you forgot about the twist ending in one of my favorite episodes; "a nice place to visit" where this criminal is shot down by the police during an attempted heist, and winds up in what he thinks is heaven, but as the episode goes further on, he gets everything he's ever wanted, and gets sick and tired of everything going his way, he even says he'd rather be in hell than spend anymore time in heaven, and THAT'S when he finds out he was actually in Hell the whole time!
That episode was why I never started watching "The Good Place", as I already knew what was going to happen … but now I regret not getting into it anyway. :(
@@Coyotek4 There is so much more to The Good Place than that twist, which comes at he end of the first season. There have been two seasons since then and there is a plethora of humour, emotion, philosophy and depth beyond that one twist.
Not only was Rod Serling far ahead of his time, he pure genius was being able to convey social commentary as science fiction, the occult, and paranormal activity; subjects that would have surely met the fate of censorship by any other conventional means.
He wrote a script for a TV show (I forget which one) about a black man who gets hanged in the south. The network (I forget again. I need to go back and re-read this stuff) asked if he could switch the story from the south to the north and make the black man white and to change the ending. He got so frustrated he decided to create the Twilight Zone where he could discuss social matters in a fantastical setting and nobody would question him about it because it wasn't 'real.' It worked pretty darn well, didn't it? Serling, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont wrote the bulk of the stories. You probably know or heard of Matheson (I Am Legend) but most likely haven't heard of Beaumont. Read about him. Strange sad story but a great writer.
@@bryanburton6087 RE: "You probably know or heard of Matheson . . ." Matheson also wrote The Shrinking Man (movie version: The Incredible Shrinking Man).
He wasn't ahead of his time. This show couldn't EXIST today. There would be far too many conspiracy nuts on Twitter and Instagram claiming the bizarre twists were real. If anything, Serling would have found our current "social media" landscape far more terrifying than any of his episodes. (K, maybe a bit of hyperbole, but Serling would approve, I think.)
He basically circumvented the media censors in a brilliant way, that nobody had done before, or even since. All these things going on now, were going on then in the 1950's. If you really watch them, you'd see he was actually prophetic in the messages he tried to convey to the masses. These weren't typical "horror" stories as one would think. Serling used that to depict the true horrors that he saw happening then, and that are actually happening today.
One of my favorite twist is in The Hunt. Where the hillbilly and his dog wont go into a "Heaven" that doesn't allow dogs only to find out that it was actually hell. That sentiment rings true to me.
I would suggest reading the book written by his daughter that showed what a great guy he was and family man. But his smoking addiction really was his undoing..He wanted to quit too, but just couldn't shake a 3 or 4 pack a day habit. Rod died trying to start a lawn mowing and suffering a heart attack..
Chris Surfcrab Irrelevant to this thread, but I'll answer anyway. My view is the arrogance of the supergenius... hahaha, I'm so smart I can leave this clue to what I'm doing right under their noses and they still won't figure it out. Except someone always does.
@@BillGraper Yes he was. The Outer Limits was another good show I liked in the early 1960s. The Twilight Zone made you think. His voice was hypnotizing.
Well, it got you off pork so that's a good thing. Now you can make a seamless transition into the black muslim faith and no, you don't have to be black.
Twilight zone is actually an amazing show. It still holds up perfectly fine today. I've watched a lot of classic TV in the past decade or so, and this one stands the test of time the best. I recommend every episode 100%
@@marccolten9801 Well, you can't have everything. (I'm Asian,BTW, that made me giggle). But what got me in that episode was the alien smiling and telling the narrator to eat. Soooo creepy!
#4 made me sad for the protagonist. Man he was a great actor seeing his joy at finally being able to read only to see him almost in tears after his glasses break. Man I was all over the feels train on that one.
Reportedly, TZ actually got hate mail for that ending. It has since been used as an example of "irony porn," viz., the gratuitous use of irony without point. Of course, as far as the story goes, he could have just scrounged through the remains of the local pharmacy for reading glasses and likely found some. Even if you deliberately throw glass-lensed glasses at a brick wall, you're unlikely to damage them to the point where you don't get _some_ residual vision out of them, and so he'd be able to maneuver about in the town.
Also after a while you compensate to a point. He would have been able to read close up, and after awhile may have been able to get the book further away from his face. At the height of my pre lasik, I focused at an angle a few inches from my nose. (turn head to one side and look that ways at something head on) If I had quit wearing correction, my eyes and mind would have retrained to a bit farther out and more even. As Joseph Erhardt mentions... also going and finding some reading glasses, even if the fellow needed different strengths for each eye, it'd be pretty easy to swap a few lenses to get something that'd work well enough, then he would adapt to it. So it's only a short term issue. Really.
"The State is not God!" This has got to be one of the most powerful lines in The Twilight Zone. There's a whole lot of politicians and backers of politicians who should watch The Twilight Zone.
Existential dread is more scary than any jumpscare every will be. I never realized how influential the twilight zone was but you can see how inspiration how bleed into other forms of media, black mirror stands out to me.
THANK YOU @George Powell! I was about to post this exact thing. Most times when a twilight zone countdown is presented they pick the time honored favorites like Time Enough at Last and Eye of the Beholder... The Hunt was good as well
YOu know, that's the funny thing, I guessed the twist within 3 minutes of the episode. That didn't harm my enjoyment, as it is a fantastic episode, but I was not shocked by that twist at all.
Agreed. The key to the episode is your eye is fixed on the bandages which look kinda creepy themselves so seeing the staff's faces doesn't really come to mind.
The way lighting is used throughout really caught my attention. The acting was very good and impactful. For years this was my number 1, but over the years "To Serve Man", "The Monsters are due on Maple Street", "The Obsolete man" have edged closer and closer. I really can't choose just 1.
what nobody ever addresses when talking about eye of the beholder is the prejudice ...that is Donna Douglas (Ellie Mae Clampett ) a beauty to be sure but why over dub her southern accent?
For some reason I knew the ending to this one before I saw it. I guess it's probably cause I'd been watching the show for a while before I came to that episode so I was able to get into Serlings head and knew where he was going with it
The twist of the episode is revealed that the main characters in the episode are toys. Basically they are living toys like the characters in Toy Story, but didn’t know it like Woody.
One of my all time favorites was the"Rip Van Winkle Caper" bad guys steal million dollars in solid gold bars.Go into suspended animation for 100yrs. thinking that when they awake their crime will have been basically forgotten.Being bad guys they do the inevitable and try to kill each other for the gold.{lots more to the story ,desert,water issues etc,]The kicker is ,as the last robber dies of dehydration in the desert a couple finds him dying and are perplexed when he offers them a gold bar for some water..In this time period gold has no value because chemists now can make it super cheap.Uh Oh sounds like our modern day currency.
Yeah, that episode never worked for me. Because of its non-corrosive properties, gold will be a valued industrial chemical for many decades, even if it might not be valued as currency. And you can't "make" an element super cheap. The only way to make an element is by transmutation, which requires an atom smasher, and then you need some way of filtering out the radioactive debris.
I like that one. It's kind of similar to "I shot an arrow". Both are about men lost in the desert who end up killing each other, and it turns out it was all for nothing.
@@josepherhardt164 you do know that aluminum used to be more expensive then gold? it was because aluminum used to be incredibly hard to extract. a kilogram of aluminum in 1852 was 1200 dollars per kilogram while gold was half that. now a kilogram of aluminum is often under a dollar to two dollars depending upon demand. There have been several attempts to extract gold from sea water. There is estimated to be 20 mil tons of gold in the water of the ocean. Problem is a lot of it is organic bonded gold not metallic. However if someone figured out how to chemically extract the gold from sea water you could render the cost of gold to pennies per ton if it went widescale. Also most of the gold today is used in jewelry or gold bars or coins as investment. Meaning the value of gold is severely over hyped. The amount of gold used for other applications is decreasing year after year due to the increased cost of gold since other metals can be used for those applications such as aluminum or platinum.
Even after having seen every Twilight Zone episode from the original series 40 or 50 times, I still find them profound and interesting . This still ranks as one of the best tv shows of all time
One episode I'll never forget had Bill Shatner on an airplane with a gremlin outside riding the wings. When he drew back the window curtain and that twisted face was suddenly staring in, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.
Yeah, Shatner was great in that one. He had just been released from a mental institution which made it impossible for anyone to believe him. Easily makes my top ten.
