There were many great writers who worked onThe Twilight Zone— legends from the world of genre fiction — but the show’s original creator, Rod Serling, penned a lot of its very best episodes. Serling conceivedThe Twilight Zonewhen he became frustrated with his inability to get politically charged scripts produced. In the 1950s, advertisers were very wary about the kind of shows their clients were associating with on the airwaves, so something as sensitive asthe Emmett Till story (which Serling wanted to turn into a TV show)would warrant a lot of grief from ad executives.
Serling found that he could comment on timely social issues like racism and the Red Scare if he allegorized them through sci-fi and horror stories.He couldn’t comment on McCarthyism directly with a story about neighbors turning against each other to identify the communist among them, but he could tell a story about a neighborhood trying to identify an alien impostor on their street. Serling’s penchant for symbolic storytelling and jaw-dropping plot twists made him one of the most renowned TV writers of all time. His byline is on many ofThe Twilight Zone’s best episodes.
10Where Is Everybody?
Season 1, Episode 1
The Twilight Zone’s first episode is one of its best. “Where is Everybody?” follows a mysterious man in a military jumpsuit as he wanders around a small town that appears to be completely empty.With no sign of other human beings, he slowly starts to lose his mind.
Serling’s script for the first episode introduced all the skills that would make this series so great:his ability to set up an intriguing premise with an enigmatic hook, his ability to develop a character in a short space of time, and above all, his ability to deliver a shocking twist ending.
9Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?
Season 2, Episode 28
Serling essentially told his own version ofThe Thing from Another Worldin the classic season 2 episode “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” It sees two state troopers being sent to a diner near the site of a UFO crash. Inside the diner, nine people are riding out a snowstorm— but only eight of them are human.
It’s a masterclass in dialogue and tension-building.Serling keeps audiences on the edge of their seats with nothing more than a bunch of characters in a room, talking, as they try to determine who among them is a Martian-in-hiding.
Season 3, Episode 9
Serling never shied away from discussing difficult subject matter in his writing — including the horrors of World War II,which were still fresh in his audience’s minds whenThe Twilight Zoneoriginally aired.In season 3’s “Deaths-Head Revisited,” Serling told the story of a former S.S. officer returning to the Dachau concentration camp a decade-and-a-half after the war ended.
The episode is so hard-hitting and uncompromising in exploring the cruelty of the concentration camps that it was never aired in Germany.
As he looks around the camp, the officer is forced to answer to the ghosts of his victims.The episode is so hard-hitting and uncompromising in exploring the cruelty of the concentration camps that it was never aired in Germany.
7The Long Morrow
Season 5, Episode 15
Season 5’s “The Long Morrow” might bethe saddest episode ofThe Twilight Zone.It tells a heartbreaking love story about two people who just want to be together. A man and a woman fall for each other before the man embarks on a 40-year space mission.
He’ll spend the journey in suspended animation, so they’ll have a massive age gap when he returns.Serling’s script really sells the whirlwind romance between these two lovebirds, and it builds to a devastating twist where their individual grand romantic gestures tragically cancel each other out.
6Mirror Image
Season 1, Episode 21
Serling put his own unique spin on the evil doppelgänger trope in the season 1 episode “Mirror Image.”The episode questions the sanity of Millicent Barnes, played by Vera Miles, as she’s stranded at a bus station in the midst of a terrible storm.
Everyone around her claims to have met her before, but she has no memory of it, and her luggage seems to keep moving on its own.Serling’s script expertly keeps the audience guessing as to whether Millicent is experiencing regular delusions or something supernatural is going on.
5The Obsolete Man
Season 2, Episode 29
In season 2’s “The Obsolete Man,” one ofThe Twilight Zone’s scariest episodes,Serling offered a chilling look at a dystopian future ruled by a totalitarian government.A librarian who believes in God is deemed to be obsolete and sentenced to death, because the state has banned books and disproved God’s existence.
Serling’s script deals with some very challenging topics in a deeply thought-provoking way.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the prosecutor who sentenced Wordsworth to death is the obsolete one — andthe authoritarian state that designed this ruthless system is, in and of itself, obsolete.
4A Stop At Willoughby
Season 1, Episode 30
Serling was way ahead of the curve in exploring mental health in the season 1 episode “A Stop at Willoughby.”It revolves around an ad executive who falls asleep on the train home and wakes up in a utopian town called Willoughby.
When he returns to his stressful job, he finds that he’s miserable and wants to spend the rest of his life in Willoughby. Willoughby symbolizes the happiness that seems just out of reach as we go through the grind of our working lives.Serling’s script captures that futile pursuit of happiness beautifully.
3It’s A Good Life
Season 3, Episode 8
Serling presented the ultimate metaphor for the dangers of catering to the needs of powerful narcissists in season 3’s “It’s a Good Life.”His script was adapted from the short story of the same name by Jerome Bixby.
Man-eating aliens and sadistic monsters show up in other episodes.
It’s about a sociopathic little boy named Anthony Fremont who keeps everyone around him,including his own parents, living in terror, as he uses his supernatural ability to do whatever he wants to keep them subservient to his every whim. Man-eating aliens and sadistic monsters show up in other episodes, but this little boy is arguablyThe Twilight Zone’s scariest character.
2Eye Of The Beholder
Season 2, Episode 6
Serling tackled the absurdity of society’s beauty standards inseason 2’s “Eye of the Beholder,”in which a woman who appears beautiful to the audience is considered ugly in her world full of pig-nosed, sunken-eyed grotesqueries. The episode is noted for its technical aspects— the makeup effects, the complicated camera angles, the music by Bernard Herrmann — but its script is just as brilliantly crafted. Serling builds to the rug-pull spectacularly, and the tongue-in-cheek setting of a world full of monsters incisively points out that the perception of beauty is entirely circumstantial, based on societal conditioning.
1The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
Season 1, Episode 22
The season 1 episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” encapsulates what Serling set out to do withThe Twilight Zone.It tackles a timely political issue through the lens of science fiction. It takes place in a quaint all-American neighborhood, specifically on the titular Maple Street. When a typical day is interrupted by an unusual flash, the residents begin to suspect that there’s an alien impostor among them. As they try to identify the alien in their community, they quickly turn on each other and it gets ugly.
This is a clear-as-day parallel to the then-ongoing Red Scare. McCarthy-era fearmongering had Americans worried that Soviet spies had infiltrated their community, and became paranoid about who among them might secretly be communist sympathizers. Serling devised a lot of sharp political metaphors forThe Twilight Zone, but “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is the smartest — and, since political divisions continue to tear communities apart, it’s sadly just as relevant today.
