Even newbies to the world of the original “The Twilight Zone” series probably have some knowledge of the shocking endings, the rattling storyline twists, and the unforgettable performances that endure more than 60 years after they premiered.
And if you’re one of those new viewers in search of reasons why series creator Rod Serling’s masterpiece continues to inhabit TV watchlists (and many a holiday marathon), read on. Serling was not just a visionary but also could predict the cultural future. In episodes that touch on book banning, the paranoia and violence that can erupt from public fear running amuck, and the pressures of hewing to impossible beauty standards, Serling wrote simple but affecting stories that still resonate.
Serling and a host of top-notch writers, directors, crew, and a line-up of performers who include future Oscar winners and TV mainstays, unfolded tales deeply told and innovatively presented. From the iconic opening notes of the “Twilight Zone” theme song to the closing wrap-up of Serling’s narration, the series could be spooky, visually terrifying, and occasionally even lighter and amusing, but always thoughtful and thought provoking.
One for the Angels (Season 1)
Only the second episode of the series, “One for the Angels” is a gentle entry point into a show that will engage in much darker storytelling. It’s also a fine introduction to what will be recurring themes of “The Twilight Zone,” namely the personification of death and the unexpected impact of the everyday person.
Here, we meet Mr. Death (Murray Hamilton), a version of the Grim Reaper who swaps the cloak and scythe for a kind face and sharp suit. Death is on assignment to pick up Louis Bookman (Ed Wynn), a kindhearted street salesman who spends much of his time on the stoop of his building with the neighborhood children. He gives them toys from his sales case and promises after-dinner ice cream treats. Lou has no family of his own, but it’s clear he shares a mutual affection with the kids. It’s evident to Mr. D too, and when Lou cleverly tricks Death into an indefinite deferral of Lou’s permanent checkout time, Death deploys a trick of his own. Lou will go on living, but one of his favorite small-fry friends will have to take his place. Another lesson to learn early on in “The Twilight Zone”: assume nothing. Death is sympathetic to Lou, but someone is going to die on this mission.
Given the series’ tone and trademark twists, it’s not a given that Lou makes the decision he does. But the ending involves a good man doing the unselfish thing. Lou, narrator Serling says in the episode’s closing, is “a man beloved by the children, and therefore, a most important man.”
Time Enough at Last (Season 1)
If there’s just one episode of “The Twilight Zone” you should see, it’s this one. The focus: Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith), patron saint of people who just want to be left alone to read a book. But Henry’s wife (Jacqueline deWit) is so intolerant of his passion for reading that she won’t even allow him to peruse a ketchup bottle. And his smug boss threatens to fire Henry from his job as a bank teller because he likes to eat his lunch while reading in a bank vault. The people in Henry’s small world do not appreciate his love of the written word.
When a nuclear event occurs, Henry is tucked away in the vault. He stumbles out and locates no other survivors. Distraught with potential loneliness, Henry holds a gun to his head, when he looks up and suddenly sees salvation in the rubble of the public library. The building is wrecked, but its precious contents are intact, and a joyous Henry begins making piles of books he’ll read for years to come. All the loneliness forgotten, Henry has time enough, at last, to read.
And then… the twist. Too delicious yet heartbreaking to spoil here, suffice it to say Henry’s pleasure is brief, and there’s not a bookworm alive who watches his fate unfurl and doesn’t mourn. No matter how many times you may rewatch it, you will be crushed anew by the cruel irony.
The Hitch-Hiker (Season 1)
Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) is simply an adventurous young woman driving cross-country. A mild car accident blows out one of her tires and forces her off the road, and a mechanic who puts on her spare tells her she’s lucky to be alive.
While following the mechanic to the nearest town for a new spare, Nan spots a man along the road who she assumes is a hitchhiker. The mechanic doesn’t see him. She thinks that’s odd, but continues on her trip, seeing the hitchhiker again and again along the drive. The slow build of fear in Nan begs questions for the increasingly uneasy viewer: Is Nan paranoid about the hitchhiker? Her breezy reaction to the mechanic’s words about her near-miss accident makes her appear as a confident solo traveler who wouldn’t be shaken easily. Yet she is terrified when she detours and still spots the hitchhiker, sometimes ahead of her on the road. She thinks he’s now aiming his efforts for a ride at her and becomes convinced he wants to kill her.
Again, no spoilers. But a desperate Nan finally reaches her breaking point and stops to call her mother in New York. A neighbor answers the call and tells Nan her mom has been hospitalized after having a nervous breakdown about Nan. The closing narration confirms Nan took “a detour… through the Twilight Zone.” So, was the hitchhiker stalking Nan with a plan for murder? Was he even real? Or is there something far, far more unsettling at play in this quintessential psychological thriller?