There was a crossover to the TV show Third Rock from the Sun. William Shatner, as the Giant Head, says that he had a dream that there was a gremlin on the plane's wing. John Lithgow screams, "OMG! I had the same dream!" A nod and wink to John Lithgow starring in Twilight Zone the Movie.
You know, prior to the Twilight Zone Rod Serling was an award winning dramatist who had received numerous Emmys for his teleplays. When he announced he was doing Twilight Zone people criticized him for taking a downward step away from serious drama. Sixty years later it's still being watched and talked about.
My 5th grade teacher showed us some Twilight Zone episodes to a bunch of 10 year olds. To Serve Man was the one that freaked me out the most. That and Talky Tina
Wolfrunner326 I remember my 7th grade teacher using a bunch of Twilight Zone stories in class. Like one about a family made of sugar, and another about these kids who used their virtual reality playroom to fantasize about murdering their parents.
@@howiecricket52 That is one of the scariest episodes. Looking back, I must have first seen it way after it was first broadcast. My fear of talking and moving dolls (including ventriloquist dummies) started with the movie Barbarella, which came out 5 years after this episode.
In The Modern Version Of The Twilight Zone, Not Only Did That Little Boy Grew Up.........But He Had A Daughter Who Was Born With The Same Powers, But She Tried To Get Her To Send Him To The Cornfield.The Episode Ended When They Left The Town And Headed For New York. The Characters Were Played Beautifully Played By Mr. Billy Mumy, His Daughter, And The Late, Great Ms. Or Mrs. Cloris Leachman.
Agreed. I don't know why that episode doesn't get more love. It's by far my favorite episode. I think it should have been called "Room for One More, Honey".
7:23 -- Eye of the Beholder is one of my favorites. That's the late Donna Douglas, Ellie Mae from the Beverly Hillbillies, showing she really could act.
@@averagenetfool Stuart was supposed to dub the line Douglas spoke after the "unveiling" but Douglas had hung around during the filming of Stuart's bandaged scenes and practiced copying Stuart's manner of speaking. Douglas was able to mimic Stuart's voice so well that it is Douglas we hear saying "why do we have to look like this, Mr. Smith?"
Earlier this year (I’m in 7th grade) The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street was actually used for my language arts class, since it has really good writing, and then we ended up getting to watch it in class.
Time enough at last was the most heartbreaking ending. Henry was pushed around by everyone and even his wife mistreated him. Nobody truly understood him. When he finally gets time to do the one thing he loves, it's taken from him in a cruel twist of fate.
That was a sad episode. I saw that one when I was just a kid, about 9 or 10, and my grandfather was losing his eyesight to diabetes. He loved reading so as a result of watching this I would read to my grandfather to make it less unfair.
I said the same thing 🙁 I wonder what happen to him afterwards, either he starve to death or ended up being found by survivors, I guess we'll never know. Poor man just wanted to read. 👓📚😔
My favorite episode was "DUST", about a Mexican gentleman who accidentally kills a little girl, sentenced to a hanging, but the new rope breaks, sparing his life.
I find so much enjoyment by watching this series. It gives me creeps on a philosophical level and I love it. 30 minutes of mysterious horror that has better writing than most horror films to this day.
The original Outer Limits had good episodes. The re-make series was so full of itself it stank. Tried watching a couple of episodes, switched off the TV.
Time Enough At Last was more than just not fair to the man at the end, it was downright cruel. Not only did he do absolutely nothing to deserve punishment but he was already being treated awfully before that point by his wife and his boss. He deserved to get to enjoy himself at least a little.
I agree, it's one of the few Twilight Zone episodes I try to skip, although Burgess Meredith's other two episodes "The Obsolete Man" & "Printer's Devil" are fun to watch. Even when he comes to bad end in "The Obsolete Man", you feel happy because he bested his enemy.
Yeah, that hit home for me too, especially since I also greatly enjoy reading, and am so extreme-near sighted that I need to hold things less than a foot in front of my face to see them clearly. Considering I also saw this episode in school during a slow day we weren't doing anything...
I don't think it was cruel. He prioritized his love for reading over the needs of his wife and his livelihood as a bank teller. THAT was the lesson to be learned in that episode, that somehow gets missed - that obsession can be taken to the extreme, at a cost of hurt and lost to others, and ultimately one's self!
All of these are my absolute favorites. There is one more I'd add to the list but I don't think it be considered a twist ending. It's called "I am the night, color me black".
@@devine960 It was the story of a man named Jaggers, an idealist who isn't too popular because of his beliefs, who is waiting to be hanged in a small town in an unspecified state. He has been convicted of killing a man whom the editor of the local newspaper refers to as "a cross burning, psychopathic bully" who had been terrorizing the black people of town and who attacked Jaggers when he came to the defense of the blacks. On the morning of his execution, everyone notices that it's still nighttime all around the town, even though it's 7:30 A.M. Throughout the episode, it is revealed that during the trial, the local sheriff suppressed evidence that might have proved that Jaggers acted in self-defense, the sheriff's deputy, who had witnessed the killing, prejured himself on the witness stand about what he saw, and the newspaper editor printed only articles portraying Jaggers as guilty, even though he personally believed he had killed his victim in self-defense. Unfortunately, Jaggers is so disliked in the town, that everybody is determined to see him hang. Even a black minister, who admires Jaggers for sticking up for his people, is forced to go along with what the townspeople want. In the story's finale, Jaggers is marched up to the gallows before a hostile crowd. The black minister asks Jaggers if he enjoyed shooting his victim and Jaggers replies that he did. The reverend pronounces him to be guilty to the bloodthirsty mob, causing Jaggers to say "It's important to get with the majority, isn't it Reverend? Oh, that's a big thing nowadays," to which the minister replies "That's all there is, is the majority. The minority must have died on the cross two thousand years ago." Jaggers is then hanged, after which the minister reveals the truth about the darkness that still covers the town; the darkness is the hatred that Jaggers felt about the man he killed, that the people felt about Jaggers, that everyone feels! Then suddenly, the darkness closes in, becoming darker than it was before. Later, when the sheriff, the deputy, and the newspaper editor listen to the radio, they learn that not only is there still darkness all around the town, but that it's now spreading to other parts of the world where hatred persists. Incidentally, the role of the black minister was played by Ivan Dixon, who would later appear on "Hogan's Heroes."
Stopover in a quiet town "Play things" was the second episode of the twilight zone that I saw, and when the little girl started laughing... OMG, that scared the crap out of me. Truly one of the most terrifying episode. Still today, that is one of my favorite episode.
The Hitchhiker is the one that is the most haunting for me. Probably my all-time favorite. But boy do I love this show. I also like the one with the mannequins.
I think that was the first episode I ever saw also except it was in the early 60s. I remember watching it with my brother who is 5 years older than me. He loved that show. We used to have to sneak to watch it because our parents didn't want us watching something that scary.
M. Night Shyamalan: “My twist endings are pretty good” Rod Sterling: “HOLD MY WINE!” Malcolm Crow: “I WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME!l Elijah “Glass” Price: “And the kids call me Mr. Glass.”
With over 150 episodes, nearly all of them having great twist endings, it’s impossible to narrow it down to ten. I can think of dozens that deserve to be on this list. One of the many reasons Twilight Zone is my favorite show ever.
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up is by far, one of the best episodes of the entire series. I may have even bumped it up a couple of spots except for the fact that those episodes that are rated higher are so very good as well ! There is something intangible about Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up - it has such a classic sci-fi 1950s feel to it that keeps you riveted on every minute of the episode, watching characters to see who truly is the Martian. The supporting characters in the episode are all so well chosen and acted in their roles perfectly! This episode is definitely in my top 5 list of all Twilight Zone episodes! 👽
This was my favorite episode as well. You see we’ve forgotten what’s it’s like to be one of the dishes on the menu. Now we know how chicken, cows, turkeys feel like lol
@@jeffreybaer6386 there’s also a reference in Madagascar. A lemur screams “it’s a cookbook, it’s a cookbook!” While holding a book called “to serve lemur” when Julien was talking about the Foosa
Yes though the twilight zone is before my time this was my dad’s favorite show & to serve man & the monsters are due on maple street are some of his favorites.
"You're entering a vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples. It could also be something much better. Prepare to enter The Scary Door". -Futurama
That's the episode that introduced me to Ambrose Bierce. Thank you Rod Serling for that. An excellent twist ending to an excellent story, it's easy to see why this one is on the list.
