# The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) season 1

The first season of The Twilight Zone aired Fridays at 10:00–10:30 pm (EST) on CBS from October 2, 1959, to July 1, 1960. There are 36 episodes, including the pilot, "Where Is Everybody?" The theme music for this season, written by Bernard Herrmann, is different from the music most commonly associated with the series, written by Marius Constant for the second season onwards.

## Intro

The opening intro for most of these episodes features a series of lagoon graphics by UPA, with Rod Serling's narration:
"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone."
A different intro was used for the final four episodes, featuring an animated close-up of an eye that metamorphosed into a setting sun and an abridged version of Herrmann's theme music. Serling's narration for this went as follows:
"You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop—The Twilight Zone."
The graphics for this opening were by Pacific Title, as were those for the openings in the subsequent seasons.
At least one episode, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday", is known to have had this opening dubbed over the original lagoon opening when it was aired as a summer repeat in 1960. The following summer, a number of first-season episodes had the second season intro dubbed over the original when they were aired as repeats. The original openings have since been restored for those episodes.
Segments of the original first season intro continued to be used as an intermission graphic up through season three.

## Episodes

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Music by | Original air date | Prod. code |
| 1 | 1 | "Where Is Everybody?" | Robert Stevens | Rod Serling | Bernard Herrmann | October 2, 1959 (1959-10-02) | 173-3601 |
| A man (Earl Holliman) with no memory of who he is finds himself in a strange empty town. ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | "One for the Angels" | Robert Parrish | Rod Serling | N/A | October 9, 1959 (1959-10-09) | 173-3608 |
| A pitchman (Ed Wynn) talks Death (Murray Hamilton) into sparing his life until he makes one last great pitch, but threatens the life of a little girl in the process. ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" | Allen Reisner | Rod Serling | N/A | October 16, 1959 (1959-10-16) | 173-3609 |
| A town drunk (Dan Duryea) faces an infamous killer after magically regaining his gunfighting skills. ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" | Mitchell Leisen | Rod Serling | Franz Waxman | October 23, 1959 (1959-10-23) | 173-3610 |
| An aging movie star (Ida Lupino) rewatches her old films in an attempt to recapture her youth. ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Walking Distance" | Robert Stevens | Rod Serling | Bernard Herrmann | October 30, 1959 (1959-10-30) | 173-3605 |
| An ad executive (Gig Young) under pressure at his job visits his old hometown, only to find himself returned to his childhood. ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Escape Clause" | Mitchell Leisen | Rod Serling | N/A | November 6, 1959 (1959-11-06) | 173-3603 |
| A mean-spirited hypochondriac (David Wayne) afraid of dying sells his soul to the Devil (Thomas Gomez) for immortality. ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | "The Lonely" | Jack Smight | Rod Serling | Bernard Herrmann | November 13, 1959 (1959-11-13) | 173-3602 |
| In the distant future, a convicted man (Jack Warden) serving his sentence on an uninhabited asteroid is given a female robot (Jean Marsh) for companionship. ||||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Time Enough at Last" | John Brahm | Based on a short story by : Lynn Venable Teleplay by : Rod Serling | Leith Stevens | November 20, 1959 (1959-11-20) | 173-3614 |