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (Season 1)
One of the many recurring tropes of “The Twilight Zone” is that the unknown is often nowhere near as menacing as what’s right next door. Even, as in this metaphorical tale, in the most average little American community.
A pleasant day on Maple Street takes a quick, drastic turn when a loud noise and a flash of light from the sky causes the neighborhood to lose electrical power. Their car engines and phones are dead, too, and young neighbor Tommy (Jan Handzlik) relates a story he just read about aliens who knocked out power to keep a neighborhood stranded and unable to communicate. The adults of Maple Street quickly devolve into panic, and even resident voice of reason Steve (Claude Akins) can’t prevent a string of suspicions and accusations from turning into violence. The grown-ups chase Tommy down the street after deciding he is a real alien.
Serling wrote the episode, which first aired when McCarthyism was losing steam and support. It’s a straightforward, perfect distillation of the consequences of unchecked fearmongering and groupthink, which certainly wasn’t a new concept even then, and isn’t a rarity in our current, divisive world.
A World of His Own (Season 1)
Gregory West (Keenan Wynn, the son of “One for the Angels” star Ed Wynn) is a distinguished playwright. One afternoon, he’s enjoying a cocktail, with Mary (Mary LaRoche) joining him on his office for a bit of cuddling. Another woman has been watching the two through the window, and she enters the house. It’s Victoria (Phyllis Kirk), Gregory’s wife, and she begins a frantic search for Mary, who has disappeared. She eventually confronts her husband about Mary, and he spins a story about Mary being just a character he has created. All of his characters come to life when he describes them to his dictation machine, Gregory says. When he’s done with them, he cuts their portion of the dictation tape from the machine and throws it into the fireplace for a literal character assassination.
Victoria is unconvinced, so Gregory presents an envelope full of dictation tape… describing her. Still dubious, Victoria tosses it into the fireplace and immediately feels unwell. She realizes Gregory was telling the truth, as she fades into oblivion. Gregory rushes to his dictation mic to re-describe her, but, in another twist, decides to go a different way.
Finally, in a great surprise that adds a comic vibe to the dark, Richard Matheson-penned episode, Rod Serling appears in Gregory’s office for his ending voiceover. He reminds viewers the story is fictional, “ridiculous nonsense.” Gregory takes offense to the description and pulls out an envelope full of dictation tape marked “Rod Serling.”…
Eye of the Beholder (Season 2)
We can only imagine what Rod Serling would have thought about influencer culture and social media’s impact on beauty standards. Or maybe, thanks to this classic, fan-favorite installment that he wrote, we sort of know.
We are introduced to Janet Tyler (Maxine Stuart) in a hospital, where her face is covered completely with bandages. Janet’s face, described by the staff as a “pitiful, twisted lump of flesh,” has been operated on nearly a dozen times; the most recent procedure, her 11th, is the final allowed by the governing body where she lives. She wants desperately to look like everyone else around her. And if the injections haven’t worked, her best option is to be sent to live with other “grotesque… freaks,” she says, like her. She rails about the unfairness, of who decides these standards and controls her future. But all she can do is beg Dr. Bernardi (William D. Gordon) to end the suspense and remove her bandages early.
The monumental twist that awaits viewers is too important to spoil. It is the most striking visual storyline surprise of the series. The episode is shot very cleverly, using shadows and darkness and camera angles to avoid showing anyone’s face. So, when Janet’s bandages fall and her face is seen for the first time (now portrayed by Donna Douglas, the future Elly May on “The Beverly Hillbillies”), the impactful image isn’t her appearance, but the faces of those around her.
The Night of The Meek (Season 2)
It has plenty of trademark “Twilight Zone” flavor, so much so that it might not fit everyone’s definition of a happy episode. But Rod Serling’s 1960 holiday masterpiece is the original series’ most traditional, hopeful, and deeply moving Christmas episode of its run.
“The Honeymooners” star Art Carney gives a perfect performance as Henry Corwin, a downtrodden man who gets fired from his job as a department store Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Henry stumbles in to work late, soused, and barely able to stay on his feet. On his way out the door, Henry apologizes to his boss, Mr. Dundee (John Fiedler) and says he drinks and weeps because of the sorrow so many children, the meek, experience on Christmas. Just once, Henry says, he wishes “the meek could inherit the Earth.” Dejected and staggering home, Corwin sees a bag full of garbage. But hearing a jingling of bells, he turns around and finds the bag is now stuffed with wrapped gifts. He slings it over his shoulder and heads off to pass out goodies to everyone he knows; a pipe and sweater and cane for his friends at a mission, dolls and baseball bats and trains for the children.
Was it the real Santa who gave Henry the opportunity to play Santa for “the meek”? Something magical happened, and when Henry passes through the alley, he’s greeted by an elf who’s waiting in a reindeer-powered sleigh. It appears Henry gets his fondest wish.
