CBS's legendary science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone, featuring 156 episodes across five seasons, is now available to stream for free on Tubi. While Star Wars and Star Trek are often considered the biggest sci-fi franchises by profitability, The Twilight Zone has proven vastly more influential and inspirational to the genre, with its impact evident throughout subsequent television and film.

Created by Rod Serling and debuting in 1959, the show featured single-episode stories exploring themes including time travel, aliens, and deeper moral questions about prejudice, loneliness and regret. Episodes were penned by acclaimed writers such as Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, with Serling himself writing nearly 100 episodes and hosting every instalment. The series has directly inspired modern shows including Black Mirror, The X-Files and Fringe, as well as films like Jordan Peele's Us. Though certain visual effects have inevitably dated, the anthology format and universal themes mean many episodes remain surprisingly relevant and accessible today, making the free availability on Tubi an excellent opportunity for new audiences to explore the series.