Follow TV Tropes

Following

Recap / The Twilight Zone (1959)

Go To

A list of the episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959).

    open/close all folders 

     Season 1 
  1. Where is Everybody?: A man finds himself completely alone in a town that looks recently lived in.
  2. One for the Angels: A sidewalk salesman is visited by Death. When he refuses to go, Death decides to take a little girl at midnight instead.
  3. Mr. Denton on Doomsday: In the Old West, a quick-draw duelist is scared of a new challenger, but is offered a special potion that will make him the best shooter for 10 seconds.
  4. The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine: A shut-in has-been actress is obsessed with her old movies.
  5. Walking Distance: A man returning to his old home town realizes that he's traveled back in time to the world of his childhood.
  6. Escape Clause: A hypochondriac makes a Deal with the Devil for immortality, but becomes bored when his death-defying stunts lose their luster.
  7. The Lonely: A convict in solitary confinement on an asteroid is given a robot woman for companionship.
  8. Time Enough at Last: A man who loves reading, and lives in a world that hates it, is the sole survivor of a nuclear blast.
  9. Perchance to Dream: A man with a heart condition visits a psychiatrist to talk about dreams of a woman who tries to kill him by taking him on amusement park rides.
  10. Judgement Night: During World War II, a ship is separated from its convoy in thick fog, and one passenger has a feeling of impending doom.
  11. And When the Sky was Opened: Three astronauts return from a mission, and slowly begin to stop existing.
  12. What You Need: A man grows dependent on another who has the ability to tell people exactly what they need in life.
  13. The Four of Us Are Dying: A con man that can change his face into anyone he wants gets in over his head.
  14. Third from the Sun: A family escapes global nuclear war on a spaceship.
  15. I Shot an Arrow into the Air: A group of astronauts thought to be lost have landed on a mysterious desert planet.
  16. The Hitch-Hiker: A woman is terrorized by a mysterious hitchhiker who keeps popping up on her cross-country journey.
  17. The Fever: A man who abhors gambling becomes a little too addicted to a slot machine.
  18. The Last Flight: A World War I pilot accidentally time travels to 1959, and discovers that saving his friend, who became a war hero in World War II, means going back and dying himself.
  19. The Purple Testament: In World War II, a man has the ability to foretell someone's death by a light shining on their faces.
  20. Elegy: A team of astronauts land on an asteroid, and find a town that heavily resembles Earth, with everyone frozen in time.
  21. Mirror Image: A woman waiting for a bus has the feeling there's a doppelganger of her running around.
  22. The Monsters are Due on Maple Street: A strange light, power outages and a kid with a comic book convince people that aliens disguised as humans have infiltrated their neighborhood.
  23. A World of Difference: An actor at a bad point in his life believes he's the character he's playing in a movie.
  24. Long Live Walter Jameson: A teacher reveals he's actually immortal, and an old wife he left for a younger woman is out for revenge.
  25. People Are Alike All Over: Astronauts land on Mars and discover the Martians are quite friendly and accommodating.
  26. Execution: An Old West outlaw about to be executed is pulled forward in time by a scientist with a Time Machine.
  27. The Big Tall Wish: A boxer who can't remember winning a match refuses to believe that he won because of a child's wish.
  28. A Nice Place to Visit: A robber is killed by police and winds up in an afterlife where he gets everything he wants.
  29. Nightmare as a Child: A woman runs into a mysterious girl that has a link to her own childhood..and her mother's murder.
  30. A Stop at Willoughby: A stressed-out business man who travels by train frequently dreams of stopping in a small, idyllic town called Willoughby.
  31. The Chaser: A man regrets buying a Love Potion.
  32. A Passage for Trumpet: A beaten, down-on-his-luck jazz trumpeter is talked out of suicide by a fellow horn player.
  33. Mr. Bevis: A man who loses his job, his apartment, and has multiple tickets on his car is given a life rewrite by his guardian angel to be a much better person, but ultimately unhappy.
  34. The After Hours: A woman at a department store ends up on a floor that doesn't exist, and makes an important discovery about herself.
  35. The Mighty Casey: A losing baseball team puts in a robot pitcher to tip the scales in their favor.
  36. A World of His Own: A man has a special tape recorder that makes anything he says real.
     Season 2 
  1. King Nine Will Not Return: A man winds up in the desert next to the wreckage of an old plane he used to serve on, with no bodies around.
  2. The Man in the Bottle: A married couple that own an antique store discover a genie in a bottle, but Be Careful What You Wish For.
  3. Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room: A cowardly crook whose boss commands him to commit a robbery/murder is confronted by his own reflection.
  4. A Thing About Machines: A man is paranoid that the machines in his house are out to get him.
  5. The Howling Man: A man seeking shelter from a storm runs into a building whose inhabitants want him to leave, and claim they are holding the devil prisoner.
  6. Eye of the Beholder: A woman gets reconstructive treatment for her ugly face.
  7. Nick of Time: A man on vacation with his wife becomes obsessed with a cheap fortune telling machine.
  8. The Lateness of the Hour: A woman is distressed over her family's reliance on robots.
  9. The Trouble with Templeton: An actor reminiscing of old times finds himself 30 years in the past, and learns that the old days aren't what they used to be.
  10. A Most Unusual Camera: A trio of criminals discover they've looted a camera that takes pictures of things 5 minutes before they happen.
  11. The Night of the Meek: A poor man recently fired from a Santa Claus job wishes to be the real Santa.
  12. Dust: While a man awaits execution by hanging, a con man sells his father magic dust that might convince the crowd to spare him.
  13. Back There: A man travels back in time and tries to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
  14. The Whole Truth: A sleazy car salesman buys an old car that forces him to tell the truth.
  15. The Invaders: In this almost dialogue-less episode, a woman living in the middle of nowhere by herself is terrorized by small creatures from outer space.
  16. A Penny for Your Thoughts: A bank teller gains the ability to read thoughts after a penny lands on edge, and believes a retiring bank worker plans to secretly rob the place.
  17. Twenty-Two: A dancer recovering in the hospital has a recurring dream where she's led by a nurse into Room 22: the morgue.
  18. The Odyssey of Flight 33: An airplane gets caught in a jet stream, and finds that it's traveled back in time to the age of the dinosaurs.
  19. Mr. Dingle, the Strong: Aliens give a wimpy vacuum-cleaner salesman super strength.
  20. Static: A man brings out his old radio, and gets old radio signals only he can hear.
  21. The Prime Mover: A man with telekinesis helps his friend win big in the casinos...for a while.
  22. Long Distance Call: A boy uses his toy telephone to talk to his dead grandmother.
  23. A Hundred Yards Over the Rim: A man from 1847 travels into the present and winds up getting modern medicine for his dying son.
  24. The Rip Van Winkle Caper: A group of criminals who have stolen gold freeze themselves in cryogenic chambers in a cave for 100 years, and try to survive the way back to civilization.
  25. The Silence: A man who won't shut up takes a $500,000 bet to stay silent for one year.
  26. Shadow Play: A man on death row keeps reliving the days leading up to his execution over and over again, and tries to convince everyone else of it.
  27. The Mind and the Matter: A man tired of people reads a book and acquires the power to alter reality at a mere thought.
  28. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?: Police investigating a UFO crash visit a diner, filled with people traveling by bus, and are convinced one of them is a Martian.
  29. The Obsolete Man: A religious librarian in a society that has banned books and religion is sentenced to death.

