The Twilight Zone: Season 3
1961 · 37 episodes · ★ 7.0
What Season 3 of The Twilight Zone
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.
Season 3 Episodes
3x01 Two
A man and a woman, on opposite sides of a future war, encounter each other in a deserted town.
Directing: Montgomery Pittman · Writing: Montgomery Pittman · Starring: Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson
3x02 The Arrival
A plane lands safely, but all its passengers, pilot and crew are missing.
Directing: Boris Sagal · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Fredd Wayne, Noah Keen, Bing Russell, Robert Karnes
3x03 The Shelter
When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Larry Gates, Joseph Bernard, Peggy Stewart, Sandy Kenyon
3x04 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.
Directing: Elliot Silverstein · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: James Gregory, Joanne Linville, Rex Holman, Warren J. Kemmerling
3x05 A Game of Pool
Championship pool player Fats Brown returns from the grave for one last game.
Directed by Buzz Kulik · Written by George Clayton Johnson · Starring: Jonathan Winters, Jack Klugman
3x06 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.
Directing: Don Medford · Writer: Rod Serling · Starring: Peter Falk, Antony Carbone, Will Kuluva, Arthur Batanides
3x07 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.
Directing: Montgomery Pittman · Writing: Montgomery Pittman · Starring: James Best, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, Elen Willard
3x08 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.
Directing: James Sheldon · Writing: Rod Serling, Jerome Bixby · Starring: Alice Frost, Cloris Leachman, Max Showalter, Jeanne Bates
3x09 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.
Directed by Don Medford · Written by Rod Serling · Starring: Joseph Schildkraut, Kaaren Verne, Oscar Beregi Jr, Ben Wright
3x10 The Midnight Sun
The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising imminent destruction.
Directing: Anton Leader · Writer: Rod Serling · Starring: William Keene, Lois Nettleton, Betty Garde, Jason Wingreen
3x11 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.
Directing: James Sheldon · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Gary Merrill, Ben Cooper, Mark Tapscott, Jack Mann
3x12 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.
Directing: William F. Claxton · Writer: Charles Beaumont · Starring: Emily McLaughlin, John Dehner, Donald Foster, Walter Brooke
3x13 Once Upon a Time
Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962.
Directing: Norman Z. McLeod · Writing: Richard Matheson · Starring: James Flavin, Buster Keaton, George E. Stone, Robert McCord
3x14 Five Characters in Search of an Exit
A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writer: Rod Serling · Starring: Susan Harrison, Murray Matheson, William Windom, Kelton Garwood
3x15 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.
Directing: Buzz Kulik · Writing: Sam Rolfe, Rod Serling · Starring: Michael Pataki, Dean Stockwell, Leonard Nimoy, Dale Ishimoto
3x16 Nothing in the Dark
A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: George Clayton Johnson · Starring: R.G. Armstrong, Robert Redford, Gladys Cooper
3x17 One More Pallbearer
Paul Radin has invited three people to join him in his bomb shelter.
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Joseph Wiseman, Trevor Bardette, Gage Clarke, Katherine Squire
3x18 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.
Directing: Montgomery Pittman · Writing: Charles Beaumont · Starring: Warren Stevens, Joan Marshall, Ben Wright, Florence Marly
3x19 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.
Directing: Harold D. Schuster · Writing: Earl Hamner, Jr. · Starring: Arthur Hunnicutt, Jeanette Nolan, Robert Foulk, Charles Seel
3x20 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.
Directing: Christian Nyby · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Larry Blyden, Robert Cornthwaite, Arch Johnson, Troy Melton
3x21 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".
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: George Clayton Johnson · Starring: John Marley, Earle Hodgins, Russell Collins, Lenore Shanewise
3x22 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.
Directed by David Greene · Written by Earl Hamner, Jr. · Starring: Barry Morse, Don Durant, Joan Hackett, Cyril Delevanti
3x23 The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
Jeff Myrtlebank comes back to life at his own funeral and soon begins to act very strangely...
Directed by Montgomery Pittman · Written by Montgomery Pittman · Starring: Sherry Jackson, Dub Taylor, Ralph Moody, Edgar Buchanan
3x24 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."
