“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
William “Captain Kirk” Shatner stars in what might be the most famous and revered of all Twilight Zone episodes. He plays a man traveling aboard a commercial flight with his wife. When he spots a “gremlin” on the wing, he tries to alert the crew and other passengers to the potential danger lurking just outside his window seat. However, our clever Gremlin makes sure to duck out of view every time someone else peers through the glass, leaving Shatner to look foolish and delusional (a fact compounded by the knowledge that his character had a severe nervous breakdown on a plane months earlier… ). In typical Twilight Zone fashion, the final shot is the stinger. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” was revisited in Twilight Zone: The Movie, starring John Lithgow in the famous role.
“To Serve Man”
In this episode, which debuted back in 1962, mankind has seemingly found a benevolent alien savior in the form of the Kanamits — a race of towering space travelers who are all too willing to help Earth eradicate the problems of hunger and war. Their personal manifesto, a book entitled To Serve Man, isn’t a guide for peace. It’s a cookbook with recipes to turn humans into a tasty main course.
“The Eye of the Beholder”
Odds are, if you saw 1962’s “Eye of the Beholder” as a child (originally titled “The Private World of Darkness”), it terrified you for weeks. A young woman undergoes surgery to improve her appearance and look like everyone else. She spends most of the episode swathed in head bandages as shadowy doctors and nurses talk around her. When the wraps are removed, the doctors proclaim the procedure a complete failure — but the audience sees the lovely Donna Douglas and wonders how this can be. It all becomes clear when the doctors and nurses are revealed (one of the most memorable Twilight Zone reveals of all time).
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You"
Season 5, Episode 17
In this episode's dystopian future, all men and women must undergo beautification surgery at the age of 18, physical ugliness being one of the main causes of hate in the world. Having seen a loss of identity drive her father crazy, fresh-faced adult Marilyn resists treatment, only to cave when the prospect of being ostracized sounds even more terrifying. It’s the kind of episode worth screaming at your television in frustration, made wholly alienating with two actors playing almost all the roles.
"The Masks"
Season 5 Episode 25
An episode that could have easily appeared on Tales From the Crypt, "The Masks" is a voodoo tale about terrible people getting their just deserts. Jason Foster is the wealthy patriarch to a whining daughter, her greedy businessman husband, and his bullying children. Foster invites them to a Mardi Gras party to inform them that, in order to get a massive inheritance, they have to participate in a custom of wearing grotesque masks until the stroke of midnight. What happens next is a beautifully mean-spirited parable.