The Invaders (Season 2)
With an incredible dialogue-free performance by future “Bewitched” co-star Agnes Moorehead, this installment forces viewers to confront questions of whether or not storied heroes are always the good guys.
An unnamed woman is alone in a farmhouse when she hears a strange noise coming from her attic. Climbing the ladder to check it out, she spots a flying saucer-like object that’s the size of a large toy. The woman doesn’t recognize it and backs away. But a door drops open from the disc, and a tiny moving figure shoots at her with a weapon that leaves large wart-like marks on her. She moves back downstairs and is slashed with one of her own knives and burned on her hand. The figures continue to attack her. She finally wraps one in a blanket and beats it until it appears to be dead.
Back up the ladder, we hear the other figure talking to Central Control, speaking English. His cohort is dead, he says, and their ship is destroyed. He warns against any counterattack, as there is a “race of giants” who are too powerful. As the woman hacks at the disc with a hatchet, a final close-up of the spaceship shows where her unwelcome guests are from, a shocking reveal that answers exactly which side is alien and which is at home.
A Penny for Your Thoughts (Season 2)
“Bewitched” cast member Dick York plays Hector Poole, a kind bank clerk who tosses a coin into the money box when he buys a newspaper on the way to work. The coin lands standing up on its edge, a fluke the salesman tells him will “never happen again in a million years.” The lucky toss gives Hector the sudden ability to hear other people’s thoughts. In the “TZ” universe, that’s a good and a bad thing. When he gets to the bank, Hector can hear the thoughts of fellow employee Helen (June Dayton), who shares a reciprocated crush with Hector. Finding out what she really thinks about him gives him a new confidence. But Hector also hears the thoughts of another employee, Smithers (Cyril Delevanti), who is plotting to swipe cash from the bank vault and run away to Bermuda. Hector feels obliged to report the would-be crime to his boss, Mr. Bagby (Dan Tobin), a weasel who Hector hears scheduling an extramarital affair.
Turns out Hector’s new power isn’t foolproof; hearing someone’s thoughts doesn’t mean they were actually planning to act on them. But what started with a flip of the coin ends with Hector in a new position, a new relationship, and securing a well-deserved vacation for an overlooked senior employee. Not bad for one day’s work in “The Twilight Zone.”
The Obsolete Man (Season 2)
Here’s another classic with Burgess Meredith (who starred in four “Twilight Zone” episodes in total), another book-themed story, and another of the many “TZ” entries that proves to be uncomfortably prescient.
This time, Meredith is Romney Wordsworth, a librarian who has been deemed “obsolete” by the totalitarian state chancellor (Fritz Weaver) he lives under. Books have been ruled obsolete, so a man whose job it is to work with them no longer has a purpose, the chancellor says. Even the Bible, since “the state” has proven there is no God, is obsolete. And because of his defiant defense of all he holds dear, the chancellor orders that Wordsworth will be “liquidated” within 48 hours; exact time and manner of his death is his choice.
Within an hour of his execution, which Wordsworth has requested be televised, he receives a visitor to his room. It’s the chancellor, who Wordsworth invited. The condemned man reveals he has chosen to die via a bomb in his room. He has also locked the chancellor inside with him. The viewer knows the chancellor will likely be saved. And the chancellor suspects it, too. But as Wordsworth predicts, the chancellor panics anyway, pleading, “in the name of God,” for Wordsworth to unlock the door. Even if the chancellor is freed before the bomb, his plea in the name of the God he denied exists will extinguish his power within the state when the public sees his cowardly behavior on TV.
It’s a Good Life (Season 3)
This is a seminal episode that can hang with any movie or TV bad seed story.
The episode begins with a Serling preamble that’s longer than most. He relates the state of affairs in Peaksville, a small Ohio town that has been terrorized by a monster. The monster has banished all cars, electricity, any machine or innovation that offers the chance to leave or communicate with the outside world. As far as Peaksvillians are concerned, the outside world may not even still exist.
Anthony Fremont (Billy Mumy, pre-“Lost in Space”), a 6-year-old boy with the sweetest little face you’ve ever seen, is the monster, wreaking fear and death with just his mind. Everyone must praise him at all times, express only happy thoughts. And they must not sing. He’s okay with piano music, but do not sing; he does not like it. The town’s adults resent living under the thumb of the tiny tyrant, but they also understand the consequences if they don’t. If he squints his eyes, points his finger at you, and accuses you of being a very bad man, you might be sent to the cornfield, a place from which one never returns. Or you might lose your children if Anthony is angered by his playmates. Bottom line: There’s no way out under Anthony’s rule. Even his parents (Cloris Leachman and John Larch) dare not speak a harsh word to their offspring, lest they be disappeared from their own home.
Five Characters in Search of an Exit (Season 3)
This uncomplicated, sentimental story begins when an Army major (William Windom) wakes up in a deep, metal, circular room, without any memories of his life or who he is, outside of his military uniform.