SirVesa Yes, it was made in France by other people, Serling bought the American TV rights and brought the show in under budget doing that. And it won an Oscar. Unfortunately, it’s never aired in syndication, so AFAIK the only way to see it is to buy it.
This list could have almost every episode on the series, but The Rip Van Winkle Caper is sadly missing. "Didn't they used to use gold for currency?" "Yes, long ago, before they figured out how to manufacture it."
DigitalRanger I remember that! It’s when some gold robbers get cryogenic sleep to skip the law and when they wake up they’re in a desert, one by one starts dying until the last one standing finds a couple in a car and he offers them his gold for water before he died. That was creepy 😐
How about a stoP @ Willoughby. Where the man's corpse loaded into hearse that says willoughby & sons? Apparently this episode was sterlings favorite from season 1 guy
"Ring a Ding Girl" is one of my favorites with a suprise ending. When Bunny tells the janitor not to go to the picnic and he himself gets spooked, that still sends a chill down my spine. The one sister frantically running around the house at the end looking for her sister Bunny and Serlings epilogue, still chills me to this day! Great, underrated episode... Notes: Kurt Russell's dad, Bing Russell, plays the local TV host in this episode. Earl Hamner Jr. who went on later to do the semi-autobiographical Waltons, wrote the episode.
Because she was a ghost or an apparition that briefly came to warn her sister and the whole town not to go to the park for the picnic that day. Remember, she said on TV that she would give a performance that day in the school gym. The town loved her so much that they all decided to go to her performance instead of the park, which saved them from the plane crash. Ironic that the storm that brought down her plane, would have effectively canceled the picnic anyways, right?
Yeah, I didnt get it the 1st time either...but it's the Twilight Zone, stuff like that happens, ghosts and supernatural stuff.. But that was the only explanation I could come up with....maybe a time traveler then? Who goes into the future to warn people of intending doom, then goes back to real time. Sterlings epilogue does say "We are all travelers" hint? If you watch at the end, Bunny says good bye to Hildy her sister, steps outside into the storm, gets wet 1st, as to "catch up" maybe with real time and then disappears! She literally fades away.....right after Hildy gets the call from the Jim at the plane wreckage I love the janitor though, Mr. Ziffle from Green Acres btw. He barely gives Bunny the time of day. Still calls her Barbara. But when she tells him not to go to the picnic, matter of factly, his face turns stone cold scared!!!! Classic....
Amen to that ! Every week I watched this show and couldn't wait till the next weeks show aired with rod sterling hosting and teasing us on what will be shown, greatest show ever, all others pale compared to this show
I'm 72 years old. Twilight Zone was my favorite show when it was first broadcast. ('One Step Beyond was a close second). Any of the last runner-ups' could have tied as the first place, especially the Burgess Meredith and Agnes Moorhead episodes. It's hard to convey the impact of these shows on the American psychological response back then. There was nothing like them on TV.
Amazing!! I love the episodes they put together. So many more possibilities for the honorable mentions but what can you do. Rod Serling was a genius. RIP
@@juansoto628 Juan Soto is my supervisor's name. Is that you, boss? Talk about a Twighlight Zone. Ha ha! Third From The Sun was an episode about two Scientists, who work at a military base, that is preparing for an all out nuclear war, which will wipe out the entire planet. The two men make plans to steal an experimental space craft from their military base. The space craft will carry the two scientists, their wives and one child to a distant planet. The authorities on the base become aware of the plan to steal the space ship and they attempt to arrest the men, but they barely escape with their families and they board the ship. At the end of the episode, they are safely on their way to a new planet, where they hope to start new lives. The planet is revealed to be the third one from the sun and the planet is called Earth. The short story was written in 1950 and the Twilight episode aired in 1960. The twist ending is that, the humanoids in the episode were actually aliens and they are headed to Earth, which was fighting a raging cold war in the 50s and 60s and each of the main countries involved had enough to bombs to kill everyone on Earth many times over (we still do). So, basically they are flying out of the pan and into the fire. If you are the Juan that I know, then this is even more of a Twilight Zone, because we both know what we do for a living. That's some spooky shit right there.
@@juansoto628 Hi, Boss! No, it's down right fucking scary. But, I'm a UA-cam fanatic and I comment a lot, so if you search UA-cam enough, sooner or later, you'll find my comments somewhere. Ha ha!
That would be THE OBSOLETE MAN! Another great episode involving both Burgess Meredith AND Fritz Weaver. One of the most saddest and haunting endings ever put to screen! And talk about predicting the future. An authoritarian government not recognizing God or the individual rights of man. What would Mr. Serling say about humanity circa 2020?🇵🇷🇺🇸😪
I liked the one where a young girl was being chased by a scary looking woman on a horse. In the end you find out that the old woman is her in the future and she's trying to warn her not to make the wrong choices in life but she never catches her.
There was one episode, I cant remember the name of it but it starts when 3 astronauts get back from a launch. They find out the launch failed and they all died but they are still alive and nobody will believe that they were the astronauts . one of them realizes that one astronaut is missing and starts to ask everyone if he has been seen. Even the second astronaut doesn't remember anything about him. They get taken to a hospital next i think, And the second astronaut disappears and the same thing happens and the astronaut realizes he was telling the truth. It cuts out with an empty hospital room and nurses saying nobody used the room in years
I Shoot an Arrow into the Air That got me. To realize you killed your crew to survive, when in reality you never left Earth. They did an amazing job making you feel exactly how the character felt.
While I can see the appeal, this one was too obvious for me and I knew it would be earth from the second they landed in a clearly death valley inspired set. Honestly, the nuclear blast escape episode really got me with the simple twist as they fly into space. Forget what the title is but you should watch it if you havent.
My recommendation to a first-time viewer is "To Serve Man". This episode has a twist that causes a neck injury. Lloyd Bochner is terrific, and his fourth-wall breaking epilogue brings the magnificent terror of the show home. Literally. "Are you on the ship with me, or still on earth?" "Soon, we'll all be on the menu." Serling's sardonic "...to being an ingredient in someone's soup" ending comment is brilliant and darkly hilarious. A great introduction to best TZ had to offer.
Have some other good twists "Escape Clause"- The man ends up being given immortality but is then given "life in prison". "And When the Sky was Opened"- No one ever returned from the ship. "The Dummy"- A tomato surprise and it's a the ventriloquist who is the real dummy. "It's a Good Life"- What little Anthony wanted helped the people of "Peaksvile Ohio" by making it snow (which will kill them slowly). Revivals "The Executions of Wayne Brady"(I think it was called that)- An priosoner is saved from being killed by a odd force (which ends up killing him when he gets cocky). "The Misfortune Cookie"- A restaurant critic comes back to a restaurant to get a cookie which predicts the future well for him. In the end the cookie tells him he will die. Can't wait for the new episodes in the Reboot called "The Comdien". I would love to hear about ideas for episodes that you guys have as well Also talk about the revivals as they were descend
When I grow up, I want to make a cartoon TV show like the twilight zone. And I’ve got some ideas for episodes. In one episode, a high school bully accidentally locks himself in an ice chamber where he is trapped there for the next 1000 years. When he finally gets out of the chamber, he finds himself in a brand new futuristic world. He’s actually happy this is happening because he always was into futuristic stuff, but since he lost his parents 1000 years ago, he gets adopted by an orphanage, but he still hasn’t changed his bullying ways (if that’s a thing) He bully’s other people in the orphanage, and at the new school he gets enrolled in, but he was able to hide it from teachers and adults, but eventually he does get caught bullying someone and saying mean things to a boy at the orphanage. One the adults immediately calls the police. The police come and the bully is wondering why he is getting arrested. The police say “oh, you know very well!” He’s then put the bully in Jail (or juvenile maybe, I dont know) he asked why he’s locked up, the officer says that’s a few years ago, bullying has been declared illegal, and if someone bullies another, they will immediately go to jail. The bully is then left shocked in his prison cell, and has to wait until he’s freed next year. Sorry, if doesn’t sound good, I’m just coming up with ideas.
