Favorite/Best Twilight Zone Episodes

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Thanks to meltzerboy for starting a thread on the recent TZ marathon. It got me thinking about how others might rank episodes, or which they’d identify as their favorites or the best? Thoughts?

On a personal level, I’d probably have to group them somehow. For example, there are episodes that are stellar but are now so familiar that I struggle to watch them more than once a year or two:
  • Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
  • Eye of the Beholder
  • The Invaders
  • To Serve Man
  • It’s a Good Life
And then there are those episodes that are more like personal favorites:
  • Last Stop at Willoughby
  • The Obsolete Man
  • The Howling Man
  • Shadow Play
So many to choose from! I’m also a sucker for all of the episodes featuring astronauts…and there are plenty of those.
 
My all time favorite episode is I Sing the Body Electric. I think it’s based off of a Ray Bradbury story? Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? is another favorite of mine.
 
I’m not sure of the title but, its the one about the old man and his greedy ungrateful family. He makes them put on those ugly masks! Love that one!!
 
I used to watch this series as a kid. The only episode I remember is the woman who gradually became a dog. I don’t know the title though.
 
gracepoole said:
Thanks to meltzerboy for starting a thread on the recent TZ marathon. It got me thinking about how others might rank episodes, or which they’d identify as their favorites or the best? Thoughts?

On a personal level, I’d probably have to group them somehow. For example, there are episodes that are stellar but are now so familiar that I struggle to watch them more than once a year or two:
  • Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
  • Eye of the Beholder
  • The Invaders
  • To Serve Man
  • It’s a Good Life
And then there are those episodes that are more like personal favorites:
  • Last Stop at Willoughby
  • The Obsolete Man
  • The Howling Man
  • Shadow Play
So many to choose from! I’m also a sucker for all of the episodes featuring astronauts…and there are plenty of those.
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You’ve picked some real gems. “Willoughby” has always been my favorite, but I think “Eye of the Beholder” has the best surprise ending.
 
I like Nightmare at 20,000 ft. and Eye of the Beholder. I am not sure if the Invaders is the one with Agnes Morehead or the one where the bus stops at the diner and there is
one extra person who they feel is probably from the crashed spaceship. I like both of
those.

I also liked the one where the parents wake up in the middle of the night to their daughter crying and the Dad goes to check on her, but she is not in he bed yet he still
hears her cries. That one really scared me when I was a little girl. I thought it could really happen.

I did not like Rod Sterling’s other TV show Night Gallery.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I also liked the one where the parents wake up in the middle of the night to their daughter crying and the Dad goes to check on her, but she is not in he bed yet he still
hears her cries. That one really scared me when I was a little girl. I thought it could really happen.
.
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Good thing they had a friendly neighborhood physicist they could call over.😃
 
My favorite line from TZ is, “Room for one more, honey” from the episode called Twenty-Two.

It’s not really a great episode though.
 
gracepoole said:
Thanks to meltzerboy for starting a thread on the recent TZ marathon. It got me thinking about how others might rank episodes, or which they’d identify as their favorites or the best? Thoughts?