| A bank teller (Burgess Meredith) yearning for more time to read gets his wish when he becomes the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust. In 2009, TV Guide ranked this episode No. 11 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes. ||||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Perchance to Dream" | Robert Florey | Charles Beaumont | Van Cleave | November 27, 1959 (1959-11-27) | 173-3616 |
| A man (Richard Conte) with a severe heart condition who has been awake for a long time tells his psychiatrist that he will die if he goes to sleep, because a vixen (Suzanne Lloyd) is trying to kill him. ||||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Judgment Night" | John Brahm | Rod Serling | N/A | December 4, 1959 (1959-12-04) | 173-3604 |
| In 1942, a man (Nehemiah Persoff) from Germany does not remember how he boarded a British ship heading for New York, but he does have a feeling the ship will be sunk. ||||||||
| 11 | 11 | "And When the Sky Was Opened" | Douglas Heyes | Based on a short story by : Richard Matheson Teleplay by : Rod Serling | Leonard Rosenman | December 11, 1959 (1959-12-11) | 173-3611 |
| Three astronauts (Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman, Jim Hutton) return from the desert where their spacecraft crashed, but cannot remember what happened during their flight. ||||||||
| 12 | 12 | "What You Need" | Alvin Ganzer | Based on a short story by : Lewis Padgett Teleplay by : Rod Serling | Van Cleave | December 25, 1959 (1959-12-25) | 173-3622 |
| A thug (Steve Cochran) tries to exploit the abilities of a peddler (Ernest Truex) who can see into the future and discern just what a person will need in an emergency. ||||||||
| 13 | 13 | "The Four of Us Are Dying" | John Brahm | Based on a short story by : George Clayton Johnson Teleplay by : Rod Serling | Jerry Goldsmith | January 1, 1960 (1960-01-01) | 173-3618 |
| A small-time con-man (Harry Townes) with the ability to change his face assumes the identities of a musician (Ross Martin), a gangster (Phillip Pine), and a boxer (Don Gordon). ||||||||
| 14 | 14 | "Third from the Sun" | Richard L. Bare | Based on a short story by : Richard Matheson Teleplay by : Rod Serling | N/A | January 8, 1960 (1960-01-08) | 173-3615 |
| With an atomic war on the horizon, a scientist (Fritz Weaver) and his co-worker (Joe Maross) plot to board their families on a spaceship and escape to another planet. ||||||||
| 15 | 15 | "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" | Stuart Rosenberg | Based on a story by : Madelon Champion Teleplay by : Rod Serling | N/A | January 15, 1960 (1960-01-15) | 173-3626 |
| Astronauts are deserted on what appears to be an uncharted asteroid. ||||||||
| 16 | 16 | "The Hitch-Hiker" | Alvin Ganzer | Based on the radio play by : Lucille Fletcher Teleplay by : Rod Serling | N/A | January 22, 1960 (1960-01-22) | 173-3612 |
| A woman (Inger Stevens) driving cross-country keeps seeing a hitchhiker (Leonard Strong) everywhere she goes. ||||||||
| 17 | 17 | "The Fever" | Robert Florey | Rod Serling | N/A | January 29, 1960 (1960-01-29) | 173-3627 |
| A man (Everett Sloane) whose wife (Vivi Janiss) won them tickets to Las Vegas gets addicted to gambling, courtesy of a slot machine that calls his name. ||||||||
| 18 | 18 | "The Last Flight" | William F. Claxton | Richard Matheson | N/A | February 5, 1960 (1960-02-05) | 173-3607 |
| A British World War I fighter pilot (Kenneth Haigh) flies through a strange cloud and lands his biplane on a modern-day American airbase. ||||||||
| 19 | 19 | "The Purple Testament" | Richard L. Bare | Rod Serling | Lucien Moraweck | February 12, 1960 (1960-02-12) | 173-3619 |
| An Army lieutenant (William Reynolds) serving in World War II has the ability to see who will die. ||||||||
| 20 | 20 | "Elegy" | Douglas Heyes | Charles Beaumont | Van Cleave | February 19, 1960 (1960-02-19) | 173-3625 |
| In the late 22nd century, astronauts (Jeff Morrow, Kevin Hagen, Don Dubbins) land on an asteroid resembling Earth, but its inhabitants appear motionless. ||||||||
| 21 | 21 | "Mirror Image" | John Brahm | Rod Serling | N/A | February 26, 1960 (1960-02-26) | 173-3623 |
