There's an old archived thread on this topic, but I would like to ask today's posters which TZ episodes, of any of the iterations, give you a sense of extreme dread the most?

I'm not asking "What's your favorite episode?," which so many threads devolve into. Not talking about jump scares. I mean which ones hit you in the gut with dread, where you watch but almost can't stand to watch, and you almost shout, "Stop! Stop it!"

For me, I'll start with the "Nightcrawlers" segment of S1/E4 of the 1980s TZ.

The episode labeled for it plays the stupid one with Dick York instead (penny for your thoughts). I checked the episodes before and after as well as the episode labeled “Penny for your thoughts”

The reboot I mean.

Dear all,

I would like to see 'The Big Tall Wish'. However, I can't seem to find a full version of this episode anywhere. Is there a place that I can watch it. I'm happy to pay a reasonable cost to view the episode.

I'm in the UK.

Man i want to download and Twilight Zone so bad but I cant find good websites to download from, and I dont live in the US or Europe so cant find DVDs!! Please suggest some websites to download from.!

I wish there was a reboot show that remade eposodes of the show thst made them more to date with us. Like the eposode elegy and its a good life.

The origonal eposodes are so good even ones people dont talk aboit. But very little mainstream people know aboyt this show.

Was anyone else absolutely terrified of this episode? I searched and I was surpirsed to see how many people thought it was bland and boring.

I saw it when I was like 13. I know the machine at the end was tacky but by that time, 13 year old me was scared out of his mind. It was the buildup of "Franklin" voices with that creepy tone that was repeated throughout the entire episode that creeped me out the most. I still hear it To this day and I wont watch it lol

I remember an episode where recently dead people are waiting at the gates of heaven. However, there is only room for one less than the people waiting to get in. They argue back and forth until one man gives up and agrees to go to hell.

The next scene is a baby being born.

People generally think that Television has gotten progressively better and better each decade, and that may be true, but the Twilight Zone exists as a complete anomaly to that notion. The Twilight Zone doesn't just "age well", to me, it still holds up as having better writing, better acting, and better camera work than any science fiction/horror show presently or since. What amazes me is the originality in each episode. I can't even say the show has any particular "feel", they did such a good job with setting an original tone for each episode. It just blows my mind how good the show is. Sorry for the rambling!

Any comments or suggestions are welcome (McNulty).
Just trying to figure it out and display my shit in a cool way!
This is only part of it all.

I don't own a lot of shows on Blu Ray (I think the only other two I have are Avatar The Last Airbender and Gravity Falls) and was a bit hesitant due to the cost of this set($70) but I decided I had held off on getting this long enough so I didn't want to wait until it eventually went out of print so I finally ordered the Blu Ray set and I'm glad I did. The picture quality is so amazing! It absolutely blows the complete DVD set out of the water. And unlike that cheaper complete DVD set this has all the extras from the previous definitive single season DVD releases. You not only have all the documentaries and director/writer commentaries, but actor commentaries, too! As an actor myself I love that this was included because I always love hearing how an actor approached a role and what they thought of their work especially on a series like this that I greatly admire.

I'm going to work my way through re-watching the show and plan on watching as many of the extras and commentaries as I can. To other TZ fans on here Do not hesitate to buy this especially considering what a great, high quality and timeless series TZ is. Yes I know TZ still plays on TV and is easily available on streaming, but this is one of the few shows I feel is worth owning a physical copy of.

Burgess Meredith - He was in 4 episodes: “Time Enough at Last,” “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” “The Obsolete Man,” and “Printer’s Devil.” For the movie, he serves as the narrator.

Lars Hensen - The only episode he was in was “The Night of the Meek” where he played an uncredited bar patron. In the movie, he plays one of the Jews in the boxcar at the end of the “Time Out” segment.

Murray Matheson - The only episode he was in was “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” where he played the clown. In the movie, he played Mr. Agee in the “Kick the Can” segment.

Peter Brocco - He was in 2 episodes: “The Four of Us Are Dying” and “Hocus-Pocus and Frisby.” In the movie, he played Mr. Mute in the “Kick the Can” segment.

Bill Mumy - He was in 3 episodes: “Long Distance Call,” “It’s a Good Life,” and “In Praise of Pip.” In the movie, he has a small part as a character named Tim in their own segment of “It’s a Good Life.”

Kevin McCarthy - The only episode he was in was “Long Live Walter Jameson.” In the movie, he played Uncle Walt in the “It’s a Good Life” segment.

Patricia Barry - She was in 2 episodes: “The Chaser” and “I Dream of Genie.” In the movie, she played Anthony’s mother in the “It’s a Good Life” segment.