LGanimations This is amazing tell me more ideas you got. It's impeded that the kid in which he bullied before became a leader who made "bullies illegal". Personal I would call the story "Public Enemy"
Amparo Lopez I make a list of ideas on my iPad. This one is kinda similar to “Stopover at a quiet town” btw. I call this “The population is slowly rising” A man who we’ll call Christopher is a salesman, finds himself in a strange new town without anyone in sight. He tries to figure out what’s going on, but while he’s doing this, random people starts appearing out of nowhere, like firemen, mothers, and children. All of the characters decide it go to a nearby park and talk and learn more about themselves and the town their in. Then Christopher looks up and sees a man falling from the sky and lands near them. They’re surprised he survived and didn’t get harmed. The man that fell asked what’s going on, and everyone shrugs. They look up again and find a giant hand reaching towards them. Christopher tried to run away, but it didn’t work, because he eventually gets caught and we see two huge alien looking down on the human they caught. They speak in a strange alien language (it’s translated on the bottom so don’t worry) Everyone learns that aliens were kidnapping humans and erasing their memories to study their behaviors and what they do.
Who else is hyped about Jordan Peele's upcoming re-imagining of this classic show?
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Kind of, but the original will always be better.
You should make a list about "The Outer Limits"! It's one of the best sci-fi/mystery serials!
HECK NOOOO MORE POISEN FOR THE MINDS .
The Twilight Zone was clearly years ahead of its time
Fortunately NOT, that is what makes it so great. It's pure 50s/early 60s and nothing beats that period.
"Hey... lets remake it THREE TIMES! THIS WILL BE GREAT"
@Charles Stanford Your "statement" clearly shows, who the "idiot" is. Thank you.
bigblockjalopy i’ll take unnecessary comma for $500.
@@Cloud_Strife1997 No, thank you, but I'll sell you a necessary noun marker instead.
you forgot about the twist ending in one of my favorite episodes; "a nice place to visit" where this criminal is shot down by the police during an attempted heist, and winds up in what he thinks is heaven, but as the episode goes further on, he gets everything he's ever wanted, and gets sick and tired of everything going his way, he even says he'd rather be in hell than spend anymore time in heaven, and THAT'S when he finds out he was actually in Hell the whole time!
That episode was why I never started watching "The Good Place", as I already knew what was going to happen … but now I regret not getting into it anyway. :(
@@Coyotek4 the good place it pretty good and funny and you dont know what will happen and I highly recommend it
God, I remember watching that episode in psychology class in high school. Gave me a queasy feeling that lasted the rest of the day.
@@Coyotek4 There is so much more to The Good Place than that twist, which comes at he end of the first season. There have been two seasons since then and there is a plethora of humour, emotion, philosophy and depth beyond that one twist.
now i need to see this one
Not only was Rod Serling far ahead of his time, he pure genius was being able to convey social commentary as science fiction, the occult, and paranormal activity; subjects that would have surely met the fate of censorship by any other conventional means.
He wrote a script for a TV show (I forget which one) about a black man who gets hanged in the south. The network (I forget again. I need to go back and re-read this stuff) asked if he could switch the story from the south to the north and make the black man white and to change the ending. He got so frustrated he decided to create the Twilight Zone where he could discuss social matters in a fantastical setting and nobody would question him about it because it wasn't 'real.'
It worked pretty darn well, didn't it?
Serling, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont wrote the bulk of the stories. You probably know or heard of Matheson (I Am Legend) but most likely haven't heard of Beaumont. Read about him. Strange sad story but a great writer.
@@bryanburton6087
RE: "You probably know or heard of Matheson . . ."
Matheson also wrote The Shrinking Man (movie version: The Incredible Shrinking Man).
He wasn't ahead of his time. This show couldn't EXIST today. There would be far too many conspiracy nuts on Twitter and Instagram claiming the bizarre twists were real. If anything, Serling would have found our current "social media" landscape far more terrifying than any of his episodes. (K, maybe a bit of hyperbole, but Serling would approve, I think.)
He basically circumvented the media censors in a brilliant way, that nobody had done before, or even since. All these things going on now, were going on then in the 1950's. If you really watch them, you'd see he was actually prophetic in the messages he tried to convey to the masses. These weren't typical "horror" stories as one would think. Serling used that to depict the true horrors that he saw happening then, and that are actually happening today.
South Park does something similar, but with surreal humour and hyperboles.
Rod Serling was truly ahead of his time.. These episodes are very deep and relevant. Classic!
No, Maybe he was an alien or a time traveler.
Ahead of his time implies we are more advanced now. I would argue that we are not.
@No Name Yes he certainly was.Requiem for a heavyweight is a masterpiece.And Rod was a WWII hero as well.
This is not what you were expecting.. terrible
@@xbubblehead only an idiot would try to argue that💀
One of my favorite twist is in The Hunt. Where the hillbilly and his dog wont go into a "Heaven" that doesn't allow dogs only to find out that it was actually hell. That sentiment rings true to me.
I liked that one too!
My absolute favorite episode
Kristi Noem’s favorite episode.
The Hunt is my favorite also. Loyalty of Master and canine is,well portrayed.
Another great one is a man in an abandoned town who goes crazy, turns out he's an astronaut in isolation training.
I heard just the other day they are rebooting the twilight zone
I especially like the scene where he runs into the mirror.
they just remade this episode for Peeles twilight zone. But it wasnt that great. Kind of boring.
Where is Everybody? Earl Holliman
Yup I just thought about this episode too. Diffenately a awesome one!! I wanna watch that one now lol
Rod Serling was truly a genius for his time. Long live Rod Serling ❤️
He died, relatively young at 50, in 1975. That smoking got him (coronary artery disease).
besides $ why do they hide the episodes
I would suggest reading the book written by his daughter that showed what a great guy he was and family man. But his smoking addiction really was his undoing..He wanted to quit too, but just couldn't shake a 3 or 4 pack a day habit. Rod died trying to start a lawn mowing and suffering a heart attack..
@Neb6 @Neb6. Richard Matheson died at an old age, I think 88.
/*
(Potterheads will understand)
True horror is our own anxieties being played out on screen
Psychological horror? Am I right?
Final Destination
Tony Styles fight club was like that for me, thought I was going insane lmao
Tony Styles the thing that makes the Twilight Zone creepy for me is just putting myself in the situation.
Tony Styles being a panic disorder sufferer I cannot agree more.
Imagine this. People STILL say 60 years later, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone etc......how many shows now will have that happen? None.
@question everything Name one Smart Ass.!!
Why soitenly! I'm a victim of circumstance.
question everything Of course, we’re locked in our homes.
People reference black mirror a lot
Yeah, Black Mirror is pretty similar! “It’s like a Black Mirror episode”
Jamie Tennyson got screwed in The Silence: he never got the half a million *and* he lost the ability to talk permanently
A classic Roald Dahl story. Always about insane bets.
john roberts
Wait. Roald Dahl wrote the story for that episode?
@@victorhernandez8723 No it was written by Rod Serling and directed by Boris Sagal
My least favorite episode since there was nothing supernatural or alien about it.
Chris Surfcrab Irrelevant to this thread, but I'll answer anyway. My view is the arrogance of the supergenius... hahaha, I'm so smart I can leave this clue to what I'm doing right under their noses and they still won't figure it out. Except someone always does.
The Twilight Zone was far ahead of it's time in terms of story lines.... some still hold up well.
That's what makes it so good
The reading one made me cry
"Some still hold up well" correction 95% of the show holds up well the 5% being the bad ones.
Rod Serling was a genius!
@@BillGraper Yes he was.
The Outer Limits was another good show I liked in the early 1960s.
The Twilight Zone made you think.
His voice was hypnotizing.
The pig people from eye of the beholder are still hard for me to look at. The 1960s makeup just looks so freaky.
so true tho/bout human nature
Brook Lyn it kinda looks bad
Well, it got you off pork so that's a good thing. Now you can make a seamless transition into the black muslim faith and no, you don't have to be black.
ikr
Same here! They terrified me when I saw it as a kid and it still creeps me out as an adult.
"Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven, Mr. Valentine? This IS the Other Place!"
Donna Haynes favorite episode
"Nice Place to Visit". Gave me the willies for a while. 😨
The old hillbilly and his dog getting to heaven while trying to be tricked by the devil.
@@steelersgoingfor7in2024 I loved that one
Oh yes! One of my favorites. We see “Mister French” from Family Affair in a completely different role. Pure classic Twilight Zone. 👍
Rod Searling was nothing short of genius.
Twilight zone is actually an amazing show. It still holds up perfectly fine today. I've watched a lot of classic TV in the past decade or so, and this one stands the test of time the best. I recommend every episode 100%
...so when they say they're having Chinese, Japanese or Italian for dinner, they really mean it.
OMG!!!😂🤣😂🤣
Trouble is after they eat a Chinese person they're hungry an hour later.
