The BEST episodes written by Richard Matheson

Big Surprise
star
8.67
0 votes

#1 - Big Surprise

Night Gallery - Season 2 - Episode 24

An eccentric farmer promises a ""big surprise"" to a group of boys . . . if they dig for it.

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The Lady on the Wall
star
8.08
38 votes

#2 - The Lady on the Wall

Have Gun, Will Travel - Season 3 - Episode 23

Paladin is accused of stealing a painting in the small town of Bonanza.

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Nick of Time
star
8.02
509 votes

#3 - Nick of Time

The Twilight Zone - Season 2 - Episode 7

A superstitious newlywed becomes obsessed by a penny fortune-telling machine when he and his new wife are stranded with car trouble.

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Button, Button
star
7.91
109 votes

#4 - Button, Button

The Twilight Zone (1985) - Season 1 - Episode 50

A mysterious man offers a couple a bizarre deal: if they will push a button on a box that will kill one person they don't know, they will get a million dollars.

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And When the Sky Was Opened
star
7.88
677 votes

#5 - And When the Sky Was Opened

The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 11

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.

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Third from the Sun
star
7.81
645 votes

#6 - Third from the Sun

The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 14

With all-out nuclear war about to ignite, a scientist and his pilot friend plot to escape on an experimental spaceship.

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The Thirty First of February
star
7.68
18 votes

#7 - The Thirty First of February

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Season 1 - Episode 15

Andrew Anderson is an advertising executive who discovers the body of his deadwife laying at the bottom of the basement stairs. An investigating detective named Sgt. Cresse believes Mr. Anderson is guilty of murder. He wants to trick him into making a confession by making Mr. Anderson believe that his wife is still alive and that she is having an affair with one of his fellow workers at the advertising agency. Eventually Mr. Anderson is proven innocent of murder, but Cresse's hounding has left him hopelessly insane.

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A World of Difference
star
7.60
618 votes

#8 - A World of Difference

The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 23

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".

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A World of His Own
star
7.59
381 votes

#9 - A World of His Own

The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 36

A playwright makes characters come to life.

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The Invaders
star
7.58
393 votes

#10 - The Invaders

The Twilight Zone - Season 2 - Episode 15

An old woman in an isolated farmhouse encounters tiny, hostile aliens.

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Night Call
star
7.54
140 votes

#11 - Night Call

The Twilight Zone - Season 5 - Episode 19

An elderly, wheelchair-bound lady receives strange anonymous phone calls overnight when she's alone.

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Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
star
7.50
395 votes

#12 - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

The Twilight Zone - Season 5 - Episode 3

Mr. Wilson believes he sees a gremlin on the wing of his commercial aircraft.

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Little Girl Lost
star
7.47
176 votes

#13 - Little Girl Lost

The Twilight Zone - Season 3 - Episode 26

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.

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The Last Flight
star
7.44
527 votes

#14 - The Last Flight

The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 18

A World War I flying ace flies through a mysterious cloud - and lands at a modern U.S. air base in the year 1959!

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Steel
star
7.38
255 votes

#15 - Steel

The Twilight Zone - Season 5 - Episode 2

Boxing robot "Battling Maxo" breaks down before the scheduled bout, forcing his manager to take its place.

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Forgotten Front
star
7.37
71 votes

#16 - Forgotten Front

Combat! - Season 1 - Episode 1

When communications with the "Black Rook" patrol that was sent to get the location of a German big gun is suddenly cut off, Saunders and his men ("White Rook") go in to find out what happened. In a dye factory, they find the missing patrol all dead and a hidden German deserter. Saunders must decide if the prisoner lives or dies when the squad makes their escape.

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Nightmare at 30,000 Feet
star
7.30
1688 votes

#17 - Nightmare at 30,000 Feet

The Twilight Zone (2019) - Season 1 - Episode 2

A journalist listens to a podcast detailing how the plane on which he's a passenger will disappear.

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The Enemy Within
star
7.21
1579 votes

#18 - The Enemy Within

Star Trek - Season 1 - Episode 5

A transporter malfunction causes Captain Kirk to split into his "good" and "evil" selves, and a landing party will freeze to death if they don't merge the two back together.

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One for the Books
star
7.17
69 votes

#19 - One for the Books

Amazing Stories (1985) - Season 1 - Episode 23

An elderly custodian suddenly gains incredible knowledge.