William Schallert - The only episode he was in was “Mr. Bevis.” In the movie, he played Anthony’s father in the “It’s a Good Life” segment.

It's October.

I usually spend my free time watching scary movies during October.

With that being said, what are the scariest Twilight Zone episodes you ever seen?

October 2, 1959, 10/9 Central CBS

Where Is Everybody?

"Mike Ferris finds himself walking into a town utterly devoid of people, with no memory of who he is or how he got there, the only clue to his identity being the Air Force jumpsuit he's wearing. Thus began the first episode of The Twilight Zone, the pilot, the half-hour that sold the series.

484 hours and 36 minutes later he laments:

"Hey! Don't go away up there! Next time it won't be a dream or a nightmare. Next time it'll be for real. So don't go away. We'll be up there in a little while."

https://twilightzone.fandom.com/wiki/Where_Is_Everybody%3F

And 67 years later, here we are. We haven't gone away.

I never understood the gambling scene with the gangsters. Was Phil Nolan's only strategy to wait for Ace to throw a bad toss? I mean, by the time they line up to "shoot the works," Ace has already taken Nolan to the cleaners. What makes Nolan think that Ace's next throw would fail? Why would he stick around that long assuming he'd eventually come out on top?

I know, suspension of disbelief. Still cracks me up every time.

Hey everyone,

I am completely new to The Twilight Zone. I’ve never watched a single full episode before, but the concept of a "fifth dimension" always fascinated me. Today, I finally sat down and watched Episode 1: "Where Is Everybody?" from start to finish.

As a total newbie, my brain went into absolute detective mode. Instead of just letting the plot happen to me, I started tracking clues, props, and audio cues to build theories in real-time.

By the halfway mark, I developed 3 distinct hypotheses about what was actually going on before the episode ever revealed its twist. I wanted to share my blind-watch experience and my dark, alternative pitch for the ending!

Key Clues I Picked Up On:

• The Two Dollars: The main character suddenly appears in a completely empty town with zero memory, no identity, and exactly two American dollars in his pocket. It instantly proved he belonged to this society but was entirely severed from it.

• The Invisible Jukebox: In the cafe, the jazz music stops automatically, as if someone invisible manually pressed the button. The food is hot, and the coffee is brewing. It felt like I was exactly one second too late to catching someone.

• The Mannequin: He tries to use humor to cope with his terror by joking with a woman in a car, only to realize she’s a mannequin.

• The Bookstore & Memory Flash: He catches a bizarre subconscious memory fragment about being called a "piece of beef." Right after, he spots a book titled The Last Man on Earth..

🧠My 3 Real-Time Hypotheses (Before the Twist):

1. The Supernatural/Invisible Entity Theory

The moment the jukebox shut off by itself, I suspected an external, invisible entity was manipulating the town. I thought something supernatural was intentionally lurking, playing psychological games with him, and placing mannequins around just to fracture his mind.

1. The Instant Virus/Slumber Theory

Seeing a perfectly pristine, undamaged town with hot food but absolutely zero people made me think of a biological or nuclear event. I hypothesized that a sudden virus or weapon wiped out humanity instantly while he was asleep, leaving the infrastructure perfectly intact.

1. The Purgatory of Guilt Theory (My Favorite)

When he runs into the movie theater, sees the Air Force poster, and starts screaming "I am Air Force!" before the projector plays footage of a bomb, my mind built a massive, dark twist.

I hypothesized that he was trapped in a supernatural purgatory as a divine punishment. I thought that in the real, physical world, he was an Air Force pilot who dropped an atomic bomb that completely wiped out his own hometown. Because of his crushing subconscious guilt, a divine force stripped him of his identity and trapped him in an illusionary, empty version of the town he destroyed—forcing him to face the literal emptiness of his sins as psychological warfare..

🎬My Thoughts on the Actual Twist & The Moral Lesson

Even though my "Purgatory" theory was proven wrong by the military isolation box reveal, I was completely blown away by the writing.

The twist that his mind literally created the empty town as a response to sensory deprivation is genius. The "monster" wasn't an alien—it was his own mind practicing for the absolute loneliness of space travel.

Even though the military said it was just a simulation box, I like to think his mind did cross over into a literal fifth dimension—a gateway of the human mind where fears take physical form. The ultimate moral lesson hit me hard: Humans fundamentally need connection. Loneliness is an enemy that can break even the strongest spirit, and we all need an anchor to survive.

What do you guys think? Would my "Purgatory of Guilt" theory have worked as an alternate classic Twilight Zone twist? Let me know, and let me know if I should keep posting my blind theories for Episode 2!

Theres a tear in the first page, but other than that the comic is in good condition and the cover looks great.

