The Twilight Zone
Summary
The Twilight Zoneis still conceive one of the scariest and most creative TV shows of all time , and the bestTwilight Zoneepisodes remain iconic X later . It deal with ripe themes and commentaries on society and blend in them into well - crafted creepy and suspensive storey that have terrified witness from coevals to generation . The best of the unspoiled has a lesson to learn its audience but obscure it within a well - crafted flighty tale that is at turns terrifying , creepy , and often antic .
It was forrader of its time andThe Twilight Zonepaved the wayfor other classic horror anthology such asThe Outer Limits , Tales From The Darkside , andTales From The Crypt . There have also been many revival meeting of the TV series , admit a late one by Jordan Peele , but no matter how good the stories were , they never really agree up to the imaginative nature of Rod Serling ’s Hellenic horror / sci - fi anthology series about thing that unlock the key to the viewer ’s mental imagery and take them into a " land of both apparition and substance , of affair and thought , " before finally track over into theTwilight Zone .
The best TV shows of all time will be debate forever , but there are decipherable contenders . These are the very skillful TV shows of all fourth dimension , order .
25A Game Of Pool
Season 3, Episode 5
As with most of the bestTwilight Zoneepisodes , " A Game of Pool " is carry by its steer , boast two fantastic and legendary actors . The intact idea take twomen who set out to rise to be the good at something- in this case , playing consortium . Jack Klugman ( 12 Angry Men ) is Jesse Cardiff , one of the salutary role player in the creation , who feels that he will never be considered the best because he never had a prospect to represent the deceased Fats Brown . This brings Fats back from the hereafter to play him , with Jonathan Winters ( It ’s a unhinged , Mad , Mad , Mad World ) in that role . If Jesse lose , he forfeits his life , but if he win , his fate could be even unfit .
24And When The Sky Was Opened
Season 1, Episode 11
Alternate realities and realism - change event are practically the bread and butter of the best episode ofTwilight Zone . The episode titled , And When The Sky Was Openedis a premier example of the repugnance of such events as three astronaut reelect to Earth and stick in a hospital . Throughout the episode , the three astronaut vanish and are forgotten from existence . Each disappearance is play through a newsprint that change with each shift . There is no lineal account for these consequence , much like other installment , which add together to the horror as the spaceman easy give in to the event .
23Mirror Image
Season 1, Episode 21
The season one episode " Mirror Image " has a woman await for a heap at the bus halt ( Psycho ’s Vera Miles ) . When she tires of the long waiting , she inquire the co-occurrence when the coach will arrive , but she is told she already ask three times , which she knows is not dependable . When a adult female clean the motorcoach catch tells her that she just take in her in the toilet , the char looks into a mirror andsees her doppelganger sitting on a judiciary . This episode remain notable for one key trivia fact . Jordan Peele , who made his version ofTwilight Zoneyears after , said this was one of his deary and charm his movieUs , which was also about doppelgångers .
" It ’s terrifying , beautiful , really refined storytelling , and it opens up a macrocosm . It open up your imaginativeness . "
22The Midnight Sun
Season 3, Episode 10
Due to the Earth alter path , it is getting secretive and close to the Dominicus , leading to the heat step by step rising more and more . Immediately , the concept is something that feels somewhat realistic enough that can put anyone into a state of dread . It follows two womanhood in an apartment building , fundamentally slowly succumbing to the hotness . " The Midnight Sun " does a dandy job of making it seem so hot that it makes keep an eye on the episode feel uncomfortable . This is heighten bycommendable carrying out by Lois Nettleton and Betty Garde . By the death , the dark spin ending is a embossment as much as it is worrisome .
21Little Girl Lost
Season 3, Episode 26
" Little female child Lost " has a legendary revulsion master behind the script . Richard Matheson ( I Am Legend ) wrote one of the best episodes ofTwilight Zonein this story aboutparents who can hear their nestling but ca n’t find them . When a matrimonial span get a line their daughter crying , they head into her room and ca n’t recover her there . No matter where they look , they ca n’t find her or pinpoint where the call is coming from . This sequence find a parody inThe Simpsonson aTreehouse of Horrorepisode and shares much in usual with the moviePoltergeist .
20Nightmare As A Child
Season 1, Episode 29
When a school instructor finds a very serious petty girl named Markie , the girl claims she bed her , but the teacher does n’t know where that would be from . presently , a man shows up and suppose that he was a spectator to her mother ’s death years before , but she had blocked that all from her retention . When she cite the trivial girl , the mantells the cleaning woman her sobriquet as a child was Markie . The episode was a basic murder mystery and the twists and turns offer nothing new , but it remain a majuscule episode thanks to the performances and the slow burn give away that kept viewers in a constant state of stress .
19The After Hours
Season 1, Episode 34
" The After Hours " did something that was n’t hard to do for a repulsion report . It brought manikin into the motion-picture show . decennary after this episode broadcast , it is not intemperate to remember the mannequinsin one of the best episodes ofThe Twilight Zone , and not feel a little unquiet around them . When a woman go to a section computer memory , she resolve to bribe a gold thimble and is take to the 9th floor , where nothing is there but one counter with a salesperson and a gold thimble . This top to the originative braid ending that turns everything on its school principal . This episode finish up being remade for the 1986 revival .
18A Stop At Willoughby
Season 1, Episode 30
Where most of the bestTwilight Zoneepisodes deal with the surreal and the direful , " A Stop At Willoughby " is mostly just a depressing history about an unhappy humankind . Gart is handle miserably by both his genus Bos and his wife , leading to him being channelise to a on the face of it perfect town called Willoughby in the 1800s . Gart becomes infatuate with Willoughby and continues to see it whenever he hang asleep on a railroad train . It ’s easy to feel sympathetic for Gart , specially when it comes to the scene with his wife . Nobody can blame him for want to go life in the serene townspeople , but like most sequence , it terminate on a sullen note that is both sad and thought - provoking .
17The Hitch-Hiker
Season 1, Episode 16
The Hitch - Hikerplays on the intellectual reverence of hitchhikers and the legitimate possibility of them being someone subtle . On a road trip across the country , a woman begins figure a mysterious hitchhiker who keep reappearing no matter how far she travels . The Hitch - Hikerfills every scene with uneasiness using the titular baddie . He never does anything menacing , but his blank stare gives him a creepy-crawly vibration . This conception seemed to inspire Stephen King and George A. Romeroas a similar story appear inCreepshow 2 . There is a outstanding twist to the episode which is a staple of the serial publication that hints at the hitchhiker ’s identity operator in a insidious but effective manner .
16Twenty-Two
Season 2, Episode 17
While many of the bestTwilight Zoneepisodes have a dreamlike feeling ooze into the stories , when it come to " Twenty - Two , " this sequence expend dreams as part of its floor . Barbara Nichols plays a dancer who opens the episode in the midriff of a horrific nightmare . She is in a infirmary and arrives at the morgue , where a nurse welcomes her in . She wakes up and is in that same hospital , under treatment for exhaustion . She then set out to determine what the dreaming means . With the fall back dream , the episode submit on a creepyGroundhog Dogfeelthat establish the dread to the end .
