The Twilight Zone, from 1959 to 1963, is one of the most influential television programs of all time. There have been several reboots, the most recent of which was produced by acclaimed writer-directorJordan Peelejust a few years ago, but it seems that no iteration has been able to reach the heights of the first. Of course,The Twilight Zonewas an anthology series, which is by nature much less predictable than any other kind of show. Every episode tells its own unique story, and some are better than others.
IMDb has thoughts on what constitutes the best of them, many of which are largely considered classics in popular culture. Based on thousands of votes,the episodes that comprise the top 15 by turns induce horror, contempt, empathy, and even hope for the human condition. Mostly horror, though.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
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15"The Midnight Sun" (Season 3, Episode 10)
IMDb Score: 8.4/10
There’s a gas shortage, a water shortage, an incredibly bright sun, and no more darkness – for the Earth has been hurtling toward the sun for the last month and shows no signs of stopping. Hence this story’s title, “The Midnight Sun.” The only two tenants left in a New York City apartment building, Mrs. Bronson (Betty Garde) and Norma (Lois Nettleton), have a hard time braving the conditions. Even the weather reporter on the radio is losing his composure.
Norma has been able to keep her head, but Mrs. Bronson is losing her mind. This is an interesting look into what happens to people under the threat of imminent doom.Desperation has several different faces, and this episode does a good job of showing them. The image of those paintings (a source of reprieve) melting in the heat is one of several excellent shots throughout. Thefinal twist feels unnecessaryand unsatisfying, but it’s still a compelling episode overall.
14"The After Hours" (Season 1, Episode 34)
In “The After Hours,” Marsha White (Anne Francis) is looking for a gold thimble, and the elevator man helps her reach the floor where she can find one. This express elevator is exclusively for the ninth floor, and of course, it takes her to The Twilight Zone. Marsha walks through the specialties department to find it’s largely empty. One employee (Elizabeth Allen) is there, and shows her the object she wants. It’s the only merchandise on the floor, and the woman who sells her the item asks if she’s happy. Why?
Marsha winds up going to the third floor, where she discovers something troubling about the circumstances of her recent purchase. Things just get weirder after that, and for a while, the viewer wonders what this episode is supposed to be heading toward. Finally, its intriguing conclusionasks what it means to be normal and shows what it’s like to briefly participate in a world you cannot fully be a part of.
13"Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (Season 3, Episode 14)
IMDb Score: 8.5/10
There are five people trapped in a room with no doors and no ceiling. When they look up, they see the moon in an evening sky – or is it some other light source? A clown (Murray Matheson), an army major (William Windom), a ballerina (Susan Harrison), a bagpiper (Clark Allen), and a homeless man (Kelton Garwood) all woke up and found themselves here. They can’t remember who they are or how they got here. The major is new, though, so he doesn’t take the situation very calmly. He wants out.
They have no food, no sign of rescue, there’s a giant bell that rings outside, and they’ve been here for a while. The unhelpfulRod Serlingnarrates, “We will not end the nightmare; we’ll only explain it.“Based on the short storybyMarvin Petal, “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” expresses existential dread with characters you wouldn’t expect to see in the same room together.The curiosity of the human condition is explored through this episode, which skillfully provides clue after clueto solve this Beckett-like, suspenseful mystery.
12"A Stop at Willoughby” (Season 1, Episode 30)
In “A Stop at Willoughby,” Mr. Williams (James Daly) gets grilled by his boss for trusting the wrong person. In response, Williams tells him off during the meeting and nearly gets fired. Taking the train home, he falls asleep and travels from the mid-twentieth century to July 1888. Then he wakes up on the train in the present, and subsequently has an argument with his wife about how he wishes he could have a job where he can be himself.
He’s not the ambitious, “push-push-push” executive type. Mr. Williams is more sensitive, more average. The serenity of Willoughby is what he longs for instead. His wife tells him she married a man who was born too late, and she’s not wrong. The train conductor (Jason Wingreen) even tells him he looked up Willoughby and found no trace of it. The town is a dream, an ideal, a romanticization of simpler times. Likewise, this man’s attempt to embrace this dream doesn’t end so well.Despite its plot, this episode still has enough dream sequences to carry the tone of its more speculative fair.
11"The Shelter” (Season 3, Episode 3)
IMDb Score: 8.6/10
The Twilight Zonedoesn’texclusively portray the supernatural. In fact, some of its best episodes realistically cover topics that people outside the fifth dimension worry about every day. “The Shelter” is a perfect example, as it’s driven by the Cold War fear that a nuclear holocaust would destroy humanity in short order. On the night of a suburban birthday party, a warning over the radio heavily suggests that nuclear missiles are coming.