| A woman (Vera Miles) in a bus depot is treated by strangers as if they have seen her before and soon realizes that she has a doppelgänger. ||||||||
| 22 | 22 | "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" | Ronald Winston | Rod Serling | Rene Garriguenc | March 4, 1960 (1960-03-04) | 173-3620 |
| A power failure causes the residents of a suburban neighborhood to suspect one another of being monsters from outer space planning an invasion. ||||||||
| 23 | 23 | "A World of Difference" | Ted Post | Richard Matheson | Van Cleave | March 11, 1960 (1960-03-11) | 173-3624 |
| A businessman (Howard Duff) finds himself in another life as an actor playing a character in a movie. ||||||||
| 24 | 24 | "Long Live Walter Jameson" | Anton Leader | Charles Beaumont | N/A | March 18, 1960 (1960-03-18) | 173-3621 |
| A history professor (Kevin McCarthy) is revealed to have lived for thousands of years. ||||||||
| 25 | 25 | "People Are Alike All Over" | Mitchell Leisen | Based on a short story by : Paul W. Fairman Teleplay by : Rod Serling | N/A | March 25, 1960 (1960-03-25) | 173-3613 |
| Two astronauts (Roddy McDowall, Paul Comi) take an expedition to Mars, where one dies in a crash landing and the other learns how alike people really are. ||||||||
| 26 | 26 | "Execution" | David Orrick McDearmon | Based on a short story by : George Clayton Johnson Teleplay by : Rod Serling | N/A | April 1, 1960 (1960-04-01) | 173-3628 |
| An outlaw cowboy (Albert Salmi) about to be hanged for murder in 1880 is brought to 1960 by a time machine built by a professor (Russell Johnson). ||||||||
| 27 | 27 | "The Big Tall Wish" | Ronald Winston | Rod Serling | Jerry Goldsmith | April 8, 1960 (1960-04-08) | 173-3630 |
| A boy (Stephen Perry) makes a wish for a boxer (Ivan Dixon) to win a comeback match. ||||||||
| 28 | 28 | "A Nice Place to Visit" | John Brahm | Charles Beaumont | N/A | April 15, 1960 (1960-04-15) | 173-3632 |
| A thief (Larry Blyden) is shot by police and winds up in a place where he has everything he has ever wanted upon meeting a strange man named Pip (Sebastian Cabot). ||||||||
| 29 | 29 | "Nightmare as a Child" | Alvin Ganzer | Rod Serling | Jerry Goldsmith | April 29, 1960 (1960-04-29) | 173-3635 |
| A strange little girl (Terry Burnham) reveals secrets about the past of a school teacher (Janice Rule). ||||||||
| 30 | 30 | "A Stop at Willoughby" | Robert Parrish | Rod Serling | Nathan Scott | May 6, 1960 (1960-05-06) | 173-3629 |
| A stressed-out ad executive (James Daly) discovers a quiet 1880s town in his dreams that seems better than his waking life. ||||||||
| 31 | 31 | "The Chaser" | Douglas Heyes | Based on a short story by : John Collier Teleplay by : Robert Presnell, Jr. | N/A | May 13, 1960 (1960-05-13) | 173-3636 |
| A lovestruck man (George Grizzard) in love with a self-obsessed woman named Leila (Patricia Barry) buys a love potion that works too well. ||||||||
| 32 | 32 | "A Passage for Trumpet" | Don Medford | Rod Serling | Lyn Murray | May 20, 1960 (1960-05-20) | 173-3633 |
| A down-and-out trumpet player (Jack Klugman) gets another chance at life after attempting suicide. ||||||||
| 33 | 33 | "Mr. Bevis" | William Asher | Rod Serling | N/A | June 3, 1960 (1960-06-03) | 173-3631 |
| A guardian angel (Henry Jones) offers to help a good-natured man (Orson Bean) who is having a bad day. ||||||||
| 34 | 34 | "The After Hours" | Douglas Heyes | Rod Serling | N/A | June 10, 1960 (1960-06-10) | 173-3637 |
| A woman (Anne Francis) is told that the floor of a department store where she made a purchase does not exist. ||||||||
| 35 | 35 | "The Mighty Casey" | Alvin Ganzer Robert Parrish | Rod Serling | N/A | June 17, 1960 (1960-06-17) | 173-3617 |
| A baseball manager (Jack Warden) takes his team to the championships thanks to a robot pitcher (Robert Sorrells). ||||||||
| 36 | 36 | "A World of His Own" | Ralph Nelson | Richard Matheson | N/A | July 1, 1960 (1960-07-01) | 173-3634 |
| A playwright (Keenan Wynn) has the ability to bring anything to life by describing it to a tape recorder. ||||||||