

Season One

  1. Where is Everybody?
  2. One for the Angels
  3. Mr. Denton on Doomsday
  4. The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine
  5. Walking Distance
  6. Escape Clause
  7. The Lonely
  8. Time Enough at Last (Script Rod Serling, Story Lyn Venable)
  9. Perchance to Dream (Charles Beaumont)
  10. Judgment Night
  11. And When The Sky Was Opened (Script Rod Serling, Story Richard Matheson]
  12. What You Need (Script Rod Serling, Story Lewis Padgett)
  13. The Four of us are Dying (Script Rod Serling, Story George Johnson)
  14. Third From the Sun (Script Rod Serling, Story Richard Matheson)
  15. I Shot An Arrow Into the Air (Script Rod Serling, Story Madelon Champion)
  16. The Hitch-hiker (Script Rod Serling, Story Lucille Fletcher)
  17. The Fever
  18. The Last Flight (Richard Matheson)
  19. The Purple Testament
  20. Elegy (Charles Beaumont)
  21. Mirror Image
  22. The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
  23. A World of Difference (Richard Matheson)
  24. Long Live Walter Jameson (Charles Beaumont)
  25. People are Alike All Over (Script Rod Serling, Story Paul Fairman)
  26. Execution (Script Rod Serling, Story George Clayton Johnson)
  27. The Big Tall Wish
  28. A Nice Place to Visit (Charles Beaumont)
  29. Nightmare as a Child
  30. A Stop at Willoughby
  31. The Chaser (Script Robert Presnell, Jr., Story John Collier)
  32. A Passage for Trumpet
  33. Mr. Bevis
  34. The After Hours
  35. The Mighty Casey
  36. A World of His Own(Richard Matheson)


Season Two
  1. King Nine Will Not Return
  2. The Man in the Bottle
  3. Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
  4. A Thing About Machines
  5. The Howling Man (Charles Beaumont]
  6. The Eye of the Beholder
  7. Nick of Time (Richard Matheson)
  8. The Lateness of the Hour
  9. The Trouble with Templeton (E. Jack Neuman)
  10. A Most Unusual Camera
  11. The Night of the Meek
  12. Dust
  13. Back There
  14. The Whole Truth
  15. The Invaders (Richard Matheson)
  16. A Penny for your Thoughts (George Clayton Johnson)
  17. Twenty Two (Rod Serling, based on a folk tale)
  18. The Odyssey of Flight 33
  19. Mr. Dingle, the Strong
  20. Static (Charles Beaumont)
  21. The Prime Mover (Charles Beaumont)
  22. Long Distance Call (Charles Beaumont and William Idelson)
  23. A Hundred Yards Over the Rim
  24. The Rip Van Winkle Caper
  25. The Silence
  26. Shadow Play
  27. The Mind and the Matter
  28. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up
  29. The Obsolete Man

I like it! 4 C!s