The doctor is the only one on the block with a bomb shelter, and there’s only enough room for him and his family. So when other families on the block show up, desperate for shelter of their own, they quickly lose their cool. Rod Serling closes the episode with “a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized.” Unfortunately, this message is still relevant today.
10"The Obsolete Man" (Season 2, Episode 29)
This entry begins with a trial, in which a librarian played byBurgess Meredithis in trouble because of his profession. As the judge reminds the audience a distracting number of times, the librarian’s name is Mr. Wordsworth (a rather obvious reference to the co-founder of Romanticism). Since both religion and books have been labeled “obsolete” by this authoritarian regime, Mr. Wordsworth is found likewise.
Interestingly, he is allowed to choose how he dies—which leads to a clever trick that allows the individual to triumph over the whole, in his own way at least. This episode may be a bit overgeneralizing, but its basic message still holds today: the freedom of the individual and the pursuit of knowledge can be suppressed for only so long. Though considered amongthe scariestTwilight Zoneepisodes,its conversation-heavy approach and protagonist’s calm demeanor make it more reflectivethan anything else.
9"The Masks" (Season 5, Episode 25)
Jason Foster (Robert Keith) from “The Masks” has all the money in the world, but his offspring are cynical, greedy, and rude. On his deathbed, Mr. Foster invites them to his opulent home in New Orleans on Mardi Gras. If they can fulfill his last request, they will inherit his vast fortune and estate. The request is simple – everyone must wear the mask he assigns to them until midnight – and is responsible for one of thegreatestTwilight Zoneepisodes of any version.
This might sound like a task so easy that its participants would happily go along, but Mr. Foster’s children and grandchildren are so spoiled that it takes some insistence to even have them put the masks on. These masks are ugly, even grotesque, and they are uncomfortable to wear. Of course, if a dying man can wear his, then healthy youngsters should be able to endure it, too.The twist at the end cements this as one of the best and most satisfying episodes in the series.
8’It’s a Good Life" (Season 3, Episode 8)
In “It’s a Good Life,” the only town left in America is this small one in Ohio. It’s ruled over by Anthony Fremont (Billy Mumy), a sociopathic narcissist who can read minds and either kills or grotesquely deforms anyone who thinks badly of him or what he’s done. The epitome of a child spoiled rotten, Anthony makes up for his lack of playdates by putting dinosaurs on TV (and nothing else).
While everyone in town is so terrified of him that they only think happy, enabling thoughts, Anthony’s aunt just doesn’t get it. She has challenged her nephew before, and he gave her a disability for it – yet she still complains in front of him, albeit mildly. This episode stands as an excellent display of someone with too much power and no capacity to admit that he’s wrong about anything.Contemporary and historical comparisons to authoritarian man-children abound in this ever-relevant episode.
7'“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (Season 2, Episode 28)
IMDb Score: 8.7/10
This fun mystery begins in a snowstorm, where two state troopers investigate a trail that starts from a frozen pond and leads to a nearby diner. An unidentified flying object recently crashed into the pond and disappeared – clearly an alien spacecraft. So there’s no doubt about it: one of the patrons inside the diner is not of this Earth, and no one leaves until they figure out who. Hence thealien-centered episode’s classictitle, “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
It’s a classic puzzle: everyone besides the bartender was on a bus that pulled up to the joint, but there’s one more patron present than there were people on the bus. What follows is some good logic (the couples should be crossed out, since their better half can vouch for them),lots of missing information, paranoia, bizarre laughter from a guy who apparently couldn’t care less about the situation, and a twist-ending that will probably catch the audience off guard.
6"Living Doll" (Season 5, Episode 6)
Her name is Talky Tina, and she has precious little patience for mean stepfathers. Annabelle just bought an expensive doll for her daughter, Christie, who is an only (and lonely) child. This little girl’s new Talky Tina is here to make her feel less rejected and alone. No doubt the rejected part is because of her selfish stepfather, Erich, who doesn’t care about her feelings (nor his wife’s).
‘“Living Doll” is one episode where it’s easy to take the monster’s side. Stepfather Erich (Telly Savalas) is a bitter man who openly complains about the doll’s purchase in the first place. They can’t afford it, he insists, and wants it returned immediately. With such an aggressive stance, there is only one solution. As Rod Serling himself says: “to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian.“From an era with no CGI, this episode proved that all you need is good dialogue, solid acting, and focused directionto make a toy doll come alive in macabre and palpable fashion. This episode would go on to inspire movies likeToy Story 4andChild’s Play.
