Fans of “The Twilight Zone” are observing the 50th anniversary of the classic television anthology this year.

On Oct. 2, 1959, the first 30-minute story about strange people and strange places was broadcast on CBS. The show lasted through 1964 and has buzzed around the pop culture landscape ever since.

The show was often science-fiction, sometimes comedy, sometimes mystery. I can’t remember an all-out horror story in the Zone.

I can remember all the great scripts, shock endings and guest stars. William Shatner, Cliff Robertson, James Coburn, Burgess Meredith, Inger Stevens, Elizabeth Montgomery and Robert Redford all punched the clock for Rod Serling.

I began watching the show in syndication during my college years. Late-night scheduling made it great for a post-study and pre-sack diversion. And unlike many other television shows, I never heard anyone gripe about “The Twilight Zone.” It was a show that was easy to like.

The program had it share of great moments, like Shatner as a former psychiatric case on an airplane, pulling the shade from a porthole-sized plane window and gasping at an airborne, malevolent gremlin staring back at him. Or “Talky Tina,” the doll that kids loved and parents tolerated, taking poor Telly Savalas out of the game. Or the scene in “The Howling Man,” in which the devil escapes a mortal prison and — through the miracles of make-up and editing — changes appearances as he passes pillars in a long hallway.

TV fans had been scared before. “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” started in 1955, and murder and bad things were part of Alfred’s game plan. “One Step Beyond,” a show that stressed the supernatural also began creeping into living rooms in 1959; “The Outer Limits,” which accentuated more monsters than did the “Zone,” premiered in 1963.

Seems “The Twilight Zone” has been the one to truly endure, and influence. The talking doll that said “Who doesn’t love ya” to Telly in 1963’s “Living Doll” was an evil ancestor to that dopey “Chucky” doll in the “Child’s Play” films. “Little Girl Lost” from 1962 — in which a child falls out of bed and slips into another dimension, influenced new classic fright film “Poltergeist” about 20 years later.

I was never crazy about the Zone’s alien stories. While the “Outer Limits’” space freaks were outrageous and cartoonish, the Zone’s space visitors never seemed all that convincing. The Venusian diner counterman pushes up his paper cap to reveal a third eye on his forehead in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up.” And kids with dark eye make-up, eye stalks and pencil-thin moustaches played even more Venusians in “Mr. Dingle, The Strong.” The exception is Richard Kiel’s “Kanamit” in “To Serve Man.” He’s seven feet tall, and got an extra bunch of inches thanks to a taller, wider brain. One of the Zone’s most clever endings ... the Kanamits want to serve man ... as dinner.

Earl Hammer wrote eight “Zones,” and would later create “The Waltons.” His stories are all country tales — remember Rip the hound dog guiding deceased farmer Arthur Hunnicut away from hell and over to the gates of Heaven? — and really seem like cousin stories — odd relatives, off course — to the adventures on Waltons’ Mountain.

The nice thing about our digital age is all these shows are available on disk or online, so you can revisit your favorite episodes.

Favorite episodes? Yeah, that’s what this blog is all about. Here are my five favorite T-Zones, with a few factual reminders coming from Marc Zicree’s 1982 “Twilight Zone Companion:

* 5 — NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET — from October 1963.
Nobody does hysterical like the great William Shatner, and he’s the only guy aware of the monster on the airplane’s wing. Fellow passengers think he’s nuts, and Shatner — convinced he’s keeping it real — grabs a cop’s gun and blows the gremlin off the plane. People think he’s crazy again, but signs of the trespass have been left behind.

* 4 — NIGHT OF THE MEEK — From December 1960.
Art Carney plays a drunk who gets to play Santa Claus for real. They should show this one every holiday season.

* 3 — THE MIDNIGHT SUN — From November 1961.
The Earth has been yanked out of its orbit, and is heading toward the sun. People are getting crazier and crazier with the increasing heat, and painter Norma (Lois Nettleton) is in the big city and must survive morons stealing her water and the death of her best friend. The temperature keeps going up ... I have always remembered the scene of the paint melting off the canvases. That’s when Norma wakes up from her dream; she’s under blankets, dreaming of the warmth. The Earth has been yanked out orbit ... but is heading away from the sun.

* 2 — IT’S A GOOD LIFE — from November 1961.
I’ll bet there are people out there today who know what “wish him into the cornfield” means. Kid actor Billy Mumy plays Anthony Fremont, a 6-year-old with unlimited power and a nasty temper. He’s torn his small town of Peaksville, Ohio, away from the Earth ... or destroyed the rest of the Earth ... and now everyone has to make sure they stay on the kid’s good side. If Anthony kills someone, or turns some poor apple into a living jack-in-the-box, he is at least decent enough to “wish” the remains into a cornfield. Great story and a great turn by Mumy, later to star in “Lost in Space.” And in another nod to the TV show, a 1990s “Twilight Zone” revival featured Billy back as an adult Anthony — with a young daughter this time — in “It’s Still a Good Life.” I’ve always meant to catch this one someplace!

* 1 — STEEL — From October 1963.
Always liked the story here — in the far-off sports world of 1974, boxing is now rocking, socking robots. Lee Marvin manages an outdated “Battling Maxo,” who has little chance against the “Maynard Flash,” a new, technically superior model. Maxo has even less chance against the new machine when he breaks down. That’s when Marvin’s “Steel” Kelly, a former fighter himself, disguises himself as the robot and tries to slug it out against the “Flash.” The black-eyed robots and their man-made mechanical movements are one reason to watch the show; the other is Marvin’s portrayal of a determined man who — while throttled in the fight — kind of emerges a winner.

My least favorite episode is an easy choice — “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” from 1961. Never liked the story about a clown, hobo, ballerina, bagpiper and army major trapped in a small “room.” They try to escape, but it doesn’t work. They’re all just toy dolls in the bottom of a Christmas toy donation barrel. Big surprise.

But for the most part, great stories, great television. One of these days, I’m going to have to run down my favorite “Outer Limits” episodes.