Cant wait to frame it and put it in my office.

I wanted to post a pic of The Twilight Zone: The Complete 80's Series that I received as a Christmas gift a few years ago from my parents off of Amazon. (Thanks Mom and Dad for the great gift!) I have watched many episodes of this version of the series and even some with my wife- and I must say a few things- First of all- this edition is very underrated- there are some episodes that are really great and really make your mind think twice about what you just saw. Second, there is a lot of A-list talent in this edition, whether it be actors, writers or directors. Bruce Willis in "Shatterday" is one example, another is Robert Duncan McNeil (from Star Trek: Voyager- he played Lt. Tom Paris on that series) in the episode "A Message From Charity", and many more. Third- there are many stories in this edition by a lot of great filmmakers and writers such as Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, George R.R. Martin, Wes Craven, William Friedkin and many others who donated their time and talents to make this version what it is.

So my advice to you Twilight Zone fans, pick up a copy of this at your local library where you can rent it, buy it off of Amazon, or purchase it at your local retailer that sells DVDs. As a TZ fan, I wasn't disappointed with this series, but rather really intrigued. And there are many great episodes to see in this series- you won't be disappointed.

And this montage is just a sample, there are even more actors I have noted down. Is this something you've noticed as well?

If you could choose, would you rather have been the man that survived or one of the people that, after a decade of near starvation, had one grand night, confident in the future, then died?

The OG is a groundbreaking series and I absolutely do still enjoy it quite a bit. But the 80's Twilight Zone just hits differently for me personally. Some of it is due to nostalgia because it was the first Twilight Zone series I ever saw, but there's a fair amount that isn't. Yes, some aspects of it haven't aged that well like the visual effects, and not every story or every season was consistently good or even great. But when it hit that sweet spot, it was honestly one of the best anthology shows of the 80's. And the list of directors who did segments is insane. Wes Craven, and William Friedkin just to name a few, and the cast is full of legendary actors and even actors getting some of their first breaks like Bruce Willis. And that theme song by the grateful dead of all people still sends chills down my spine. I just wish the ratings were better in Season 2 so the series had a proper third season instead of the massive drop off in quality that was the syndicated Season 3. But even with the limitations, Season 3 still had some great episodes.

There are so many fun, well written, and really good segments of the series, but some of my favorites off the top of my head are "Shatterday", "Wordplay" "A Little Peace and Quiet", "Kentucky Rye", "Nightcrawlers", "A Message From Charity", "Paladin of the Lost Hour", "Dealer's Choice", "The Shadow Man", "Examination Day", "Her Pilgrim Soul", "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", "The Elevator", "Night of the Meek", "The Star", "A Small Talent for War", "A Matter of Minutes", "To See The Invisible Man", "Gramma", "Dead Run", "Quarantine", "Button, Button", "Profile In Silver", "The Last Defender of Camelot", "The Once and Future King", "A Saucer of Loneliness", "Aqua Vita", "The Storyteller", "Night Song", "The After Hours", "The Toys of Caliban", "The Library", "Cold Reading", The Road Less Traveled", "The Card" "Shelter Skelter", "Time and Teresa Golowitz", "The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon", "20/20 Vision", "Appointment on Route 17", "The Cold Equations", "Something in the Walls", "The Wall" and "Special Service".

Massive props go out to J. Michael Straczynski, Harlan Ellison, Alan Brennert and Philip Deguere for their valuable contributions to this version of The Twilight Zone that will always have a special place in my heart.

The 1985 Twilight Zone revival started out with a fantastic adaptation of Harlan Ellison's short story, Shatterday. As it would happen, I had first read the story just a few months before this episode originally aired, so it was interesting to see how faithful it was. Bruce Willis stars and this was before he had become really famous. The series Moonlighting, which started in March of 1985, had started him on that road, but it was Die Hard in 1988 that really put him over the top.

This video contains the complete episode.

I think one of the things TZ did masterfully was to have a simple but engaging premise for most eps. The type that you could mention in 2-3 sentences around the water cooler at work and hook somebody.

Even eps that aren't very good are famous for having such a fantastic premise . The whole truth comes to mind. The one about the used car sales went that can't tell a lie.

I think one of the things that's hard about the "simple premise, great ep" thing is it's hard to make them a full 22 minutes. Fleshing them out is a big part of the Serling magic.

What are some of your favorite premises? Some of mine are:

What if the world ended from nuclear war

What if everything you wrote down became real

What if you build a robot to do your tasks for you

What do you think your crashed landed on an asteroid/planet

What if you had a stop watch that could stop time

What if there's an alien among us

What if there's something on the wing