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The Best Episodes Written By Rod Serling

Every TV Episode Written by Rod Serling Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    undefined Season 2 Episode 18 - The Waiting Room / Last Rites for a Dead Druid
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    S2:E18

    A gunfighter's final reckoning awaits him in a frontier saloon. When a woman buys a statue bearing an uncanny resemblance to her husband, he soon feels the influence of its model: an ancient druid sorcerer.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  2. undefined Season 2 Episode 22 - The Caterpillar / Little Girl Lost
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    S2:E22

    A bored colonial on a Malaysian plantation employs an exotic accomplice, an earwig, in his gruesome plot to assassinate a romantic rival. Military strategists unwittingly plant the seeds of the apocalypse when they humor a scientific genius unbalanced by his daughter's death.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  3. undefined Season 3 Episode 24 - To Serve Man
    8.5/10(35 votes)

    S3:E24

    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."

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  4. undefined Season 2 Episode 6 - Eye of the Beholder
    8.5/10(54 votes)

    S2:E6

    A young woman lying in a hospital bed awaits the outcome of an experimental treatment in an attempt to make her look normal.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  5. undefined Season 5 Episode 25 - The Masks
    8.4/10(19 votes)

    S5:E25

    A wealthy dying man invites his family to a Mardi Gras party and insists that they wear masks specially made for them, threatening to cut off their inheritance if they refuse.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  6. undefined Season 3 Episode 3 - The Shelter
    8.4/10(29 votes)

    S3:E3

    When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  7. undefined Season 1 Episode 8 - Time Enough at Last
    8.2/10(73 votes)

    S1:E8

    A bank teller, obsessed with reading, faces conflicts at work and home because of his passion for literature.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  8. undefined Season 3 Episode 8 - It's a Good Life
    8.2/10(29 votes)

    S3:E8

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  9. undefined Season 1 Episode 5 - Pamela's Voice / Lone Survivor / The Doll
    8.2/10(4 votes)

    S1:E5

    A harried husband murders his magpie wife only to find the arrangement less permanent than he'd hoped. A passing ship rescues an unconscious man in a lifeboat labeled "Titanic", three years after the liner sank. A hideous doll becomes an agent of revenge against an officer in Queen Victoria's colonial forces.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  10. undefined Season 1 Episode 6 - They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar / The Last Laurel
    8.2/10(6 votes)

    S1:E6

    A has-been salesman is haunted by phantoms from a happier past. Astral projection is the key to a crippled athlete's bid for revenge.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  11. undefined Season 2 Episode 25 - The Silence
    8.1/10(28 votes)

    S2:E25

    A talkative man takes an offer to keep silent for a year for $500,000.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  12. undefined Season 1 Episode 22 - The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
    8.0/10(53 votes)

    S1:E22

    Paranoia strikes the residents of Maple Street when they believe human-looking aliens have invaded the neighborhood.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  13. undefined Season 2 Episode 12 - Cool Air / Camera Obscura / Quoth the Raven
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    S2:E12

    A haunting love story of a young woman and her late father's colleague, a man clinging desperately to life in a refrigerated apartment. A heartless moneylender gets his just desserts with the help of a client's unusual telescopic device. Edgar Allan Poe receives some unwanted coaching during a bout with writer's block.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  14. undefined Season 2 Episode 28 - Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
    8.0/10(33 votes)

    S2:E28

    State Troopers follow the tracks from a frozen pond, into a diner. Inside they find a soda jerk, a bus driver and his seven passengers. The bus driver is certain only six people boarded his bus…

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  15. undefined Season 4 Episode 4 - He's Alive
    7.9/10(15 votes)

    S4:E4

    A small American Neo-Nazi group struggles pathetically to succeed in a big city. A mysterious figure begins to guide their young, insecure leader, and the group begins to draw more attention.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  16. undefined Season 1 Episode 30 - A Stop at Willoughby
    7.9/10(39 votes)

    S1:E30

    Riding home on the train one day, a stressed businessman falls asleep and dreams it is 1888, and he is entering a small, idyllic town called Willoughby.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  17. undefined Season 3 Episode 14 - Five Characters in Search of an Exit
    7.9/10(25 votes)

    S3:E14

    A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  18. undefined Season 3 Episode 10 - The Midnight Sun
    7.9/10(25 votes)

    S3:E10

    The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising imminent destruction.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  19. undefined Season 1 Episode 5 - Walking Distance
    7.8/10(65 votes)

    S1:E5

    A stressed advertising executive, driving through the country, leaves his car and starts to walk toward his hometown, Homewood. He finds things exactly as they were when he was a child.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  20. undefined Season 1 Episode 11 - And When the Sky Was Opened
    7.8/10(51 votes)

    S1:E11

    Recovering in the hospital after a space mission, Major William Gart is visited by his co-pilot Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes, who insists on the existence of a third astronaut.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  21. undefined Season 1 Episode 3 - The House / Certain Shadows on the Wall
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    S1:E3

    A former sanitarium patient discovers a house she has known all her life, but never dared enter, in a recurring dream. An ailing woman dies under the care of her sinister brother, but her accusing shadow remains indelibly cast on the parlor wall.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  22. undefined Season 1 Episode 7 - The Lonely
    7.7/10(65 votes)

    S1:E7

    In 2046, imprisoned for murder on a distant asteroid, Corry receives an unexpected present that brings a semblance of companionship during his isolation.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  23. undefined Season 1 Episode 25 - People are Alike All Over
    7.7/10(32 votes)

    S1:E25

    After a space exploration crash-lands on Mars, the lone surviving astronaut is surprised to find that Martians are human-looking and friendly.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  24. undefined Season 1 Episode 12 - What You Need
    7.7/10(44 votes)

    S1:E12

    A two-bit thug thinks he's found the key to a better life in an old sidewalk salesman who has the uncanny ability to tell people what they need the most.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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  25. undefined Season 5 Episode 7 - The Old Man in the Cave
    7.7/10(11 votes)

    S5:E7

    A mysterious guardian helps a tiny community survive after the Bomb destroys much of the Earth.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Rod Serling

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Rod Serling Ratings Summary

"The Waiting Room / Last Rites for a Dead Druid" is the best rated episode written by Rod Serling. It scored 10.0/10 from 1 votes. It was directed by N/A. It aired on January 26, 1972. It is rated 1.0 points higher than their second-best episode, "The Caterpillar / Little Girl Lost".