Directed by Richard L. Bare · Written by Rod Serling, Damon Knight · Starring: Lloyd Bochner, Richard Kiel, Susan Cummings, Hardie Albright
3x25 The Fugitive
Old Ben, who is able to transform himself into anything, tries to help a crippled little girl.
Directing: Richard L. Bare · Writing: Charles Beaumont · Starring: Nancy Kulp, Wesley Lau, Paul Tripp, Susan Gordon
3x26 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.
Directing: Paul Stewart · Writer: Richard Matheson · Starring: Charles Aidman, Robert Sampson, Sarah Marshall, Tracy Stratford
3x27 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.
Directing: John Brahm · Writing: Charles Beaumont · Starring: Betty Harford, Richard Long, Frank Silvera, Joe Higgins
3x28 The Little People
An astronaut declares himself a god when his ship lands on a planet populated by people smaller than ants.
Directing: William F. Claxton · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Claude Akins, Joe Maross, Michael Ford, Robert Eaton
3x29 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.
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Theodore Bikel, Phyllis Love, Linden Chiles, Moyna MacGill
3x30 Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
A loud-mouthed braggart's boasts attract the attention of some aliens.
Directing: Lamont Johnson · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Andy Devine, Clem Bevans, Peter Brocco, Howard McNear
3x31 The Trade-Ins
An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies.
Directed by Elliot Silverstein · Written by Rod Serling · Starring: Terence de Marney, Noah Keen, Theo Marcuse, Joseph Schildkraut
3x32 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.
Directed by Allen H. Miner · Written by Rod Serling · Starring: Vito Scotti, Henry Corden, Paul Mazursky, Nico Minardos
3x33 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!
Directing: Abner Biberman · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Frank Sutton, Cliff Robertson, Edy Williams, George Murdock
3x34 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.
Directing: John Brahm · Writing: Richard Matheson · Starring: Phyllis Thaxter, Alex Nicol, Helen Gurley Brown
3x35 I Sing the Body Electric
A widower buys a robot grandmother for his three children.
Directing: James Sheldon, William F. Claxton · Writing: Ray Bradbury · Starring: David White, Vaughn Taylor, Veronica Cartwright, Josephine Hutchinson
3x36 Cavender is Coming
Cavender, an angel trying to win his wings, tries to help down-on-her-luck Agnes, who has just been fired.
Directing: Christian Nyby · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Sandra Gould, Howard Smith, Carol Burnett, Jesse White
3x37 The Changing of the Guard Season Finale
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.
Directing: Robert Ellis Miller · Writing: Rod Serling · Starring: Liam Sullivan, Donald Pleasence, Philippa Bevans, Tom Lowell
Season 3 Cast
Robert McCordUN Translator (uncredited)3 episodes
Ben WrightDoctor2 episodes
Joseph SchildkrautAlfred Becker2 episodes
James BestBilly-Ben Turner2 episodes
Noah KeenMr. Vance2 episodes
Jesse WhiteRepair Man2 episodes
Theo MarcuseCitizen Gregori2 episodes
Arthur ToveyVictim (uncredited)2 episodes
John McLiamCop (uncredited)2 episodes
Vladimir SokoloffFather Tomas2 episodes
Vito ScottiPeddlerEpisode 1
Claude AkinsSteve BrandEpisode 1
Sherry JacksonComfort GatewoodEpisode 1
Peter FalkRamos ClementineEpisode 1
Warren StevensEpisode 1
Emily McLaughlinDoris RichardsEpisode 1
Michael PatakiJeep Driver (uncredited)Episode 1All Seasons
Season 11959 · 36 ep. · ★ 7.3
Season 21960 · 29 ep. · ★ 7.1
Season 41963 · 18 ep. · ★ 6.7
Season 51963 · 36 ep. · ★ 6.9Where to Watch Season 3 of The Twilight Zone
It is currently not available on any streaming platform in Spain.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Season 3 of The Twilight Zone have?
Season 3 of The Twilight Zone has 37 episodes.
When did season 3 of The Twilight Zone premiere?
Premiered on September 15, 1961.
Where to Watch Season 3 of The Twilight Zone?
It is not currently available on any subscription platform in Spain.
What is the best episode of Season 3?
According to the audience rating on TMDB, episode 3x24, "To Serve Man", with a 8.5.