@@marccolten9801 Well, you can't have everything. (I'm Asian,BTW, that made me giggle). But what got me in that episode was the alien smiling and telling the narrator to eat. Soooo creepy!
John Ringo's Posleen war, where the aliens go through China in just a few hours. After you eat Chinese, you're hungry so quickly...
So is Mr. Burns.
#4 made me sad for the protagonist. Man he was a great actor seeing his joy at finally being able to read only to see him almost in tears after his glasses break. Man I was all over the feels train on that one.
Reportedly, TZ actually got hate mail for that ending. It has since been used as an example of "irony porn," viz., the gratuitous use of irony without point.
Of course, as far as the story goes, he could have just scrounged through the remains of the local pharmacy for reading glasses and likely found some. Even if you deliberately throw glass-lensed glasses at a brick wall, you're unlikely to damage them to the point where you don't get _some_ residual vision out of them, and so he'd be able to maneuver about in the town.
Also after a while you compensate to a point. He would have been able to read close up, and after awhile may have been able to get the book further away from his face. At the height of my pre lasik, I focused at an angle a few inches from my nose. (turn head to one side and look that ways at something head on) If I had quit wearing correction, my eyes and mind would have retrained to a bit farther out and more even. As Joseph Erhardt mentions... also going and finding some reading glasses, even if the fellow needed different strengths for each eye, it'd be pretty easy to swap a few lenses to get something that'd work well enough, then he would adapt to it. So it's only a short term issue. Really.
@@user-ml3hl6vr4t they didnt have time in the episode to get to all that
One word - plastics.
This is my favorite episode. Burgess Meredith is such a great actor.
When you die, the watchmojo lady counts down the top 10 moments from your life
Sadly I have four, tops.
I actually would like that.
But she narrates over it instead of letting you enjoy it.
I've had a boatload of good moments, she'll have a hard time picking 10. lol.
"The State is not God!"
This has got to be one of the most powerful lines in The Twilight Zone. There's a whole lot of politicians and backers of politicians who should watch The Twilight Zone.
Agreed. The state is not God, and neither are the leaders.
Agnes Moorehead was brilliant in "The Invaders." She was so good, she didn't even need lines.
I hope she got residuals. At one time, actors without lines were not qualified to get residuals (payments for re-broadcasts).
I remember seeing that episode and commenting on Facebook, "I just watched Agnes Moorehead give a masters class on acting without dialogue."
“It may be the biggest twist in the series.”
THEN WHY IS IT 9TH
i think they meant biggest because the twist was a literal giant
Watchmojo has never implied that their top 10s are in a specific order. I generally don't look at them in that way.
It was a joke. A play on words on how a huge girl was the villian. XD
On point
Its called a bad joke
I still get chills from the twist endings, proof that this series is truly a timeless classic.
Existential dread is more scary than any jumpscare every will be. I never realized how influential the twilight zone was but you can see how inspiration how bleed into other forms of media, black mirror stands out to me.
A Stop at Willoughby has perhaps the best twist ending, in my view.
It is a depressing thought to be sure.
THANK YOU @George Powell! I was about to post this exact thing. Most times when a twilight zone countdown is presented they pick the time honored favorites like Time Enough at Last and Eye of the Beholder...
The Hunt was good as well
That's one of my favorites. The poor guy.
@@dianabattle3465 That one is fantastic! Although I really can’t recall any that were less than awesome! That one was really good though!
My favorite episode!
I'll never forget the first time I saw "The Eye Of The Beholder." MIND BLOWN!
YOu know, that's the funny thing, I guessed the twist within 3 minutes of the episode. That didn't harm my enjoyment, as it is a fantastic episode, but I was not shocked by that twist at all.
Agreed. The key to the episode is your eye is fixed on the bandages which look kinda creepy themselves so seeing the staff's faces doesn't really come to mind.
The way lighting is used throughout really caught my attention. The acting was very good and impactful. For years this was my number 1, but over the years "To Serve Man", "The Monsters are due on Maple Street", "The Obsolete man" have edged closer and closer. I really can't choose just 1.
what nobody ever addresses when talking about eye of the beholder is the prejudice ...that is Donna Douglas (Ellie Mae Clampett ) a beauty to be sure but why over dub her southern accent?
For some reason I knew the ending to this one before I saw it. I guess it's probably cause I'd been watching the show for a while before I came to that episode so I was able to get into Serlings head and knew where he was going with it
My mom got me hooked on these shows, dark shadows, x files and outer limits
Tales from the dark side was creepy
Outer Limits creeped me out as a kid, but I still watched it...loved Dark Shadows and Twilight Zone...
' Monsters ' is another good one.
X files ya
@@culig1997 he'll yeah I still watch that on the roku
Before there was Toy Story, there was Five Characters in Search of an Exit.
Izet Yusein OMG yes!!!!!!!!!!
Izet Yusein Toy Story?
The twist of the episode is revealed that the main characters in the episode are toys. Basically they are living toys like the characters in Toy Story, but didn’t know it like Woody.
That’s where they got the idea
@@josephgamble2230 du coup j'ai pris connaissance
One of my all time favorites was the"Rip Van Winkle Caper" bad guys steal million dollars in solid gold bars.Go into suspended animation for 100yrs. thinking that when they awake their crime will have been basically forgotten.Being bad guys they do the inevitable and try to kill each other for the gold.{lots more to the story ,desert,water issues etc,]The kicker is ,as the last robber dies of dehydration in the desert a couple finds him dying and are perplexed when he offers them a gold bar for some water..In this time period gold has no value because chemists now can make it super cheap.Uh Oh sounds like our modern day currency.
Yeah, that episode never worked for me. Because of its non-corrosive properties, gold will be a valued industrial chemical for many decades, even if it might not be valued as currency. And you can't "make" an element super cheap. The only way to make an element is by transmutation, which requires an atom smasher, and then you need some way of filtering out the radioactive debris.
Hibernates for 10 years. "You're offering be Bitcoin!? BWAHAHAHAHA! That's a good one!"
That’s one of my favorites too and it never seems to get its due rewards when people discuss The Twilight Zone.
I like that one. It's kind of similar to "I shot an arrow". Both are about men lost in the desert who end up killing each other, and it turns out it was all for nothing.
@@josepherhardt164 you do know that aluminum used to be more expensive then gold? it was because aluminum used to be incredibly hard to extract. a kilogram of aluminum in 1852 was 1200 dollars per kilogram while gold was half that. now a kilogram of aluminum is often under a dollar to two dollars depending upon demand. There have been several attempts to extract gold from sea water. There is estimated to be 20 mil tons of gold in the water of the ocean. Problem is a lot of it is organic bonded gold not metallic. However if someone figured out how to chemically extract the gold from sea water you could render the cost of gold to pennies per ton if it went widescale.
Also most of the gold today is used in jewelry or gold bars or coins as investment. Meaning the value of gold is severely over hyped. The amount of gold used for other applications is decreasing year after year due to the increased cost of gold since other metals can be used for those applications such as aluminum or platinum.
Even after having seen every Twilight Zone episode from the original series 40 or 50 times, I still find them profound and interesting .
This still ranks as one of the best tv shows of all time
Right there with you
I couldn't watch some of the episodes more than once. Too boring
One episode I'll never forget had Bill Shatner on an airplane with a gremlin outside riding the wings. When he drew back the window curtain and that twisted face was suddenly staring in, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.
Yeah, Shatner was great in that one. He had just been released from a mental institution which made it impossible for anyone to believe him. Easily makes my top ten.
There was a crossover to the TV show Third Rock from the Sun. William Shatner, as the Giant Head, says that he had a dream that there was a gremlin on the plane's wing. John Lithgow screams, "OMG! I had the same dream!" A nod and wink to John Lithgow starring in Twilight Zone the Movie.
My favorite is "A Stop at Willoughby"!Also loe "Mr Garrity and the Graves" for a surprise ending. So many great episodes in this show!
With over 150 episodes that nearly all had twist endings, it’s hard to narrow it down.
A stop at Willouby is my favorite also.
I just remembered that I suggested this list like 6 or maybe even 7 years ago lol. Well, better late than never.
what are the odds?
people would probably tell you that you predicted this video on your original comment
All it took was Jordan Peele heading a new version of the show to make Watch Mojo want those clicks :)
baronvg cc
@@Kobaford why do you care?
Man I wish there were television shows like this out now!
Check out "Black Mirror." It's the closest thing I have seen to a modern day version/spiritual successor of The Twilight Zone.
The Simpsons.
