The BEST episodes of The Twilight Zone season 1

Every episode of The Twilight Zone season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Twilight Zone season 1!

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: 12/21/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
Time Enough at Last
star
8.44
1089 votes

#1 - 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
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The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
star
8.21
738 votes

#2 - 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:AmazonApple TV
Walking Distance
star
7.95
1280 votes

#3 - 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
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The Hitch-Hiker
star
7.89
636 votes

#4 - 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
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And When the Sky Was Opened
star
7.87
696 votes

#5 - 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
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Third from the Sun
star
7.81
661 votes

#6 - 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:AmazonApple TV
I Shot an Arrow into the Air
star
7.77
673 votes

#7 - 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
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Where Is Everybody?
star
7.74
1565 votes

#8 - 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:AmazonApple TV
People Are Alike All Over
star
7.67
487 votes

#9 - People Are Alike All Over

Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/25/1960

When a space exploration crashes on Mars, the surviving passenger is surprised to find that Martians are human-looking, very friendly and apparently just like us...

Directors: Mitchell Leisen
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The After Hours
star
7.66
475 votes

#10 - The After Hours

Season 1 - Episode 34 - Aired 6/10/1960

A woman discovers that the floor of a department store, on which she bought a gold thimble, doesn't exist - and that her ""saleslady"" is really a mannequin!

Directors: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A Stop at Willoughby
star
7.64
497 votes

#11 - A Stop at Willoughby

Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 5/6/1960

Riding home on the train one day, a man falls asleep and dreams it is 1880, and he is entering a small town called Willoughby.

Directors: Robert Parrish
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A World of His Own
star
7.62
393 votes

#12 - A World of His Own

Season 1 - Episode 36 - Aired 7/1/1960

A playwright makes characters come to life.

Directors: Ralph Nelson
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
What You Need
star
7.60
658 votes

#13 - What You Need

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/25/1959

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.

Directors: Alvin Ganzer
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A World of Difference
star
7.59
633 votes

#14 - A World of Difference

Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/11/1960

Businessman Arthur Curtis finds his phone dead. He is then surprised to hear a voice yell, "Cut!" and see that his office is just a set on a sound stage. Everyone tells him that he is Jerry Raigan, a drunken movie star on the decline, and "Arthur Curtis" is a character he is playing in the movie "The Private World of Arthur Curtis".

Directors: Ted Post
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One for the Angels
star
7.55
1224 votes

#15 - One for the Angels

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1959

A street salesman cleverly eludes Death. But if he lives, a little girl must die in his place.

Directors: Robert Parrish
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Judgment Night
star
7.55
709 votes

#16 - Judgment Night

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1959

In 1942, a German wonders why he's on the deck of a British steamship, with no memory of how he got there, and an overwhelming sense of impending doom.

Directors: John Brahm
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Last Flight
star
7.44
539 votes

#17 - 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!

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Mirror Image
star
7.43
482 votes

#18 - Mirror Image

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/26/1960

Millicent Barnes sees her double at a bus terminal.

Directors: John Brahm
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Elegy
star
7.43
489 votes

#19 - Elegy

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/19/1960

Three astronauts land on what looks like Earth 200 years before they left--only all of the people seem frozen in time.

Directors: Douglas Heyes
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Lonely
star
7.39
846 votes

#20 - The Lonely

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1959

Corry, a man stranded on an asteroid after being convicted of a crime, receives a present of a robot who looks and sounds like a real woman.

Directors: Jack Smight
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Long Live Walter Jameson
star
7.39
435 votes

#21 - Long Live Walter Jameson

Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/18/1960

Walter Jameson is an excellent history teacher who talks about the past as if he had lived it.

Directors: Anton Leader
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A Nice Place to Visit
star
7.25
443 votes

#22 - A Nice Place to Visit

Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/15/1960

After being shot to death, Rocky Valentine encounters the amiable white-haired Mr. Pip, who gives Rocky everything he wishes for.

Directors: John Brahm
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Mr. Denton on Doomsday
star
7.15
1070 votes

#23 - Mr. Denton on Doomsday

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/1959

A has-been, drunk gunslinger finds his fast-draw abilities magically restored.

Directors: Allen Reisner
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Perchance to Dream
star
7.12
674 votes

#24 - Perchance to Dream

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/27/1959

A man is terrified of falling asleep for fear he might die.

Directors: Robert Florey
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Escape Clause
star
7.11
780 votes

#25 - Escape Clause

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/6/1959

A hypochondriac exchanges his soul for immortality and indestructibility.

Directors: Mitchell Leisen
Writer: Rod Serling
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV