Twilight Zone: Season 1 Ranked

Episode 11: And When the Sky Was Opened

Three U.S. astronauts blast off from Earth on an initial test flight in an experimental rocket-ship, but during the flight into space the ship disappears from radar, then reappears.

Directed by: Douglas Heyes
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Richard Matheson (story)


9/10

Episode 1: Where is Everybody?

A man finds himself in a town devoid of people and with no memory of who he is.

Directed by: Robert Stevens
Written by: Rod Serling


8.5/10

Episode 14: Third from the Sun

Two families of Government employees plan to steal a spaceship and travel to another planet just prior to World War III. They must also deal with a stooge who wants to stop them.

Directed by: Richard L. Bare
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Richard Matheson (story)


8/10

Episode 25: People Are Alike All Over

A crash landing on Mars leaves fretful scientist Sam Conrad as the lone survivor of an expedition.

Directed by: Mitchell Leisen
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Paul Fairman (story)

Watch Episode on Hulu
8/10

Episode 5: Walking Distance

A man makes a time travel to his childhood, when he's just a few miles away from his native town.

Directed by: Robert Stevens
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Vimeo
8/10

Episode 23: A World of Difference

A businessman sitting in his office inexplicably finds that he is on a production set and in a world where he is a movie star. Uninterested in the newfound fame, he fights to get back to his home and family.

Directed by: Ted Post
Written by: Richard Matheson


8/10

Episode 30: A Stop at Willoughby

Tired of his miserable job and wife, a businessman starts dreaming on the train each night, about an old, idyllic town called Willoughby. Soon he has to know whether the town is real and fancies the thought of seeking refuge there.

Directed by: Robert Parrish
Written by: Rod Serling


8/10

Episode 8: Time Enough at Last

A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear war.

Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Lyn Venable (story)


8/10

Episode 18: The Last Flight

A World War I British fighter pilot lands at an American air force base in France 42 years in the future.

Written by: Richard Matheson
Directed by: William Claxton


8/10

Episode 24: Long Live Walter Jameson

A father forbids a history professor from marrying his daughter when he discovers that the captivating lecturer is actually an immortal who has lived for thousands of years.

Directed by: Anton Leader
Written by: Charles Beaumont


8/10

Episode 15: I Shot an Arrow into the Air

Order breaks down between three surviving crewmen whose rocket ship crashes on an unknown world with limited water and supplies.

Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Madelon Champion (story)


7.5/10

Episode 16: The Hitch-Hiker

A young woman driving cross country becomes frantic when she keeps passing the same man on the side of the road. No matter how fast she drives the man is always up ahead, hitching her for a ride.

Directed by: Alvin Ganzer
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Lucille Fletcher (story)

Watch Episode on Vimeo
7.5/10

Episode 34: The After Hours

A woman is treated badly by some odd salespeople on an otherwise empty department store floor.

Directed by: Douglas Heyes
Written by: Rod Serling




7.5/10

Episode 7: The Lonely

A convict, living alone in an asteroid, receives from the police a realistic woman-robot.

Directed by: Jack Smight
Written by: Rod Serling


7.5/10

Episode 36: A World of His Own

A writer demonstrates he can control reality simply by dictating changes.

Directed by: Ralph Nelson
Written by: Richard Matheson



7.5/10

Episode 29: Nightmare as a Child

A schoolteacher keeps seeing a strange little girl in her apartment building.

Directed by: Alvin Ganzer
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Hulu
7.5/10

Episode 13: The Four of Us Are Dying

A man who can change his face to look like other people uses his ability to improve his life regardless of his affect on others.

Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), George Johnson (story)


7.5/10

Episode 28: A Nice Place to Visit

When bad guy Henry Francis Valentine dies in a shootout with police, he wakes up in the next world where his every wish is granted forever, and ever.

Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Charles Beaumont


7/10

Episode 12: What You Need

A small time crook plans to exploit an old street peddler who has the uncanny knack of selling people exactly what they will shortly need.