     Season 3 
  1. Two: The last two survivors of a war, a man and a woman, stalk each other in a deserted town.
  2. The Arrival: A small airplane arrives with no pilot, no passengers, and no luggage. It gets weirder from there.
  3. The Shelter: When a radio announces a possible nuclear attack, a family buckles down in a bomb shelter, while their neighbors try to get in, desperate to survive.
  4. The Passersby: Shortly after The American Civil War, a woman is visited by a veteran soldier while she waits for her husband to return.
  5. A Game of Pool: A pool shark wants to play against a champion who is long dead.
  6. The Mirror: After succeeding in a coup in a Central American nation, a new president sees his assassins in a mirror.
  7. The Grave: A gun-for-hire is dared to visit the grave of an outlaw he chased, who swore revenge against him.
  8. It's a Good Life: The residents of a small rural town struggle to survive under the chaotic rule of a six-year-old Reality Warper.
  9. Deaths-Head Revisited: After World War II, a former Nazi officer revisits the concentration camp he was in charge of, and is put on trial by the ghosts of his inmates.
  10. The Midnight Sun: Two women struggle to survive as Earth comes out of orbit and heads towards the Sun.
  11. Still Valley: A Confederate soldier scouts a town in a valley where everyone is frozen in time.
  12. The Jungle: A man returning from an African construction project starts hearing the sounds of the jungle. He couldn't be cursed, could he?
  13. Once Upon a Time: A janitor who's miserable in 1890 steals a scientist's time helmet and travels forward to 1962, and meets a man there who wants to visit Ye Goode Olde Days.
  14. Five Characters in Search of an Exit: An army major, a ballerina, a clown, a hobo, and a bagpiper find themselves in a large cylinder with no idea of who they are or how they got there.
  15. A Quality of Mercy: In World War II, an American sergeant wants to ambush wounded Japanese soldiers, and suddenly becomes a Japanese soldier in a group wanting to ambush wounded American soldiers.
  16. Nothing in the Dark: A woman who's so scared that Mr. Death is out to get her to the point of being a complete shut-in in a condemned apartment must decide whether or not to let in a wounded police officer.
  17. One More Pallbearer: A millionaire offers to save a group of people from nuclear war in his bomb shelter if they apologize for what he feels was wrongdoing on their part.
  18. Dead Man's Shoes: A dead gangster's shoes possess whoever wears them.
  19. The Hunt: A man and his dog return from raccoon hunting to find that they're dead.
  20. Showdown with Rance McGrew: An actor making a western TV series is visited by the ghost of Jesse James.
  21. Kick the Can: An old man living in a retirement home is convinced the secret to youth is in a childhood game of Kick the Can.
  22. A Piano in the House: A man buys a player piano which reveals the inner secrets and personalities of his friends.
  23. The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank: A young man comes back from the dead, and he's not quite the same person he once was.
  24. To Serve Man: Aliens come to earth to offer peace, knowledge, and technology, but there's a dark side...
  25. The Fugitive: An old man with special powers befriends children but is wary of two men after him.
  26. Little Girl Lost: A family hears the cries of their daughter, who has vanished into thin air.
  27. Person or Persons Unknown: A man wakes up in his room, but nobody recognizes him.
  28. The Little People: Two astronauts land on a planet where microscopic people have their own civilization.
  29. Four O'Clock: A man decides to shrink every evil living person to two feet tall.
  30. Hocus-Pocus and Frisby: A man who tells outrageous (and even contradictory) stories about himself gets the attention of aliens.
  31. The Trade-Ins: An old couple want to transfer their minds into younger bodies, but they can only afford one operation.
  32. The Gift: An alien visits a Mexican village, where the locals believe he's evil.
  33. The Dummy: A ventriloquist is convinced his dummy is alive and tries to leave it behind for a new one.
  34. Young Man's Fancy: A newlywed man can't let go of his childhood home.
  35. I Sing the Body Electric: A widower buys a robot woman to have a new mother figure for his children, but the daughter rejects her.
  36. Cavender is Coming: In a retread of "Mr. Bevis" (but with a Laugh Track), a woman is given a chance by her guardian angel to improve her life, but at the cost of her happiness.
  37. The Changing of the Guard: At Christmas, an old teacher is forced to retire, and believes his students haven't learned anything from him, and thus his life was wasted.

     Season 4 

Note: Due to being a mid-season replacement for Fair Exchange, episodes in this season are an hour long.

  1. In His Image: A man discovers his old town has aged 20 years in a week, and hears strange noises that make him want to kill people.
  2. The Thirty-Fathom Grave: A ship investigates hammering noises from a sunken submarine, which troubles the chief.
  3. Valley of the Shadow: A lost man comes across a town where the people have strange machines that can instantly move things, and they want to keep it a secret.
  4. He's Alive: A Neo-Nazi gets advice from a mysterious man.
  5. Mute: An orphaned telepathic girl who never learned to talk is taken in by a couple, and eventually goes to school.
  6. Death Ship: Three spacemen discover the wreckage of their own ship, with their own corpses.
  7. Jess-Belle: A rural woman buys a Love Potion from a witch to win back her ex-boyfriend (who is now engaged), but without money, she has to pay a special price.
  8. Miniature: An introverted man sees figures moving in a dollhouse at a museum.
  9. Printer's Devil: The editor of a failing newspaper hires a man who can type up and deliver the news at demon-like speed.
  10. No Time Like the Past: A time traveler, after failing to prevent historical tragedies, settles down in July 1881, just before President Garfield gets shot.
  11. The Parallel: An astronaut gradually realizes that he's entered a parallel world.
  12. I Dream of Genie: A poor man finds a genie in a oil lamp who will grant him one wish, and he weighs his options.
  13. The New Exhibit: A museum worker takes the wax figures of five famous murderers home after the museum closes. Then they start killing people.
  14. Of Late I Think of Cliffordville: A old man who is unhappy at the top of the corporate chain makes a Deal with the Devil to go back to his old home town 25 years ago to start again, but the past isn't as he remembers it.
  15. The Incredible World of Horace Ford: A man who can't let go of his childhood goes back to his old street, and back in time.
  16. On Thursday We Leave for Home: A group of colonists on a desolate world can finally go back to Earth after 30 years, but their captain doesn't want to give up his authority.
  17. Passage on the Lady Anne: A bickering couple try going on a cruise ship to rekindle their marriage, but all the passengers are old, and the crew doesn't want them on board.
  18. The Bard: Thanks to his fumbling with a book of Black Magic, an aspiring TV writer accidentally conjures up a new writing partner—William Shakespeare!