He meets his new roommates, a clown (Murray Matheson), a ballerina (Susan Harrison), a bagpiper (Clark Allen), and a tramp (Kelton Garwood), each also unaware of who they are or where they’re from, beyond what their wardrobes suggest. What they do have in common is a desire to leave their confinement, but only the major has any ideas for or hope of actually doing it. He suggests they form a vertical chain by climbing on top of each other’s shoulders, with the top person reaching the opening popping out and going to get help to rescue them all.
Several committed attempts later, with some MacGyver-worthy tool-fashioning by the major, he does reach the top. The others hear him drop to the ground outside, and the clown wonders if the major’s theory that the room is actually Hell is right. The actual ending — a tender shock that will nonetheless haunt you for awhile — must be seen for yourself.
To Serve Man (Season 3)
It features the best twist ending in a series famous for them. And “To Serve Man” is a very well-told story about the vulnerability and gullibility of humanity’s hopeful willingness to look past the dangers of something that looks too good to be true.
Here come the Kanamits, a race of 9-foot-tall aliens arriving on Earth to offer aid. There’s cynicism aplenty about these alleged do-gooders when the United Nations announces their arrival. Delegates question their leader (Richard Kiel) and he patiently details how his cohorts want to help end food scarcity, energy shortages, and wars, using their advanced technologies. The Kanamits quickly offer proof, and the opposition begins to trust them. Earthlings even begin vacation travel to the Kanamits’ planet. The head Kanamit is using a mechanical voice to speak English, but when he leaves, he forgets a book written in his language. The book is called “To Serve Man,” and it’s seen as a further sign of the aliens’ philanthropy. U.S. government cryptographer Michael Chambers (Lloyd Bochner) and his team are assigned to translate it anyway.
Intergalactic relations continue to run smoothly, and Earth makes a global declaration of peace. Chambers decides to travel to Planet Kanamit himself. As he’s boarding a spaceship, his colleague Patty (Susan Cummings) runs towards him, shouting at him not to board the ride. Why, you ask? Greatest twist ending in series history, and we’re not telling. But it’s well worth a half hour of your time for the clever reveal.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Season 5)
This absolute gem of an episode, easily one of the most famous “Twilight Zone” installments of all, not only revolves around a pre-“Star Trek” William Shatner but was written by “I Am Legend” author Richard Matheson and directed by Richard Donner (“Lethal Weapon”). There’s a good chance you might have already seen the story elsewhere. The episode has been spoofed by or referenced in TV shows from “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons” to “The Bernie Mac Show” and “Muppets Tonight.”
For those who haven’t yet seen it, here’s why you should. Yes, the story serves as a metaphor about fear of flying. But it’s also about a deeper issue of fear, as Shatner’s Robert Wilson is a man who has just spent six months in a sanitarium after suffering a nervous breakdown on an airplane. He’s now heading home on another plane, accompanied by his wife. He worries about what she is really thinking about him. He also frets that he may not be well yet. And then when he sees a “gremlin,” a creepy-faced creature, on the plane wing outside his window, he begins to fear he’s paranoid; no one else sees the gremlin. And he doubts anyone will believe he did, which is now becoming an emergency issue since the gremlin is trying to sabotage the plane’s engine.
Wilson’s inner turmoil sets up a tension-filled ride for the audience, too, lasting through the flight. The twist, subtly revealed, offers a definitive answer to the gremlin of it all.
Living Doll (Season 5)
Horror story dolls like Chucky, Annabelle, and M3GAN have nothing on Talky Tina, whose owner, young Christie (Tracy Stratford), is given the wind-up toy to deal with the cruelty of her stepfather. Erich (pre-“Kojak” Telly Savalas) recently married Christie’s mom, Annabelle (Mary LaRoche), but has learned he is unable to have children. Bitter Erich is taking it out on his new wife and stepdaughter. He yells at Christie and complains about Annabelle spending money on the doll. When Talky Tina (voiced by June Foray) is wound she says, “My name is Talky Tina, and I love you very much” to Christie. But when Erich picks up the doll and winds it, Tina tells him, “My name is Talky Tina, and I don’t think I like you.”
Things get worse as Erich grows more terrible to Christie and Anabelle, and Tina takes note. Erich hides Tina in a trash can, then tries to destroy her with a saw and blow torch. Tina somehow escapes unscathed. Christie tries to make Erich happy and calls him “Daddy,” but he brutally corrects her, and breaks her heart. He answers the phone to hear Tina’s voice telling him, “My name is Talky Tina, and I’m going to kill you.”
Annabelle has had enough and tells Erich she’s leaving him. He asks her to stay and returns Tina to Christie. That night he hears a noise in the hall. Going to investigate, he walks downstairs and trips over Tina. Has Tina made good on her threat?