And the irony is the issues are there to explore we just need a master story creator
@@chupaxf even I was gonna say black mirror lmao...
@@joeyjamison5772 treehouse of horror? I guess it would be cool for a fan to see parodies of the episodes
Rod Serling was a genius.
But only in non karmic episodes
I love this freaking show!! this era was amazing! These remakes?? If Rod Serling isn't taking part in it, its not "Twilight Zone". Who With me?
lmao
All the remakes have to do is capture the essence. ANd the newer series does that well.
I won't watch the remakes. I heard Jordan Peele's version was garbage.
Some of them are really good, some of them definitely less so.
i highly recommend the 80s episode "dealers choice"
it has Morgan freeman in it
Remember Telly Savalas and the daughters' doll "Tiny Tina ? That was scary.
You mean Talky Tina
"My name's Talky Tina, and I'm going to kill you."
Scary, indeed!
It's really frightening when Tina tells the little girl's mother....
"I'm Talky Tina, and you better be nice to me."
@@vincentfranklin17 "My name is talky Tina, and I think I hate you"
You know, prior to the Twilight Zone Rod Serling was an award winning dramatist who had received numerous Emmys for his teleplays. When he announced he was doing Twilight Zone people criticized him for taking a downward step away from serious drama. Sixty years later it's still being watched and talked about.
My 5th grade teacher showed us some Twilight Zone episodes to a bunch of 10 year olds. To Serve Man was the one that freaked me out the most. That and Talky Tina
Wolfrunner326 I remember my 7th grade teacher using a bunch of Twilight Zone stories in class. Like one about a family made of sugar, and another about these kids who used their virtual reality playroom to fantasize about murdering their parents.
In case you ever look up that Talky Tina episode to watch it, actual title is "Living Doll"
To Serve Man was spoofed in on of The Simpson Tree House of Horrors episodes. I think it was their first one.
B Sharp yep the first Treehouse of Horrors in season 2.
@@howiecricket52 That is one of the scariest episodes. Looking back, I must have first seen it way after it was first broadcast. My fear of talking and moving dolls (including ventriloquist dummies) started with the movie Barbarella, which came out 5 years after this episode.
That man with the third eye creeps me. I liked William Shatner’s performance on the airplane.
Yes. Despite the gremlin looking like a guy in the suit, a great episode. William Shatner is underated as an actor, I think.
Where's "the odyssey of flight 33"?
Rod Sterling was a MF’n Genius💯
I was wanting to serve man to be in the top. You could easily do a top 20 on this show. It's a classic with believable actors
literally the entire time i watched this video i was like "okay that's a wild twist but where's to serve man"
They could do a Top 10 of each season ❤
The entire town was afraid of one little boy that could "wish" people into the cornfield. Anyone remember the name of that episode?
It's A Good Life. Cheers...
Imagine that kid as a teenager though *shudders*
I just read that, I thought it was just a very similar story to the one on the twilight zone
In The Modern Version Of The Twilight Zone, Not Only Did That Little Boy Grew Up.........But He Had A Daughter Who Was Born With The Same Powers, But She Tried To Get Her To Send Him To The Cornfield.The Episode Ended When They Left The Town And Headed For New York. The Characters Were Played Beautifully Played By Mr. Billy Mumy, His Daughter, And The Late, Great Ms. Or Mrs. Cloris Leachman.
One of the worst things I ever saw on television. Why didn't he just kill everyone at the start of the episode?
One one hand, it's around half a century old.
On the other hand, it never gets old.
"So lets remake this thing 3 Times"
The episode titled "Twenty Two" ABSOLUTELY should have been on this list....when that jet explodes at the end it is shocking.
Agreed. I don't know why that episode doesn't get more love. It's by far my favorite episode. I think it should have been called "Room for One More, Honey".
@ neurosis333, that’s by far my favorite, can’t believe it’s not on list
7:23 -- Eye of the Beholder is one of my favorites. That's the late Donna Douglas, Ellie Mae from the Beverly Hillbillies, showing she really could act.
Really? Wow!
The actress under the bandages was Maxine Stuart, then they used the beautiful Donna Douglas for the reveal.
@@averagenetfool Stuart was supposed to dub the line Douglas spoke after the "unveiling" but Douglas had hung around during the filming of Stuart's bandaged scenes and practiced copying Stuart's manner of speaking. Douglas was able to mimic Stuart's voice so well that it is Douglas we hear saying "why do we have to look like this, Mr. Smith?"
Earlier this year (I’m in 7th grade) The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street was actually used for my language arts class, since it has really good writing, and then we ended up getting to watch it in class.
I had to watch that episode in 7th grade english class too.
Same here!
Same
lol same
Same
TWIST : This is a GOOD WatchMojo list *GASP*
lmao
Rod Serling was an absolute genius! The Twilight Zone is the best!
Time enough at last was the most heartbreaking ending.
Henry was pushed around by everyone and even his wife mistreated him. Nobody truly understood him.
When he finally gets time to do the one thing he loves, it's taken from him in a cruel twist of fate.
To Serve Man must've been one of the inspiration sources for Soylent Green.
The Simpsons also did a parody of it.
What does the lady actually say? Its a what?
@@orionmccarthy155 she says it's a cook book.
@@refulgent_fanta written by Hannibal Lechter.
One of my faves
What about the masks? That one gave me the chills!
SamuraiFighterChick I loved The Masks too-another favorite-and directed by Ida Lupino!
SamuraiFighterChick yeah that’s my favorite episode
Awesome episode!!! One of my faves too!
It’s not fair is the saddest episode
The after hours the creepiest
The eye of the beholder my favorite
That was a sad episode. I saw that one when I was just a kid, about 9 or 10, and my grandfather was losing his eyesight to diabetes. He loved reading so as a result of watching this I would read to my grandfather to make it less unfair.
B Sharp that’s sweet
I said the same thing 🙁 I wonder what happen to him afterwards, either he starve to death or ended up being found by survivors, I guess we'll never know. Poor man just wanted to read. 👓📚😔
Twenty-two is the scariest Twilight Zone episode....
I've broken many a pair of glasses, never led to total blindness and never affected my ability to read.
My favorite episode was "DUST", about a Mexican gentleman who accidentally kills a little girl, sentenced to a hanging, but the new rope breaks, sparing his life.
It's da magics!
"Humans Are The Aliens" is my favorite in that Agnes Moorehead created such a powerful character, and she never said one word.
I find so much enjoyment by watching this series. It gives me creeps on a philosophical level and I love it. 30 minutes of mysterious horror that has better writing than most horror films to this day.
Twightlight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Dark side...they just don't make em' like they used too.
The original Outer Limits had good episodes. The re-make series was so full of itself it stank. Tried watching a couple of episodes, switched off the TV.
Time Enough At Last was more than just not fair to the man at the end, it was downright cruel. Not only did he do absolutely nothing to deserve punishment but he was already being treated awfully before that point by his wife and his boss. He deserved to get to enjoy himself at least a little.
I agree, it's one of the few Twilight Zone episodes I try to skip, although Burgess Meredith's other two episodes "The Obsolete Man" & "Printer's Devil" are fun to watch. Even when he comes to bad end in "The Obsolete Man", you feel happy because he bested his enemy.
It's the ultimate story of adversity. Can't get none better.
Yeah, that hit home for me too, especially since I also greatly enjoy reading, and am so extreme-near sighted that I need to hold things less than a foot in front of my face to see them clearly. Considering I also saw this episode in school during a slow day we weren't doing anything...
I don't think it was cruel. He prioritized his love for reading over the needs of his wife and his livelihood as a bank teller. THAT was the lesson to be learned in that episode, that somehow gets missed - that obsession can be taken to the extreme, at a cost of hurt and lost to others, and ultimately one's self!
Twist ending for the twilight zone is almost redundant.
Best anthology series ever
Those last words of that woman at the end of “Double Meaning” sends chills up in places you thought nerves can ever reach. Yowzers!!!!
The Mr. Death episode with the old lady was the most wholesome twist of all time. Such a feel good ending
Nothing in da dark, top fave since 2012.
Just watch an episode called " And When The Sky Was Opened" starring Rod Taylor and Jim Hutton, great twist ending ( and spooky ) ending
That was a good one.
The original Twilight Zone is classic thriller/horror that blows your mind. I watch the series during Halloween
All of these are my absolute favorites. There is one more I'd add to the list but I don't think it be considered a twist ending. It's called "I am the night, color me black".
