“The Twilight Zone” is one of the most influential creations in the history of entertainment. 2024 marks Rod Serling’s centennial.
There are 156 episodes, and most are hit or miss. I struggled to craft a list of the Top 60 and ranked them accordingly.
30 – The Dummy
Cliff Robertson stars as a ventriloquist haunted by his pint-sized partner.
29 – The Lateness of the Hour
Videotape helps the spookiness of this creep episode about a reclusive family and their robot servants.
28 – The Jungle
My boy John Dehner plays an executive crossing Manhattan late at night whilst plagued by a voodoo curse.
27 – Twenty-Two
Another videotape entry that excels because of its straight horror script. A woman has a recurring nightmare that takes her to the hospital morgue. Room for one more, honey.
26 – The Jeopardy Room
A guilty pleasure favorite of mine, this is one of the few non-paranormal episodes. The plot revolves around a man attempting to flee the Iron Curtain. What has made me love it since childhood is the performance of John van Dreelen as the assassin Commissar Vassiloff – who is in my top ten all time fiction characters.
25 – Walking Distance
Classic tale about a middle-aged man pining for the freedom of childhood.
24 – Nick of Time
The first of two William Shatner episodes, the episode features a man obsessed with a fortune telling machine.
23 – Where is Everybody?
The pilot and one of the best. Earl Holliman is a one man show as he wanders a deserted town.
22 – Five Characters in Search of an Exit
Creepy tale about a strange eclectic mix of beings confined to a mysterious prison.
21 – The Big Tall Wish
Rod Serling was a pioneering voice in the Civil Rights Movement. This episode is one of the first ever to feature a black man in the lead role – a boxer who is down on his luck. It’s a terrific story with cold reality emphasized by its time.
20 – Long Live Walter Jameson
After he did battle with the Body Snatchers, Kevin McCarthy became a TZ fave as a guy with immortality.
19 – Eye of the Beholder
One of the best-known episodes holds up great and has more spookiness than one may remember.
18– The Invaders
Straight horror story about a woman in an isolated farmhouse terrorized by mysterious creatures.
17 – It’s a Good Life
Billy Mumy plays a kid with Shining-like powers terrorizing his town.
16 – The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
Another well-known episode, its prescient nature adds to its horror. A group of suburbanites turn on each other in the face of the unknown.
