Season 3

Season • Sep 15, 1961–Jun 1, 1962

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.
  1. S3E1 - Two

    Two

    26 min • Sep 15, 1961 (65 years ago)

    A man and a woman, on opposite sides of a future war, encounter each other in a deserted town.

  2. S3E2 - The Arrival

    The Arrival

    26 min • Sep 22, 1961 (65 years ago)

    A plane lands safely, but all its passengers, pilot and crew are missing.

  3. S3E3 - The Shelter

    The Shelter

    26 min • Sep 29, 1961 (65 years ago)

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

  4. S3E4 - The Passersby

    The Passersby

    26 min • Oct 6, 1961 (65 years ago)

    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.

  5. S3E5 - A Game of Pool

    A Game of Pool

    26 min • Oct 13, 1961 (65 years ago)

    Championship pool player Fats Brown returns from the grave for one last game.

  6. S3E6 - The Mirror

    The Mirror

    26 min • Oct 20, 1961 (64 years ago)

    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.

  7. S3E7 - The Grave

    The Grave

    26 min • Oct 27, 1961 (64 years ago)

    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.

  8. S3E8 - It's a Good Life

    It's a Good Life

    26 min • Nov 3, 1961 (64 years ago)

    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.

  9. S3E9 - Deaths-Head Revisited

    Deaths-Head Revisited

    26 min • Nov 10, 1961 (64 years ago)

    A former Nazi SS Captain returns to the ruins of a concentration camp to reminisce, and is met by one of his victims.

  10. S3E10 - The Midnight Sun

    The Midnight Sun

    26 min • Nov 17, 1961 (64 years ago)

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

  11. S3E11 - Still Valley

    Still Valley

    26 min • Nov 24, 1961 (64 years ago)

    Confederacy scout Sgt. Joseph Paradine finds a town full of Union soldiers, and an old man who claims he used witchcraft to paralyze them.

  12. S3E12 - The Jungle

    The Jungle

    26 min • Dec 1, 1961 (64 years ago)

    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.

  13. S3E13 - Once Upon a Time

    Once Upon a Time

    26 min • Dec 15, 1961 (64 years ago)

    Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962.

  14. S3E14 - Five Characters in Search of an Exit

    Five Characters in Search of an Exit

    26 min • Dec 22, 1961 (64 years ago)

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

  15. S3E15 - A Quality of Mercy

    A Quality of Mercy

    26 min • Dec 29, 1961 (64 years ago)

    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.

  16. S3E16 - Nothing in the Dark

    Nothing in the Dark

    26 min • Jan 5, 1962 (64 years ago)

    A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting "Mr. Death."

  17. S3E17 - One More Pallbearer

    One More Pallbearer

    26 min • Jan 12, 1962 (64 years ago)

    Paul Radin has invited three people to join him in his bomb shelter.

  18. S3E18 - Dead Man's Shoes

    Dead Man's Shoes

    26 min • Jan 19, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  19. S3E19 - The Hunt

    The Hunt

    26 min • Jan 26, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  20. S3E20 - Showdown with Rance McGrew

    Showdown with Rance McGrew

    26 min • Feb 2, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  21. S3E21 - Kick the Can

    Kick the Can

    26 min • Feb 9, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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".

  22. S3E22 - A Piano in the House

    A Piano in the House

    26 min • Feb 16, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  23. S3E23 - The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

    The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

    26 min • Feb 23, 1962 (64 years ago)

    Jeff Myrtlebank comes back to life at his own funeral and soon begins to act very strangely...

  24. S3E24 - To Serve Man

    To Serve Man

    26 min • Mar 2, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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."

  25. S3E25 - The Fugitive

    The Fugitive

    26 min • Mar 9, 1962 (64 years ago)

    Old Ben, who is able to transform himself into anything, tries to help a crippled little girl.

  26. S3E26 - Little Girl Lost

    Little Girl Lost

    26 min • Mar 16, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  27. S3E27 - Person or Persons Unknown

    Person or Persons Unknown

    26 min • Mar 23, 1962 (64 years ago)

    David Gurney wakes up to find that no one - his wife, his co-workers, his best friend, not even his own mother knows him.

  28. S3E28 - The Little People

    The Little People

    26 min • Mar 30, 1962 (64 years ago)

    An astronaut declares himself a god when his ship lands on a planet populated by people smaller than ants.

  29. S3E29 - Four O'Clock

    Four O'Clock

    26 min • Apr 6, 1962 (64 years ago)

    Oliver Crangle is a bitter, prejudiced man. Through unknown means he intends to shrink every evil person in the world at four o'clock.

  30. S3E30 - Hocus-Pocus and Frisby

    Hocus-Pocus and Frisby

    26 min • Apr 13, 1962 (64 years ago)

    A loud-mouthed braggart's boasts attract the attention of some aliens.

  31. S3E31 - The Trade-Ins

    The Trade-Ins

    26 min • Apr 20, 1962 (64 years ago)

    An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies.

  32. S3E32 - The Gift

    The Gift

    26 min • Apr 27, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.

  33. S3E33 - The Dummy

    The Dummy

    26 min • May 4, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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!

  34. S3E34 - Young Man's Fancy

    Young Man's Fancy

    26 min • May 11, 1962 (64 years ago)

    When a newlywed couple briefly return to the groom's childhood home, the ties of the past prove too strong to resist.

  35. S3E35 - I Sing the Body Electric

    I Sing the Body Electric

    26 min • May 18, 1962 (64 years ago)

    A widower buys a robot grandmother for his three children.

  36. S3E36 - Cavender is Coming

    Cavender is Coming

    25 min • May 25, 1962 (64 years ago)

    Cavender, an angel trying to win his wings, tries to help down-on-her-luck Agnes, who has just been fired.

  37. S3E37 - The Changing of the Guard

    The Changing of the Guard

    25 min • Jun 1, 1962 (64 years ago)

    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.