On a personal level, I’d probably have to group them somehow. For example, there are episodes that are stellar but are now so familiar that I struggle to watch them more than once a year or two:
  • Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
  • Eye of the Beholder
  • The Invaders
  • To Serve Man
  • It’s a Good Life
And then there are those episodes that are more like personal favorites:
  • Last Stop at Willoughby
  • The Obsolete Man
  • The Howling Man
  • Shadow Play
So many to choose from! I’m also a sucker for all of the episodes featuring astronauts…and there are plenty of those.
Click to expand...
Some of my favorites, in no particular order, are episodes that are not generally known or shown too often:
  1. The Trouble with Templeton: about an aging stage actor, exquisitely played by Brian Aherne, who goes back in time to his lost love, Laura, and his best friend, Barney, only to be rejected by them and sent back to the present. They tell him to live in the present, not the past, by means of acting from a script. A beautifully conceived episode: not flashy, just wonderful, and with a hopeful message for all those who dwell too much on the happiness of their past.
  2. Nothing in the Dark: about an old woman, beautifully acted by Gladys Cooper, who is afraid to die and is on the lookout for Mr. Death, The woman lives in an abandoned building basement, which is going to be torn down, and she is terrified to leave her apartment for fear of encountering Mr. Death. The latter is played (not too well, but not bad enough to spoil this touching episode) by Robert Redford, who finally convinces the woman, in the final moments of her life, that death is not the end but only the beginning, and that it comes not with a bang but with a whisper. A must-see for all those who fear the unknown.
  3. Dust: about a Mexican peasant who, while drunk, accidentally ran over a young boy and is now set to hang for his deed. It is a tale of monetary greed and forgiveness, well acted, and with a highly emotional ending.
  4. Person or Persons Unknown: The ultimate identity nightmare, in which a man wakes up in what he believes to be his own home but his wife does not know him, and neither do the people at his place of business, nor anyone else. A really surprise ending that I will not give away.
  5. The Changing of the Guard: A must-see episode for ALL teachers who are beginning to question why they are in their profession. An old schoolmaster at a private boys’ school, wonderfully played by Donald Pleasence, now being forced to retire after over 50 years of teaching, doubts whether he has made a difference in the lives of any of his students. He is in for a huge surprise!
  6. Long Live Walter Jameson: a lesson on the lack of fulfillment of a VERY long life. One of the most depressing of all episodes, no real moral tale involved, just the notion that life is merely a dust-to-dust experience, as Ecclesiastes reminds us. Well acted by Kevin McCartney.
More favorites include:
Shadow Play: literally an unending nightmare, wonderfully acted by Dennis Weaver.
And When the Sky was Opened: questions if anything or anyone AT ALL is real.
The Jungle: nicely played by John Dehner and just the right touch of mounting suspense.
A Stop at Willoughby: there is nothing like the peaceful idyllic past, particularly for those stressed out by the turbulent modern world.
The Obsolete Man: great performances by both Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver, pitting the worth of the individual against the authority and conformity of the state.
Nick of Time: the “other” William Shatner episode, about the dangers of superstition.

There are, of course, several others; but this will suffice…for now.
 
What is the one were it ends with guys standing by an airplane and each one disappears.

I think that was a TZ episode.
 
“Willoughby”
“Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”
“The Man in the Bottle”
 
Absolutely love this series! My dad got me hooked on it when I was a kid (he had seen it when it was originally shown).

Some of my favorites:

Time Enough At Last
Two
Judgment Night
The Odyssey of Flight 33
The Night of the Meek
The Passersby
Deaths-Head Revisited
The Hunt
 
Melissa said:
Some of my favorites:

Time Enough At Last
The Night of the Meek
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I’m glad someone finally mentioned the two best episodes! There’s lot of others I think are great, but those are my two favorites. I’ve seen Time Enough At Last a few dozen times and we watch The Night of the Meek at least a couple times each Christmas.
 
Some of my favorite ones include:

What You Need A little old man gives little things away to people to help them. A dark hearted man forces the man to give him many things. It’s a nice story showing how little things can affect us as well as how some people don’t appreciate what they have.

One It stars Elizabeth Montgomery as the last survivors of a devastating war. It has no supernatural elements, just a character study. Check out the very interesting propaganda in the background.

Number 12 Looks Just Like You It’s even more relevant now than when it was made. It’s about a society where everyone conforms physically to one of a select few bodies and faces.

I don’t how many of you guys remember the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone. One of my favorites in that series was To See the Invisible Man. It’s about a man accused of the crime of “coldness” and is forced for one year to have a mark in his forward where no one is allowed to interact with him.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
Some of my favorite ones include:

What You Need A little old man gives little things away to people to help them. A dark hearted man forces the man to give him many things. It’s a nice story showing how little things can affect us as well as how some people don’t appreciate what they have.

One It stars Elizabeth Montgomery as the last survivors of a devastating war. It has no supernatural elements, just a character study. Check out the very interesting propaganda in the background.

Number 12 Looks Just Like You It’s even more relevant now than when it was made. It’s about a society where everyone conforms physically to one of a select few bodies and faces.

I don’t how many of you guys remember the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone. One of my favorites in that series was To See the Invisible Man. It’s about a man accused of the crime of “coldness” and is forced for one year to have a mark in his forward where no one is allowed to interact with him.
Click to expand...
I believe you are referring to “Two” rather than “One.” It stars Elizabeth Montgomery and Charles Bronson.
 
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