Rod Serling
Self - Host
Series SeasonSeason 3 episodes1961
The Twilight Zone
Season 3
The third season of The Twilight Zone aired Fridays at 10:00–10:30 pm on CBS from September 15, 1961 to June 1, 1962. There are 37 episodes. Continuing with Marius Constant's theme music, a different set of graphics was used for the opening, consisting of a rotating cone with concentric circles suggesting a spiral, receding into a star field. Rod Serling's narration from the second season was used, with the verse "That's the signpost up ahead" taken out: "You're traveling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop—The Twilight Zone." Some subtle changes in the opening's acoustics were made beginning with Person or Persons Unknown.
Episodes
Each episode has its own detail page.
Episode 126 min1961-09-15
Two
A man and a woman, on opposite sides of a future war, encounter each other in a deserted town.
Episode 226 min1961-09-22
The Arrival
A plane lands safely, but all its passengers, pilot and crew are missing.
Episode 326 min1961-09-29
The Shelter
When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.
Episode 426 min1961-10-06
The Passersby
On the road home from the Civil War, a Confederate soldier stops at a burned-out house and gets to know the owner, a recent widow.
Episode 526 min1961-10-13
A Game of Pool
Championship pool player Fats Brown returns from the grave for one last game.
Episode 626 min1961-10-20
The Mirror
After a poor but ambitious Central American farm worker overthrows his country's tyrannical leader, he believes he sees assassins everywhere. A look in the mirror reveals his most dangerous enemy.
Episode 726 min1961-10-27
The Grave
Before he died, notorious gunslinger Pinto Sykes put a curse on hired-gun Conny Miller. Miller returns to town and is challenged to visit the grave of Sykes, despite the curse.
Episode 826 min1961-11-03
It's a Good Life
On an isolated family farm in Peakesville, Ohio, young Anthony Fremont, who has vast mental powers but lacks emotional development, holds his terrified family and neighbors in thrall to his every juvenile wish.
Episode 926 min1961-11-10
Deaths-Head Revisited
A former Nazi SS Captain returns to the ruins of a concentration camp to reminisce, and is met by one of his victims.
Episode 1026 min1961-11-17
The Midnight Sun
The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising imminent destruction.
Episode 1126 min1961-11-24
Still Valley
Confederacy scout Sgt. Joseph Paradine finds a town full of Union soldiers, and an old man who claims he used witchcraft to paralyze them.
Episode 1226 min1961-12-01
The Jungle
Alan Richards plans to build a dam in Africa on a tribe's ancestral land. The tribe's voodoo doctor puts a curse on him.
Episode 1326 min1961-12-15
Once Upon a Time
Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962.
Episode 1426 min1961-12-22
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.
Episode 1526 min1961-12-29
A Quality of Mercy
A gung ho young soldier gets a new viewpoint on war when he inexplicably changes places with a Japanese officer trying to stop his superior from leading a charge against American forces.
Episode 1626 min1962-01-05
Nothing in the Dark
A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
Episode 1726 min1962-01-12
One More Pallbearer
Paul Radin has invited three people to join him in his bomb shelter.
Episode 1826 min1962-01-19
Dead Man's Shoes
A vagrant steps into a murdered gangster's expensive shoes and is taken over by the dead man's ghost, who vows to remain on Earth to seek revenge against his killer.
Episode 1926 min1962-01-26
The Hunt
On a hunting trip, Hyder Simpson and his dog Rip dive into a lake after a raccoon. When he gets home he finds that no one can see or hear him.
Episode 2026 min1962-02-02
Showdown with Rance McGrew
The star of a Western TV series suddenly finds himself transported back in time to the real Wild West, and face-to-face with the real Jesse James.
Episode 2126 min1962-02-09
Kick the Can
A retiree living in a rest home thinks he has discovered the secret of youth — acting young, and in particular playing a children's game called "kick-the-can".
Episode 2226 min1962-02-16
A Piano in the House
Fortune discovers that a piano he bought his wife for her birthday has magical properties - the music that it plays makes people reveal their true essence.
Episode 2326 min1962-02-23
The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
Jeff Myrtlebank comes back to life at his own funeral and soon begins to act very strangely...
Episode 2426 min1962-03-02
To Serve Man
An alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A team of linguists sets out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce to be "To Serve Man."
Episode 2526 min1962-03-09
The Fugitive
Old Ben, who is able to transform himself into anything, tries to help a crippled little girl.
Episode 2626 min1962-03-16
Little Girl Lost
Awakened by the cries of their daughter Bettina, Chris and Ruth Miller enter her room to find that she has vanished, even though they still hear her crying for help. Chris' physicist friend Bill thinks she moved into another dimension.
Episode 2726 min1962-03-23
Person or Persons Unknown
David Gurney wakes up to find that no one - his wife, his co-workers, his best friend, not even his own mother knows him.
Episode 2826 min1962-03-30
The Little People
An astronaut declares himself a god when his ship lands on a planet populated by people smaller than ants.
Episode 2926 min1962-04-06
Four O'Clock
Oliver Crangle is a bitter, prejudiced man. Through unknown means he intends to shrink every evil person in the world at four o'clock.
Episode 3026 min1962-04-13
Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
A loud-mouthed braggart's boasts attract the attention of some aliens.
Episode 3126 min1962-04-20
The Trade-Ins
An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies.
Episode 3226 min1962-04-27
The Gift
An alien who crash-lands into a remote mountain village stirs up the villagers' fears and animosity, but he befriends a little boy and gives him a mysterious present.
Episode 3326 min1962-05-04
The Dummy
A ventriloquist is convinced that his dummy, Willie, is alive and evil. He makes plans for a new act with a new dummy: plans that Willie doesn't support!
Episode 3426 min1962-05-11
Young Man's Fancy
When a newlywed couple briefly return to the groom's childhood home, the ties of the past prove too strong to resist.
Episode 3526 min1962-05-18
I Sing the Body Electric
A widower buys a robot grandmother for his three children.
Episode 3625 min1962-05-25
Cavender is Coming
Cavender, an angel trying to win his wings, tries to help down-on-her-luck Agnes, who has just been fired.
Episode 3725 min1962-06-01
The Changing of the Guard
An elderly private school teacher wonders if his life has meant anything as he contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve and is reminded by former students that he has, indeed, made an effect on the lives of his students over the years.