The BEST episodes of The Twilight Zone

Every episode of The Twilight Zone ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Twilight Zone!

The Twilight Zone was a popular American anthology series. The series was a collection of various tales that range from the tragic to the comedic. They may be scary or just thought-provoking. Most episodes have unexpected endings and a moral lesson. But, no matter what, it's "a journey into a wondrous land, whose boundaries are that of the imagination."

Last Updated: 9/24/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
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To Serve Man
star
8.59
380 votes

#1 - To Serve Man

Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/2/1962

The Kanamits, 9 foot tall aliens, arrive on Earth with one lofty goal: To Serve Man.

Directors: Richard L. Bare
Watch Now:Amazon
Time Enough at Last
star
8.45
1075 votes

#2 - Time Enough at Last

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/20/1959

A bank teller, obsessed with reading, finds himself alone after a nuclear blast.

Directors: John Brahm
Watch Now:Amazon
Printer's Devil
star
8.45
273 votes

#3 - Printer's Devil

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/28/1963

The owner of a failing paper is given help by the Devil.

Directors: Ralph Senensky
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
star
8.30
285 votes

#4 - Five Characters in Search of an Exit

Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/22/1961

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

Directors: Lamont Johnson
Watch Now:Amazon
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
star
8.23
723 votes

#5 - The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/4/1960

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

Directors: Ron Winston
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon
The Eye of the Beholder
star
8.22
558 votes

#6 - The Eye of the Beholder

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/1960

A young woman undergoes ""experimental treatments"" in an attempt to make her appear ""normal"".

Directors: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
star
8.21
417 votes

#7 - Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

Season 2 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/26/1961

State troopers follow tracks from an unidentified flying object to a diner where they try to determine which of the seven bus passengers stranded inside is really a Martian.

Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Midnight Sun
star
8.19
363 votes

#8 - The Midnight Sun

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/17/1961

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

Directors: Anton Leader
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon
The Shelter
star
8.19
384 votes

#9 - The Shelter

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1961

When a UFO invasion appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbours fight over control of a single bomb shelter.

Directors: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon
Deaths-Head Revisited
star
8.14
362 votes

#10 - Deaths-Head Revisited

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/10/1961

A former Nazi SS Captain returns to the ruins of a concentration camp to reminisce, and is met by one of his victims.

Directors: Don Medford
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon
Living Doll
star
8.11
347 votes

#11 - Living Doll

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1963

Erich is displeased when his wife buys an expensive doll for his step-daughter. He becomes even more displeased when the doll tells him it doesn't like him!

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
In His Image
star
8.09
334 votes

#12 - In His Image

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/1963

A scientist creates an android that has the qualities which he feels he's lacking.

Directors: Perry Lafferty
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Masks
star
8.06
258 votes

#13 - The Masks

Season 5 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/20/1964

A dying man demands his family wear masks that he's given them at a Mardi Gras party.

Directors: Ida Lupino
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
It's a Good Life
star
8.03
393 votes

#14 - It's a Good Life

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/3/1961

Little Anthony Fremont controls an entire town with his ability to read minds and make people do as he wishes. Which is a real good thing.

Directors: James Sheldon
Watch Now:Amazon
Nick of Time
star
8.02
521 votes

#15 - 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.

Directors: Richard L. Bare
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Walking Distance
star
7.95
1270 votes

#16 - Walking Distance

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1959

Martin Sloan, 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. He soon realizes he's gone back in time.

Directors: Robert Stevens
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon
The Silence
star
7.91
363 votes

#17 - The Silence

Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/28/1961

An aristocratic club member bets that a talkative acquaintance cannot stay silent for an entire year.

Directors: Boris Sagal
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Hitch-Hiker
star
7.89
629 votes

#18 - The Hitch-Hiker

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/22/1960

Alone on a cross-country trip, a woman continually sees the same hitch-hiker everywhere she looks.

Directors: Alvin Ganzer
Watch Now:Amazon
The Obsolete Man
star
7.88
401 votes

#19 - The Obsolete Man

Season 2 - Episode 29 - Aired 6/2/1961

In a future state where religion and books have been banned, a librarian (Burgess Meridith) is judged obsolete by the Chancellor (Fritz Weaver) and sentenced to death.

Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
And When the Sky Was Opened
star
7.88
683 votes

#20 - And When the Sky Was Opened

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1959

Three astronauts have returned from this first space flight. Major Gart is hospitalized with a broken leg. The other two, Colonels Harrington and Forbes head for a bar. Harrington gets a strange feeling.

Directors: Douglas Heyes
Watch Now:Amazon
The Lateness of the Hour
star
7.86
440 votes

#21 - The Lateness of the Hour

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/2/1960

Dr. Loren enjoys the faultless robot servants he has invented. His daughter, however, feels imprisoned by them--and soon learns how right she is.

Directors: Jack Smight
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
He's Alive
star
7.84
300 votes

#22 - He's Alive

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/24/1963

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...

Directors: Stuart Rosenberg
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Third from the Sun
star
7.81
653 votes

#23 - 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.

Directors: Richard L. Bare
Watch Now:Amazon
I Shot an Arrow into the Air
star
7.78
665 votes

#24 - I Shot an Arrow into the Air

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/15/1960

Three astronauts believe they have crashed on an asteroid.

Directors: Stuart Rosenberg
Watch Now:Amazon
Where Is Everybody?
star
7.74
1546 votes

#25 - Where Is Everybody?

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1959

Mike Ferris finds himself in a town strangely devoid of people. But despite the emptiness, he has the odd feeling that he's being watched...

Directors: Robert Stevens
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:Amazon