     Season 5 
  1. In Praise of Pip: After learning his son has been wounded in Vietnam, a man regrets not spending more time with him as a child.
  2. Steel: In an era where robots have replaced humans in boxing, a man goes to desperate measures to keep his robot in the ring.
  3. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: A man recovering from a nervous breakdown sees a creature on the wing of an airplane.
  4. A Kind of a Stopwatch: A man discovers a watch that can freeze time.
  5. The Last Night of a Jockey: A horse jockey banned from racing wishes to be big.
  6. Living Doll: A father must contend with a Talky Tina doll who threatens to kill him.
  7. The Old Man in the Cave: In a post-apocalyptic world, a small town is guided by an unseen old man who knows whether things and places are contaminated or not.
  8. Uncle Simon: A woman is frustrated by her dying uncle, but puts up with it as she is his only heir, but there is one catch to her inheritance.
  9. Probe 7, Over and Out: An astronaut crashlands on an alien planet while his own destroys itself in nuclear war, and meets a woman from another world.
  10. The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms: Three Army soldiers travel back and forth through time between the present and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
  11. A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain: An old man with a younger wife decides to take a youth serum, and gets younger than expected.
  12. Ninety Years Without Slumbering: An old man fears he will die when his grandfather clock stops.
  13. Ring-a-Ding Girl: An actress returns to her hometown, and sees visions of herself on a doomed airplane in a ring.
  14. You Drive: A man who accidentally kills a boy in a hit-and-run is haunted by his car.
  15. The Long Morrow: A man falls in love with a woman before embarking on a space mission in cryogenic suspension, and fears he'll be too young for her when he comes back a young man, and her an old woman.
  16. The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross: A man has the ability to switch personality traits with others and tries to get his girlfriend's father's permission to marry her.
  17. Number 12 Looks Just Like You: A teenager wants to be unique in a world where everyone looks alike.
  18. Black Leather Jackets: A man is suspicious of a group of bikers who move in next door.
  19. Night Call: An elderly woman is haunted by mysterious phone calls.
  20. From Agnes-With Love: A computer gains sentience and falls in love with its operator.
  21. Spur of the Moment: An engaged woman is terrorized by a screaming woman on horseback, and later elopes with another man, only to regret it 25 years later.
  22. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: During The American Civil War, a spy escapes being hanged and runs back home.
  23. Queen of the Nile: A columnist interviews a beautiful actress about her secret to aging well.
  24. What's in the Box: An old man who constantly argues with his wife sees the future through his television.
  25. The Masks: A dying man invites his family over for one last evening, but they must wear grotesque masks in order to claim their inheritance.
  26. I Am the Night–Color Me Black: On the morning of a hated man's execution, people are troubled by the fact that the sun still hasn't risen yet.
  27. Sounds and Silences: A man who absolutely loves loud noises finds noises too loud for him.
  28. Caesar and Me: A broke ventriloquist's dummy convinces him to take up a life of crime.
  29. The Jeopardy Room: A Soviet defector staying in a hotel room receives a call that there is a bomb somewhere in the room, and that it'll be blown up if he tries to leave.
  30. Stopover in a Quiet Town: A married couple wake up in what seems to be a giant dollhouse and a deserted town.
  31. The Encounter: A katana sparks conflict between a World War II vet and a Japanese-American.
  32. Mr. Garrity and the Graves: A man claims to have the power to resurrect the dead.
  33. The Brain Center at Whipple's: A man replaces his workers with machines. The workers aren't happy.
  34. Come Wander with Me: A wandering singer comes across an unfriendly town, and a woman who sings a song of his death.
  35. The Fear: A state trooper and a woman deal with strange lights and alien invaders.
  36. The Bewitchin' Pool: Two children dive into their pool and come out into another world to escape their hostile, bickering parents.


Top