10 best 'Twilight Zone' episodes of all time

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- IMDb user votes: 3,400
- Director: Lamont Johnson
- Season 3, Episode 3
- Air date: Sept. 29, 1961

In the middle of a dinner party, a group of suburbanites finds out that it's about to get nuked. One man has built a bomb shelter for his family, and he won't let anyone else inside. They find out that it was a false alarm, but not in time to save their friendships.

Jack Albertson, who played Grandpa Joe in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," is one of the shut-out neighbors.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- IMDb user votes: 3,900
- Director: Elliot Silverstein
- Season 2, Episode 29
- Air date: June 2, 1961

In a totalitarian society, a librarian is sentenced to execution because he's deemed obsolete. The government allows the condemned man to choose how he will die. He requires the state's chancellor to be there for a televised showing of his death.

Burgess Meredith, who played Mickey in the "Rocky" films, is the librarian. He returns on the list in "Time Enough At Last" at #4.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- IMDb user votes: 4,400
- Director: James Sheldon
- Season 3, Episode 8
- Air date: Nov. 3, 1961

In an iconic performance by Billy Mumy, a 6-year-old boy reigns terror on his small town with his powers to read minds and get rid of anyone who thinks less-than-good thoughts. The adults slowly lose their patience and are sent "to the cornfield." Some contemplate trying to kill him, but they don't succeed. Cloris Leachman plays the boy's mother.

In 2003, this episode became the only one to get a sequel. It's widely recognized as one of the best episodes of the series, and was ranked #3 by Time magazine, behind "Time Enough At Last," ranked #4 on this list, and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," #5 on the list.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- IMDb user votes: 3,600
- Director: Richard C. Sarafian
- Season 5, Episode 6
- Air date: Nov. 1, 1963

When a man's wife and daughter come home with a new doll, he is immediately put off by the toy. The doll starts telling him that she hates him and wants to kill him. He tries taking a blowtorch to the doll, but she, and a flight of stairs, get the better of him.

The house set was later used in the "The Twilight Zone" episode "Ring-a-Ding Girl."

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- IMDb user votes: 4,100
- Director: Montgomery Pittman
- Season 2, Episode 28
- Air date: May 26, 1961

Policemen are investigating a reported flying saucer crash. They find a group of bus passengers stranded at a diner while they wait out a snowstorm. Only trouble is, there is an extra passenger. The cops try to figure out which one is the extraterrestrial, while the alien has his own plans for world domination. The episode mentions fellow real-life sci-fi/fantasy writer Ray Bradbury by name as part of the story.

This is the first episode of "The Twilight Zone" directed by Montgomery Pittman.

You may also like: 50 best TV shows of all time

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- IMDb user votes: 5,900
- Director: Ron Winston
- Season 1, Episode 22
- Air date: March 4, 1960

When the lights go out on a tree-lined, suburban street, someone suggests that aliens are attacking. As the weirdness continues, neighbors become suspicious of each other, escalating to mass hysteria. The aliens, who do want to control the planet, watch from a distance as humans do a perfectly fine job of destroying themselves.

Jack Weston, who played Max Kellerman in the classic film "Dirty Dancing," is one of the neighbors.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- IMDb user votes: 7,500
- Director: John Brahm
- Season 1, Episode 8
- Air date: Nov. 20, 1959

A banker who prefers books to everything else in his life is the sole survivor when a nuclear bomb goes off while he's in the vault reading. Since his wife and boss never gave him time to read, he's happy to be left alone with his books. Then his glasses break. The legendary actor Burgess Meredith, plays the banker. It remains a poignant, if ironic, ode to bibliophiles and introverts everywhere.

Series creator and writer Rod Serling said this was one of his favorite episodes.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- IMDb user votes: 5,000
- Director: Richard L. Bare
- Season 3, Episode 24
- Air date: March 2, 1962

Aliens come to Earth and appear to want to make peace. Though people are initially skeptical, they're impressed by the extraterrestrials' helpful additions to their lives. Then, when they leave behind a book, people work to decode what it means. It's a cookbook.

The script is based on a story by sci-fi novelist Damon Knight.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- IMDb user votes: 5,300
- Director: Richard Donner
- Season 5, Episode 3
- Air date: Oct. 11, 1963

In one of the most famous "Twilight Zone" episodes of all time, William Shatner stars as a man recovering from a nervous breakdown. He sees a monster attacking the plane he's flying in, but he's not sure if it's real. At first, he tries to downplay his concern and asks his wife to make sure the pilot checks on that part of the plane. As he becomes more convinced, he has to choose between making his wife think that he's still crazy and saving her life.

John Lithgow plays Shatner's famous role in Steven Spielberg's film "Twilight Zone: The Movie" in 1983. The episode has been spoofed and parodied numerous times in popular culture, including on "Saturday Night Live," "The Lego Batman Movie," and "The Simpsons."

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- IMDb user votes: 6,000
- Director: Douglas Heyes
- Season 2, Episode 6
- Air date: Nov. 11, 1960

Perhaps the most classic episode of the series focuses on a woman recovering from her 11th facial surgery, undergone in order to make herself look pleasing enough to avoid being sent away to a colony of hideous people. When her bandages come off, revealing what would be, in this world, a beautiful woman, the doctor is disappointed. Then, viewers finally see what everyone else looks like. Serling's critique of physical beauty and conformism through the story feels even more relevant today.

The legendary makeup artist William Tuttle, who created the dazzlingly creepy and unexpected looks for this episode, also created the effects for the Morlocks in the 1960 sci-fi film "The Time Machine" as well as a number of other iconic films as the head of makeup at MGM during his storied 40-year career. The music is provided by the iconic composer and frequent Alfred Hitchcock collaborator, Bernard Herrmann, who also wrote the theme for the series.

Data reporting by Luke Hicks. Additional writing by Kaiya Shunyata. Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Lois Hince.

You may also like: The 25 best Western TV shows of all time