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The Doll
star
7.16
77 votes

#20 - The Doll

Amazing Stories (1985) - Season 1 - Episode 22

A lonely bachelor is fascinated by a doll he bought for his niece.

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Once Upon a Time
star
7.05
285 votes

#21 - Once Upon a Time

The Twilight Zone - Season 3 - Episode 13

Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962 - then promptly breaks down!

Death Ship
star
6.98
197 votes

#22 - Death Ship

The Twilight Zone - Season 4 - Episode 6

A three-man spacecraft lands on a planet only to discover the wreckage of a spacecraft identical to their own. Two of the crew are convinced that they are dead, but the captain refuses to see the truth.

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First Anniversary
star
6.85
206 votes

#23 - First Anniversary

The Outer Limits (1995) - Season 2 - Episode 7

As he celebrates his first wedding anniversary, Norman Glass thinks he's the luckiest man alive. His wife Ady, whom he met after the tragic death of her first husband, is stunningly beautiful and talented. She loves him more than anyone alive. They have two great friends, Dennis and Barbara, who were arried on the same day and are just as madly in love as Norman and Ady. But suddenly things start to change. First, Dennis leaves Barbara. Then, Norman must struggle with the strange, growing revulsion he feels when he touches, smells, tastes or sees his lovely wife. Norman thinks he's going crazy, but Barbara and Ady know better. Is love blind? Is beauty only skin-deep? Guess again.

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Mute
star
6.83
149 votes

#24 - Mute

The Twilight Zone - Season 4 - Episode 5

A 12-year-old girl who lost her parents in a fire doesn't speak because she has grown up in a secret telepathic community. The couple who take her in, and her teacher, are determined to help her adapt to their society, no matter the cost.

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Ride the Nightmare
star
6.81
16 votes

#25 - Ride the Nightmare

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Season 1 - Episode 11

When three of his childhood pals break out of prison, Christopher Martin is in trouble. When he was younger, he and his pals committed a crime. All except Christopher were caught and sent to jail. Each of them vowed revenge. Christopher confesses his crime to his wife Helen though he fears she will leave him. Helen is shocked at first, but she agrees to help him proving that his fears were groundless. Together they foil the three prison escapees when they show up looking for revenge.

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Spur of the Moment
star
6.70
98 votes

#26 - Spur of the Moment

The Twilight Zone - Season 5 - Episode 21

After being chased on horseback by a terrifying, unidentified figure in black, Anne Henderson faces the biggest decision of her life.

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The Expeditions
star
6.49
186 votes

#27 - The Expeditions

The Martian Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 1

January 1999: The Zeus Project makes its first manned flight to Mars. Its ultimate goal: colonisation. On Mars, Ylla dreams of the coming astronauts and her husband, Mr K, plots their doom... The second expeditions lands and finds a Mars a deceptively familiar but deadly home from home. Finally, Col. Wilder's Zeus III expedition arrives to find the Martians dead, wiped out by chicken pox. For one crew member, Spender, the thought of Earth culture tearing the planet apart is too much to bear.

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The Martians
star
6.28
111 votes

#28 - The Martians

The Martian Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 3

November 2006: Earth is an amber cinder, all life annihilated by total nuclear war. A handful of settlers left on Mars are the sole survivors of the human race, facing a desolate future, cut off and isolated even from each other. Wilder finally meets his Martian 'counterpart'.

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The Settlers
star
6.23
172 votes

#29 - The Settlers

The Martian Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 2

February 2004: The colonisation of Mars proceeds rapidly, the rockets arriving like 'silver locusts'. Settlers pour in, each in search of a dream - Fr Peregrine wants to meet Christ; the Lustigs want to find their missing son; the Parkhills want to make their fortune; and Wilder himself wants to meet a Martian...

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Young Man's Fancy
star
6.13
148 votes

#30 - Young Man's Fancy

The Twilight Zone - Season 3 - Episode 34

When a newlywed couple briefly return to the groom's childhood home, the ties of the past prove too strong to resist.

Dance of the Dead
star
5.97
275 votes

#31 - Dance of the Dead

Masters of Horror - Season 1 - Episode 3

This story revolves around a post-apocalyptic town where re-animated corpses of friends and enemies dance on stage for the few people who survived a nuclear holocaust. Peggy a naïve girl learns of the dangers of the outside world and the sacrifices made to guarantee her survival.

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The Funeral
star
4.50
0 votes

#32 - The Funeral

Night Gallery - Season 2 - Episode 44

A vampire plans his belated, lavish--and noisy--final obsequy.

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