Oh I remember that episode
What an overlooked episode
That was a great episode!
What happened in the episode?
@@devine960 It was the story of a man named Jaggers, an idealist who isn't too popular because of his beliefs, who is waiting to be hanged in a small town in an unspecified state. He has been convicted of killing a man whom the editor of the local newspaper refers to as "a cross burning, psychopathic bully" who had been terrorizing the black people of town and who attacked Jaggers when he came to the defense of the blacks. On the morning of his execution, everyone notices that it's still nighttime all around the town, even though it's 7:30 A.M. Throughout the episode, it is revealed that during the trial, the local sheriff suppressed evidence that might have proved that Jaggers acted in self-defense, the sheriff's deputy, who had witnessed the killing, prejured himself on the witness stand about what he saw, and the newspaper editor printed only articles portraying Jaggers as guilty, even though he personally believed he had killed his victim in self-defense. Unfortunately, Jaggers is so disliked in the town, that everybody is determined to see him hang. Even a black minister, who admires Jaggers for sticking up for his people, is forced to go along with what the townspeople want.
In the story's finale, Jaggers is marched up to the gallows before a hostile crowd. The black minister asks Jaggers if he enjoyed shooting his victim and Jaggers replies that he did. The reverend pronounces him to be guilty to the bloodthirsty mob, causing Jaggers to say "It's important to get with the majority, isn't it Reverend? Oh, that's a big thing nowadays," to which the minister replies "That's all there is, is the majority. The minority must have died on the cross two thousand years ago." Jaggers is then hanged, after which the minister reveals the truth about the darkness that still covers the town; the darkness is the hatred that Jaggers felt about the man he killed, that the people felt about Jaggers, that everyone feels! Then suddenly, the darkness closes in, becoming darker than it was before.
Later, when the sheriff, the deputy, and the newspaper editor listen to the radio, they learn that not only is there still darkness all around the town, but that it's now spreading to other parts of the world where hatred persists.
Incidentally, the role of the black minister was played by Ivan Dixon, who would later appear on "Hogan's Heroes."
Stopover in a quiet town "Play things" was the second episode of the twilight zone that I saw, and when the little girl started laughing... OMG, that scared the crap out of me. Truly one of the most terrifying episode. Still today, that is one of my favorite episode.
"A Most Unusual Camera" should have been included. It features a temporally-strange ending!
then you must include "18 millimeter shrine" as well. Also fantastic
It was predictable, though.
The Hitchhiker is the one that is the most haunting for me. Probably my all-time favorite. But boy do I love this show. I also like the one with the mannequins.
The mannequins was probably the 1st episode I seen in the 70's as a kid!
I think that was the first episode I ever saw also except it was in the early 60s. I remember watching it with my brother who is 5 years older than me. He loved that show. We used to have to sneak to watch it because our parents didn't want us watching something that scary.
That was originally from a radio show, but it was a man
For me it’s the scariest one !!!!
M. Night Shyamalan: “My twist endings are pretty good”
Rod Sterling: “HOLD MY WINE!”
Malcolm Crow: “I WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME!l
Elijah “Glass” Price: “And the kids call me Mr. Glass.”
*scoff* Shyamalan wishes he was Rod Sterling!
*hold my cigarette
The final shot of "The Dummy" was pretty shocking.
With over 150 episodes, nearly all of them having great twist endings, it’s impossible to narrow it down to ten. I can think of dozens that deserve to be on this list. One of the many reasons Twilight Zone is my favorite show ever.
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up is by far, one of the best episodes of the entire series. I may have even bumped it up a couple of spots except for the fact that those episodes that are rated higher are so very good as well ! There is something intangible about Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up - it has such a classic sci-fi 1950s feel to it that keeps you riveted on every minute of the episode, watching characters to see who truly is the Martian. The supporting characters in the episode are all so well chosen and acted in their roles perfectly! This episode is definitely in my top 5 list of all Twilight Zone episodes! 👽
"It's a cook book!" - that's dark.
09:49 I love the look on the uniformed attendant's face: "see ya buddy, wouldn't want to be ya!"
This was my favorite episode as well. You see we’ve forgotten what’s it’s like to be one of the dishes on the menu. Now we know how chicken, cows, turkeys feel like lol
There's a great homage to this episode in the first (?) Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons -- the revelation of the cookbook is hilarious.
@@jeffreybaer6386 there’s also a reference in Madagascar. A lemur screams “it’s a cookbook, it’s a cookbook!” While holding a book called “to serve lemur” when Julien was talking about the Foosa
Best one
I knew number 1 was gonna be to serve man
That episode had the best twist imo.
"ITS A COOK BOOK !"
Yeah, they chose right. It's iconic and brilliant and thoroughly haunting, especially since you see him in his cell as they try to fatten him up.
Lulu Love right the scariest one!
Yes though the twilight zone is before my time this was my dad’s favorite show & to serve man & the monsters are due on maple street are some of his favorites.
"There's a sign post up ahead; your next stop, the twilight zone!"
"You're entering a vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples. It could also be something much better. Prepare to enter The Scary Door". -Futurama
I saw all these episodes when the show was on in reruns and they are still classics, As it say this show was way ahead of its time, CLASSIC.
The Twilight Zone had some of the best writing. There is nothing out today that can even come close to that creativity.
A LOT OF PEOPLE CAME TO THE SAME CONCLUSION
I loved #5, but it should be properly attributed: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.
I came here to say the same thing.
That's the episode that introduced me to Ambrose Bierce. Thank you Rod Serling for that. An excellent twist ending to an excellent story, it's easy to see why this one is on the list.
SirVesa Yes, it was made in France by other people, Serling bought the American TV rights and brought the show in under budget doing that. And it won an Oscar. Unfortunately, it’s never aired in syndication, so AFAIK the only way to see it is to buy it.
Yop!
This list could have almost every episode on the series, but The Rip Van Winkle Caper is sadly missing.
"Didn't they used to use gold for currency?"
"Yes, long ago, before they figured out how to manufacture it."
DigitalRanger I remember that! It’s when some gold robbers get cryogenic sleep to skip the law and when they wake up they’re in a desert, one by one starts dying until the last one standing finds a couple in a car and he offers them his gold for water before he died. That was creepy 😐
How about a stoP @ Willoughby. Where the man's corpse loaded into hearse that says willoughby & sons? Apparently this episode was sterlings favorite from season 1 guy
"Ring a Ding Girl" is one of my favorites with a suprise ending. When Bunny tells the janitor not to go to the picnic and he himself gets spooked, that still sends a chill down my spine. The one sister frantically running around the house at the end looking for her sister Bunny and Serlings epilogue, still chills me to this day! Great, underrated episode...
Notes: Kurt Russell's dad, Bing Russell, plays the local TV host in this episode.
Earl Hamner Jr. who went on later to do the semi-autobiographical Waltons, wrote the episode.
I never understood that episode. How can she be in 2 places at the same time
Because she was a ghost or an apparition that briefly came to warn her sister and the whole town not to go to the park for the picnic that day. Remember, she said on TV that she would give a performance that day in the school gym. The town loved her so much that they all decided to go to her performance instead of the park, which saved them from the plane crash. Ironic that the storm that brought down her plane, would have effectively canceled the picnic anyways, right?
@@richrojo2010 right! Thanks for that. Always left me bewildered that episode.
Yeah, I didnt get it the 1st time either...but it's the Twilight Zone, stuff like that happens, ghosts and supernatural stuff..
But that was the only explanation I could come up with....maybe a time traveler then? Who goes into the future to warn people of intending doom, then goes back to real time. Sterlings epilogue does say "We are all travelers" hint?
If you watch at the end, Bunny says good bye to Hildy her sister, steps outside into the storm, gets wet 1st, as to "catch up" maybe with real time and then disappears! She literally fades away.....right after Hildy gets the call from the Jim at the plane wreckage
I love the janitor though, Mr. Ziffle from Green Acres btw. He barely gives Bunny the time of day. Still calls her Barbara. But when she tells him not to go to the picnic, matter of factly, his face turns stone cold scared!!!! Classic....
@@richrojo2010 your a real fan me too have the whole box set. I think season 4 is underrated. Some episodes are very good
We need more writers like this nowadays
"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" was one of my favorites.
One of the best shows of all time, easily!!
