Fan quiz: Are these Twilight Zone episodes based on short stories?

Put your 'Twilight' trivia talent to the test with this fan-made quiz!

Thanks to MeTV fan Stoney Setzer for submitting this quiz! Do you have a quiz idea? Share it with us!

One of the things that has made The Twilight Zone so memorable over the decades has been its stories. The writers produced scripts that stimulate the imagination and resonate with our deepest wishes and our darkest fears. Many of the scripts for the 156 episodes were original, but 29 were actually adaptations of previously published short stories.

Sometimes, though, these inspirations were always obvious from the credits on the episode itself. Whenever Rod Serling adapted someone else’s short story, the credit would read, "Written by Rod Serling… From a story by ________________." But if a writer adapted his own short story into a script, as was often the case with Charles Beaumont or Richard Matheson, the credits would simply read "Written by Charles Beaumont" — without referencing its previous incarnation as a short story.

See if you can identify which episodes below were original scripts, and which ones were based on previously published short stories. 

Watch The Twilight Zone on MeTV!

Weeknights at 12:30 AM
Sundays at 12:30 AM

*available in most MeTV markets
  1. “Mr. Denton on Doomsday”
  2. “Time Enough at Last”
  3. “Perchance to Dream”
  4. “The Purple Testament”
  5. “People Are Alike All Over”
  6. “The Howling Man”
  7. “The Invaders”
  8. “Nick of Time”
  9. “It’s a Good Life”
  10. “The Silence”
  11. “The Jungle”
  12. “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
  13. “To Serve Man”
  14. “Little Girl Lost”
  15. “The Dummy”
  16. “In His Image”
  17. “Valley of the Shadow”
  18. “Death Ship”
  19. “Jess-Belle”
  20. “The Parallel”
  21. “Steel”
  22. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
  23. “The Living Doll”
  24. “The Old Man in the Cave”
  25. “I Am the Night — Color Me Black”

Fan quiz: Are these Twilight Zone episodes based on short stories?

Your Result...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque nec ante ipsum. Mauris viverra, urna et porta sagittis, lorem diam dapibus diam, et lacinia libero quam id risus.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
Close

103 Comments

Pacificsun 11 months ago
Oh, Twilight Zone Stoney Setzer Fan, that was a really, really good Quiz.

Many don't know that writing a good Short Story is more difficult to write than a novel (depends on the author's experience, of course). But they make a great foundation for TV episodes. Usually, except for the anecdote about ST's "City on the Edge..." which Harlan Ellison disowned at first. Because it was so extensively rewritten. Which needed to fit into the 4-part formula, and meet budget constraint. It's interesting to read how the original story changed into the final script and presentation. A good lesson, among creative talent.
Carlo1987 17 months ago
I remember riding to serve man as a short story in English class.lol.
BorisK 17 months ago
Who wrote this quiz ... Rain Man?
WayneKeith 17 months ago
Who the heck would know any of these? I guessed original on every one and got 12/25, so next time I'll guess short story.
RichLorn 17 months ago
14/25
Setzer is obviously TZ savant. For the rest of us, it would have made it more fair to include a brief synopsis of each episode title. After all, the quiz was about identifying which storylines were or were not an adaptation.
vinman63 17 months ago
At 39 he died after suffered simultaneously from Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease.
vinman63 vinman63 17 months ago
Charles Beaumont
tootsieg 17 months ago
Congrats to all who took the quiz. I would need to use my TZ Companion book to score anything.
Very good quiz and a 👍 to the author.
Muleskinner 17 months ago
11/25. 😟 bad day for quizzes for me.
rahaindy 17 months ago
21/25 used the pattern method.
drcrumpler 17 months ago
Man, that quiz was a real challenge. I didn't do so well, and I have read just about all of the stories, be they Serling's, Matheson's, Beaumont's, or George Clayton Johnson's....whew. Give me more like this.
Rick 17 months ago
Tough quiz! Cool that the writer included some hourlong episodes, even though you hardly ever get to see them.
frenchman71 17 months ago
20/25. Some of these were tough.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?