The BEST episodes of The Twilight Zone season 3

Every episode of The Twilight Zone season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Twilight Zone season 3!

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: 4/10/2026Network: CBSStatus: Ended
A Quality of Mercy
star
8.70
93 votes

#1 - A Quality of Mercy

Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/29/1961

A soldier gets a new perspective on war when he is forced to experience it from his enemy's point of view.

Directors: Buzz Kulik
Watch Now:Amazon
To Serve Man
star
8.55
408 votes

#2 - 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
The Shelter
star
8.31
153 votes

#3 - 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:AmazonApple TV
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
star
8.25
307 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 Midnight Sun
star
8.16
381 votes

#5 - 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
Deaths-Head Revisited
star
8.12
377 votes

#6 - 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
It's a Good Life
star
8.00
415 votes

#7 - 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
The Little People
star
7.67
271 votes

#8 - The Little People

Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/30/1962

An astronaut declares himself a god when his ship lands on a planet populated by people smaller than ants.

Writer: Rod Serling
Two
star
7.65
520 votes

#9 - Two

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1961

A man and a woman, on opposite sides of a future war, encounter each other in a deserted town.

Nothing in the Dark
star
7.61
94 votes

#10 - Nothing in the Dark

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/5/1962

A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting ""Mr. Death.""

Directors: Lamont Johnson
Kick the Can
star
7.59
122 votes

#11 - Kick the Can

Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/9/1962

The senior residents of Sunnyvale decide that the secret to youth is acting young, and in particular playing a childhood game called ""kick-the-can.""

Directors: Lamont Johnson
Little Girl Lost
star
7.42
36 votes

#12 - 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.

Directors: Paul Stewart
Person or Persons Unknown
star
7.40
203 votes

#13 - Person or Persons Unknown

Season 3 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/23/1962

David Gurney wakes up to find that no one - his wife, his co-workers, his best friend, not even his own mother knows him.

Directors: John Brahm
The Trade-Ins
star
7.40
182 votes

#14 - The Trade-Ins

Season 3 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/20/1962

An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies.

Writer: Rod Serling
The Passersby
star
7.39
301 votes

#15 - The Passersby

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1961

On the road home from the Civil War, a Confederate soldier stops at a burned-out house and gets to know the owner, a recent widow.

Writer: Rod Serling
I Sing the Body Electric
star
7.38
238 votes

#16 - I Sing the Body Electric

Season 3 - Episode 35 - Aired 5/18/1962

A widower buys a robot grandmother for his three children.

Writer: Ray Bradbury
The Dummy
star
7.37
214 votes

#17 - The Dummy

Season 3 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/4/1962

A ventriloquist is convinced that his dummy, Willie, is alive and evil. He makes plans for a new act with a new dummy: plans that Willie doesn't support!

Directors: Abner Biberman
Watch Now:Apple TV
A Piano in the House
star
7.30
175 votes

#18 - A Piano in the House

Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/16/1962

A cynical theater critic takes advantage of a player piano that reveals people's hidden selves.

Directors: David Greene
A Game of Pool
star
7.21
301 votes

#19 - A Game of Pool

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/13/1961

Championship pool player Fats Brown returns from the grave for one last game.

Directors: Buzz Kulik
The Grave
star
7.20
276 votes

#20 - The Grave

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/27/1961

Before he died, notorious gunslinger Pinto Sykes put a curse on hired-gun Conny Miller. Miller returns to town and is challenged to visit the grave of Sykes, despite the curse.

Once Upon a Time
star
7.06
306 votes

#21 - 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!

Directors: Norman Z. McLeod
Watch Now:Apple TV
The Arrival
star
7.06
394 votes

#22 - The Arrival

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1961

A plane lands safely, but all its passengers, pilot and crew are missing!

Directors: Boris Sagal
Writer: Rod Serling
The Fugitive
star
7.05
277 votes

#23 - The Fugitive

Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/9/1962

Old Ben, who is able to transform himself into anything, tries to help a crippled little girl.

Directors: Richard L. Bare
Showdown with Rance McGrew
star
7.05
63 votes

#24 - Showdown with Rance McGrew

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/2/1962

The egotistic star of a western TV series comes face to face with the real Jesse James.

Directors: Christian Nyby
Watch Now:Apple TV
The Changing of the Guard
star
6.96
242 votes

#25 - The Changing of the Guard

Season 3 - Episode 37 - Aired 6/1/1962

A retiring professor contemplates suicide.

Writer: Rod Serling