Amen to that ! Every week I watched this show and couldn't wait till the next weeks show aired with rod sterling hosting and teasing us on what will be shown, greatest show ever, all others pale compared to this show
One of my all time favorites was a 100 yds over the rim...114 year time travel
I'm 72 years old. Twilight Zone was my favorite show when it was first broadcast. ('One Step Beyond was a close second). Any of the last runner-ups' could have tied as the first place, especially the Burgess Meredith and Agnes Moorhead episodes. It's hard to convey the impact of these shows on the American psychological response back then. There was nothing like them on TV.
Amazing!! I love the episodes they put together. So many more possibilities for the honorable mentions but what can you do. Rod Serling was a genius. RIP
Death's Head Revisited
I love the twist in the "Third from the Sun" episode
Nicolas Matteo what was it
@@juansoto628 Juan Soto is my supervisor's name. Is that you, boss? Talk about a Twighlight Zone. Ha ha! Third From The Sun was an episode about two Scientists, who work at a military base, that is preparing for an all out nuclear war, which will wipe out the entire planet. The two men make plans to steal an experimental space craft from their military base. The space craft will carry the two scientists, their wives and one child to a distant planet.
The authorities on the base become aware of the plan to steal the space ship and they attempt to arrest the men, but they barely escape with their families and they board the ship.
At the end of the episode, they are safely on their way to a new planet, where they hope to start new lives. The planet is revealed to be the third one from the sun and the planet is called Earth.
The short story was written in 1950 and the Twilight episode aired in 1960. The twist ending is that, the humanoids in the episode were actually aliens and they are headed to Earth, which was fighting a raging cold war in the 50s and 60s and each of the main countries involved had enough to bombs to kill everyone on Earth many times over (we still do). So, basically they are flying out of the pan and into the fire.
If you are the Juan that I know, then this is even more of a Twilight Zone, because we both know what we do for a living. That's some spooky shit right there.
Sky Marshall this is crazy
@@juansoto628 Hi, Boss! No, it's down right fucking scary. But, I'm a UA-cam fanatic and I comment a lot, so if you search UA-cam enough, sooner or later, you'll find my comments somewhere. Ha ha!
Sky Marshall This never happen ok
Twilight zone has enough material to do several list!!
Anyone remember the episode 'Obsolete'? One of my all-time favorites.
That would be THE OBSOLETE MAN! Another great episode involving both Burgess Meredith AND Fritz Weaver. One of the most saddest and haunting endings ever put to screen! And talk about predicting the future. An authoritarian government not recognizing God or the individual rights of man. What would Mr. Serling say about humanity circa 2020?🇵🇷🇺🇸😪
I love that episode
YES!!! My English teacher showed us that episode last year!
"For the love of God, please let me outta here!!!"
"Yes! For the love of God, I WILL let you out!"
Even for today horror stands still a pretty creepy series.
When screenwriters were smart, better times for tv shows
I liked the one where a young girl was being chased by a scary looking woman on a horse. In the end you find out that the old woman is her in the future and she's trying to warn her not to make the wrong choices in life but she never catches her.
she married the jerk who ruined her life.
There was one episode, I cant remember the name of it but it starts when 3 astronauts get back from a launch. They find out the launch failed and they all died but they are still alive and nobody will believe that they were the astronauts . one of them realizes that one astronaut is missing and starts to ask everyone if he has been seen. Even the second astronaut doesn't remember anything about him. They get taken to a hospital next i think, And the second astronaut disappears and the same thing happens and the astronaut realizes he was telling the truth. It cuts out with an empty hospital room and nurses saying nobody used the room in years
"And When the Sky Was Opened", S01E11, with Rod Taylor & Jim Hutton.
I Shoot an Arrow into the Air
That got me. To realize you killed your crew to survive, when in reality you never left Earth. They did an amazing job making you feel exactly how the character felt.
While I can see the appeal, this one was too obvious for me and I knew it would be earth from the second they landed in a clearly death valley inspired set. Honestly, the nuclear blast escape episode really got me with the simple twist as they fly into space. Forget what the title is but you should watch it if you havent.
Jason, which episode is the nuclear episode?
the twilight zone is an absolutley brilliant piece of television. to stay realavent for as long as it has is pretty fucking amazing.
Bucky, your response was good until throwing in the F bomb ! Why does the American public embrace foul language ? Lord help you !
Ken McGrady it’s word.
calm down.it isn’t that big of a deal.
"Will the real martian please stand up"
Millennials: "ThEy StOle ThAt FrOm EmInEm"
My recommendation to a first-time viewer is "To Serve Man". This episode has a twist that causes a neck injury. Lloyd Bochner is terrific, and his fourth-wall breaking epilogue brings the magnificent terror of the show home. Literally. "Are you on the ship with me, or still on earth?" "Soon, we'll all be on the menu." Serling's sardonic "...to being an ingredient in someone's soup" ending comment is brilliant and darkly hilarious. A great introduction to best TZ had to offer.
" To Serve Mankind " " It's A Cookbook !! " 😨
David Ellis - ‘To serve man’
...so when they say they're having Chinese, Japanese or Italian for dinner, they really mean it.
Wow, The Sipmsons took so many premises from this show.
Yes, they've been stealing other people's material for years.
It's not really stealing, it's parodying. Those are two different things.
Not just the Simpsons. This show is probably the show that’s been taken from the most. The ideas were so great and ahead of its time.
Have some other good twists
"Escape Clause"- The man ends up being given immortality but is then given "life in prison".
"And When the Sky was Opened"- No one ever returned from the ship.
"The Dummy"- A tomato surprise and it's a the ventriloquist who is the real dummy.
"It's a Good Life"- What little Anthony wanted helped the people of "Peaksvile Ohio" by making it snow (which will kill them slowly).
Revivals
"The Executions of Wayne Brady"(I think it was called that)- An priosoner is saved from being killed by a odd force (which ends up killing him when he gets cocky).
"The Misfortune Cookie"- A restaurant critic comes back to a restaurant to get a cookie which predicts the future well for him. In the end the cookie tells him he will die.
Can't wait for the new episodes in the Reboot called "The Comdien".
I would love to hear about ideas for episodes that you guys have as well
Also talk about the revivals as they were descend
i LOVE the dummy. and reading your comment about escape clause has me dying of laughter lol
Bec Yeah Escape Clause has a "Deal you can't refuse" but in the end asks Satan to kill him
When I grow up, I want to make a cartoon TV show like the twilight zone. And I’ve got some ideas for episodes.
In one episode, a high school bully accidentally locks himself in an ice chamber where he is trapped there for the next 1000 years. When he finally gets out of the chamber, he finds himself in a brand new futuristic world. He’s actually happy this is happening because he always was into futuristic stuff, but since he lost his parents 1000 years ago, he gets adopted by an orphanage, but he still hasn’t changed his bullying ways (if that’s a thing) He bully’s other people in the orphanage, and at the new school he gets enrolled in, but he was able to hide it from teachers and adults, but eventually he does get caught bullying someone and saying mean things to a boy at the orphanage. One the adults immediately calls the police. The police come and the bully is wondering why he is getting arrested. The police say “oh, you know very well!” He’s then put the bully in Jail (or juvenile maybe, I dont know) he asked why he’s locked up, the officer says that’s a few years ago, bullying has been declared illegal, and if someone bullies another, they will immediately go to jail. The bully is then left shocked in his prison cell, and has to wait until he’s freed next year.
Sorry, if doesn’t sound good, I’m just coming up with ideas.
LGanimations
This is amazing tell me more ideas you got. It's impeded that the kid in which he bullied before became a leader who made "bullies illegal".
Personal I would call the story
"Public Enemy"
Amparo Lopez I make a list of ideas on my iPad. This one is kinda similar to “Stopover at a quiet town” btw. I call this “The population is slowly rising”
A man who we’ll call Christopher is a salesman, finds himself in a strange new town without anyone in sight. He tries to figure out what’s going on, but while he’s doing this, random people starts appearing out of nowhere, like firemen, mothers, and children. All of the characters decide it go to a nearby park and talk and learn more about themselves and the town their in. Then Christopher looks up and sees a man falling from the sky and lands near them. They’re surprised he survived and didn’t get harmed. The man that fell asked what’s going on, and everyone shrugs. They look up again and find a giant hand reaching towards them. Christopher tried to run away, but it didn’t work, because he eventually gets caught and we see two huge alien looking down on the human they caught. They speak in a strange alien language (it’s translated on the bottom so don’t worry) Everyone learns that aliens were kidnapping humans and erasing their memories to study their behaviors and what they do.
The martian in the diner is my favorite.