Directed by: Alvin Ganzer
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), Lewis Padget (story)


7/10

Episode 9: Perchance to Dream

A fatigued man fights to stay awake as he explains to a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep it will trigger a nightmare, which will cause his heart to fail.

Directed by: Robert Florey
Written by: Charles Beaumont



7/10

Episode 20: Elegy

Three astronauts touch down on an asteroid, where they discover a world of people that appear to be frozen in time. Confused, they theorize as to why everyone is motionless, until a man springs to life and explains.

Directed by: Douglas Heyes
Written by: Charles Beaumont


7/10

Episode 26: Execution

When a 20th-century scientist tests out his time machine he accidentally retrieves a 19th-century murderer - saving him from the hangman's noose. Unaware of the man's history, the two attempt to acclimatize him to his new surroundings.

Directed by: David Orrick McDearmon
Written by: Rod Serling (teleplay), George Clayton Johnson (story)


7/10

Episode 22: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

On a peaceful suburban street, strange occurrences and mysterious people stoke the residents' paranoia to a disastrous intensity.

Directed by: Ron Winston
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Hulu
7/10

Episode 19: The Purple Testament

A U.S. army lieutenant serving in the Philippines during WWII develops a harrowing ability to see in the faces of the men of his platoon, who will be the next ones to die.

Directed by: Richard L. Bare
Written by: Rod Serling


7/10

Episode 32: A Passage for Trumpet

A suicidally despondent trumpet player finds himself in a bizarre world where he seems to be the only moving being, except for one helpful other musician.

Directed by: Don Medford
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Hulu
7/10

Episode 21: Mirror Image

While waiting in a bus station, Millicent Barnes has the strange feeling that her doppelganger is trying to take over her life.

Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Rod Serling


7/10


Episode 10: Judgment Night

A man finds himself on a ship in the Atlantic in 1942 not knowing who he was or how he got there. He does know that the ship would be attacked by a German submarine.

Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Rod Serling


6.5/10

Episode 6: Escape Clause

A hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for one million years of immortality.

Directed by: Mitchell Leisen
Written by: Rod Serling


6.5/10

Episode 31: The Chaser

A young man obsessed with winning over an uninterested beauty gets more than he bargained for when he buys a love potion to gain her affection.

Directed by: Douglas Heyes
Written by: Robert Presnell Jr. (teleplay), John Collier (story)




6.5/10

Episode 3: Mr. Denton on Doomsday

The town drunk in the old-west faces his past when Fate lends a hand.

Directed by: Allen Reisner
Written by: Rod Serling


6/10

Episode 27: The Big Tall Wish

An aging boxer loses a televised match - until he comes home, and speaks with his neighbor's son, whose wish turns the boxer into the winner.

Directed by: Ron Winston
Written by: Rod Serling


6/10

Episode 2: One for the Angels

A pitchman is visited by Death and is forced to get his priorities in order.

Directed by: Robert Parrish
Written by: Rod Serling


6/10

Episode 17: The Fever

An elderly man catches gambling fever from a slot machine that he believes is calling his name.

Directed by: Robert Florey
Written by: Rod Serling


5.5/10

Episode 4: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

Barbara Jean Trenton is a faded film star who lives in the past by constantly re-watching her old movies instead of moving on with her life, so her associates try to lure her out of her self-imposed isolation.

Directed by: Mitchell Leisen
Written by: Rod Serling


5.5/10

Episode 33: Mr. Bevis

An eccentric loser gets a new life from his guardian angel, but there is a price to keeping it.

Directed by: William Asher
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Hulu
5/10

Episode 35: The Might Casey

A down-and-out baseball team's fortunes are lifted by a mysterious but seemingly unbeatable young player.

Directed by: Alvin Ganzer & Robert Parrish
Written by: Rod Serling

Watch Episode on Hulu
4.5/10