The third season of The Twilight Zone aired Fridays at 10:00–10:30 pm (EST) 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."[1] Some subtle changes in the opening's acoustics were made beginning with "Little Girl Lost".
An alert is issued for an imminent nuclear attack, prompting neighbors to unite against the physician (Larry Gates) whose bomb shelter has room enough only for his family.
An elderly recluse (Gladys Cooper) facing imminent eviction refuses to allow anyone into her apartment, fearing that any visitor might be Death incarnate; her resolve is tested when a young police officer (Robert Redford) is seriously wounded outside her door.
The dispirited residents of a nursing home are urged by one of their number to believe that they can recapture their youth by playing a children's game.
When a "dead" man (James Best) sits up in the coffin at his funeral during the mid-1920s, the townsfolk become suspicious whether it's really him, especially when he doesn't behave the way he used to.
When a little girl (Tracy Stratford) disappears from her bedroom without a trace, her parents (Robert Sampson, Sarah Marshall) call their physicist friend (Charles Aidman) to help investigate her disappearance.
A professor (Donald Pleasence) who is forced into retirement contemplates suicide, but changes his mind when the ghosts of his former students that were killed in the war persuade him of his worth.