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King Nine Will Not Return (Season 2, Episode 1)
Directed by: Buzz Kulik
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead, and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning, she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in the wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.

( Season 2, Episode 1: King Nine Will Not Return )

The Mighty Casey (Season 1, Episode 35)
Directed by: Robert Parrish and Alvin Ganzer
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: What you're looking at is a ghost, once alive but now deceased. Once upon a time, it was a baseball stadium that housed a major league ball club known as the Hoboken Zephyrs. Now it houses nothing but memories and a wind that stirs in the high grass of what was once an outfield, a wind that sometimes bears a faint, ghostly resemblance to the roar of a crowd that once sat here. We're back in time now, when the Hoboken Zephyrs were still a part of the National League, and this mausoleum of memories was an honest-to-Pete stadium. But since this is strictly a story of make believe, it has to start this way: once upon a time, in Hoboken, New Jersey, it was tryout day. And though he's not yet on the field, you're about to meet a most unusual fella, a left-handed pitcher named Casey.

( Season 1, Episode 35: The Mighty Casey )

Mr. Bevis (Season 1, Episode 33)
Directed by: William Asher
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: In the parlance of the twentieth century, this is an oddball. His name is James B. W. Bevis, and his tastes lean toward stuffed animals, zither music, professional football, Charles Dickens, moose heads, carnivals, dogs, children, and young ladies. Mr. Bevis is accident prone, a little vague, a little discombooberated [sic], with a life that possesses all the security of a floating crap game. But this can be said of our Mr. Bevis: without him, without his warmth, without his kindness, the world would be a considerably poorer place, albeit perhaps a little saner. … Should it not be obvious by now, James B. W. Bevis is a fixture in his own private, optimistic, hopeful little world, a world which has long ceased being surprised by him. James B. W. Bevis, on whom Dame Fortune will shortly turn her back, but not before she gives him a paste in the mouth. Mr. James B. W. Bevis, just one block away from the Twilight Zone.

( Season 1, Episode 33: Mr. Bevis )

The Chaser (Season 1, Episode 31)
Directed by: Douglas Heyes
Written by: Robert Presnell, Jr.
Based on: “The Chaser,” by John Collier

Opening: Mr. Roger Shackleforth. Age: youthful twenties. Occupation: being in love. Not just in love, but madly, passionately, illogically, miserably, all-consumingly in love - with a young woman named Leila, who has a vague recollection of his face and even less than a passing interest. In a moment, you'll see a switch, because Mr. Roger Shackleforth, the young gentleman so much in love, will take a short, but very meaningful journey into the Twilight Zone.

This episode contains some deeply creepy love potion action with all the related consent and violation issues.

( Season 1, Episode 31: The Chaser )

Nightmare as a Child (Season 1, Episode 29)
Directed by: Alvin Ganzer
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: Month of November, hot chocolate, and a small cameo of a child's face, imperfect only in its solemnity. And these are the improbable ingredients to a human emotion, an emotion, say, like—fear. But in a moment this woman, Helen Foley, will realize fear. She will understand what are the properties of terror. A little girl will lead her by the hand and walk with her into a nightmare.

Note: this review contains discussion of subtext related to child sexual abuse.

( Season 1, Episode 29: Nightmare as a Child )

The Big Tall Wish (Season 1, Episode 27)
Directed by: Ron Winston
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: In this corner of the universe, a prizefighter named Bolie Jackson, 183 pounds and an hour and a half away from a comeback at St. Nick's Arena. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who, by the standards of his profession is an aging, over-the-hill relic of what was, and who now sees a reflection of a man who has left too many pieces of his youth in too many stadiums for too many years before too many screaming people. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who might do well to look for some gentle magic in the hard-surfaced glass that stares back at him.

( Season 1, Episode 27: The Big Tall Wish )

People Are Alike All Over (Season 1, Episode 25)
Directed by: Mitchell Leisen
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: “Brothers Beyond the Void,” by Paul W. Fairman

Opening: You're looking at a specie of flimsy little two-legged animal with extremely small heads, whose name is Man. Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They're taking a highway into space, Man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers up into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we'll land there with them.

( Season 1, Episode 25: People Are Alike All Over )

A World of Difference (Season 1, Episode 23)
Directed by: Ted Post
Written by: Richard Matheson
Based on: N/A

Opening: You're looking at a tableau of reality, things of substance, of physical material: a desk, a window, a light. These things exist and have dimension. Now this is Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six, who also is real. He has flesh and blood, muscle and mind. But in just a moment we will see how thin a line separates that which we assume to be real with that manufactured inside of a mind.

( Season 1, Episode 23: A World of Difference )

Mirror Image (Season 1, Episode 21)
Directed by: John Brahm
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: Millicent Barnes, age twenty-five, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night. Not a very imaginative type is Miss Barnes: not given to undue anxiety, or fears, or for that matter even the most temporal flights of fantasy. Like most young career women, she has a generic classification as a, quote, girl with a head on her shoulders, end of quote. All of which is mentioned now because, in just a moment, the head on Miss Barnes's shoulders will be put to a test. Circumstances will assault her sense of reality and a chain of nightmares will put her sanity on a block. Millicent Barnes, who, in one minute, will wonder if she's going mad.

( Season 1, Episode 21: Mirror Image )

The Purple Testament (Season 1, Episode 19)
Directed by: Richard L. Bare
Written by: Rod Serling
Based on: N/A

Opening: Infantry platoon, U.S. Army, Philippine Islands, 1945. These are the faces of the young men who fight, as if some omniscient painter had mixed a tube of oils that were at one time earth brown, dust gray, blood red, beard black, and fear yellow-white, and these men were the models. For this is the province of combat, and these are the faces of war.

Content note: this episode uses an ethnic slur for the Japanese.

( Season 1, Episode 19: The Purple Testament )