It's a Good Life is definitely one of my favorites. It's pure terror all the way through. No twist ending, but still very good. The face-off between Anthony and Dan is one of the show's most intense moments. I have a kind of morbid desire to know what would happen if Anthony's aunt really hit him with the poker. That's part of the horror of it, though; no one really can know the extent of his powers.
I enjoy The Obsolete Man as well, even though there is a lot of anti-atheist sentiment in it, which I realize is of its time, as Russian communism was quite destructively anti-religion. I feel like most people should be able to relate to Wordsworth, who just wants to live in a peaceful, compassionate, rational society. Interesting how Meredith also plays a bookworm in this one. I like how he outsmarted the chancellor and showed immense courage and even sympathy towards the same man who sentenced him to death, which, of course, becomes his undoing.
The Night of the Meek is on my shortlist as well. The Twilight Zone didn't feature as many unambiguously happy endings, so I'm happy they decided to use one. Carney's speech as Corwin has reduced me to tears in the past; he so obviously wants to ensure the happiness of all people, but can't find a solution and this hurts him so much he's reduced to altering his consciousness to placate himself. Then he gets a reward with infinite returns at the end. Some parts are actually pretty funny, like when Mr. Dundee pulls out the junk and cat. The elf was fun.
One episode I don't see mentioned much is A Piano in the House. I love the central conceit: a magical player piano whose songs reveal people's innermost feelings. I also like the ending: Fortune, the critic, is revealed to be an angry manchild beyond consolation, and Marge, whom he'd just humiliated moments ago, suggests that they all leave. At least his wife gets a happy ending.
I love Five Characters in Search of an Exit. Part of the reason is because it has an ending I feel most people won't be able to predict; the clues as to where the characters are are appropriately sparse. I also like it because of the interplay between the characters, most notably the desperate Army Major and the philosophical Clown. I've read that the orginal writer of the story ("The Depository"), Marvin Petal, wasn't paid much and that they really carved it up. But I think that Rod did a masterful job in the end. I liked how each character had a different hypothesis as to where they were (the Ballerina thinks they're in a spaceship; the Bagpiper thinks they're in a dreamland; the Hobo thinks they're in Limbo; the Army Major thinks they're in Hell; and, of course, the Clown entertains each one, but doesn't seem to care about the answer). A World of Difference and Person or Persons Unknown are other great ontological mysteries.
I've watched The Trouble with Templeton many times, another sentimental story with a happy ending. A playwright finds himself back in what he considers to be his prime, surrounded by ghosts, notably by his friend and ex-girlfriend. She tells eventually tells him to get lost. Then he finds out that the ghosts were performing a play for him, meant to convince him not to dwell in the past. He returns to the present with renewed confidence.
Mr. Denton on Doomsday is a recent favorite. An alcoholic former gunfighter with a tragic past gets a chance at redemption. I realize that the lack of gore despite people being shot was a good choice for the time, I wish they would've at least screamed out or something.
Number 12 Looks Just Like You is a perfect sci-fi episode, with an underlying, brutal horror component to it, namely that it takes place in a future that seems, at first, utopian, but is very dystopian, to the point where people are forced into getting a procedure that drastically alters one's appearance, along with them being forcibly given a constantly carefree, frivolous disposition.
Of the episodes featuring aliens, my favorites are The Invaders, To Serve Man, and Stopover in a Quiet Town.
A lot of people seem to dislike it, but my favorite time travel episode is Execution. I like how the murderer doesn't go unpunished.
One episode that scared the crap out of me as a kid was The Dummy; it used to make me feel sick whenever it came on. Now I relish it. The dialogue and drama is filled with tension, and I felt the ending was quite ambiguous, which was nice...a few episodes did this, e.g. Static, where the protagonist either loses him mind or is transported to a personal paradise is left unclear. Here, the dummy and the ventriloquist swap places...but whether this is a literal or figurative moment is never verified.
Another great horror episode, which was unsettling but never really horrified me, is Living Doll. She's a doll who probably couldn't be destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and will go to any length to kill you. The Howling Man is pretty creepy to me in the same way. Shadow Play is nervewracking. For Nightmare as a Child, you can probably guess how it'll end, but it also fills me with a pleasant anxiety.
I think The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross was nice; I didn't mind the protagonist's power source not being explained, and thought it had a great snap ending. Then again, the bad guys are usually the ones who get punished, so you might anticipate the ending. I don't think a lot of people liked it, but I did.
