The Twilight Zone debuted the night of September 27, 1985 to a generally warm reception: it won its Friday-night time slot in four of its first five weeks. Episodes featured adaptations of stories by Harlan Ellison (whose "Shatterday", adapted by Alan Brennert, launched the new series), Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert McCammon, and Stephen King. A new batch of scripts was supplemented with remakes of classic Twilight Zone episodes like "Dead Man's Shoes", "Shadow Play", and "Night of the Meek". Ratings began to slide. "You have not known humiliation until you have been beaten by Webster and Mr. Belvedere", said executive story consultant Alan Brennert.

Wes Craven directed several episodes including "Shatterday", "A Little Peace and Quiet", "Wordplay", and "Chameleon".

Other first-season episodes included "Healer", "Dreams for Sale" "Examination Day" "Children's Zoo", "Kentucky Rye" "Nightcrawlers" and "Paladin of the Lost Hour" , an episode written By Harlan Ellison which won the 1987 Writers Guild of America Award for Anthology Episode/Single Program. Ellison also adapted a Stephen King short story, "Gramma", which was favourably reviewed.

The DVD release includes several episode commentaries by Executive Producer Philip Deguere. On these DVD extras, he states that CBS initially told him the show would air at 10 PM and therefore the earliest episodes were written with that time slot in mind. The late and unexpected rescheduling of the show to the 8 PM family viewing time slot resulted in the broadcast of the first six episodes in a time slot Mr. Deguere states were inappropriate for their content. He attributes the intensity of the earliest aired episodes, considered by him as not the best fare to be broadcast during family viewing time slot, as the reason why the series ratings dropped and never recovered.

That the show's producers had even managed to hire Harlan Ellison was considered by many[who?] to be nothing short of miraculous; Ellison was an extremely vocal critic of television who had already published two collections of essays on the subject, "concluding that to work in television is akin to putting in time in the Egyptian House of the Dead." These feelings surfaced once again when the script he submitted for Twilight Zone's Christmas special—an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's 1964 story "Nackles", in which an obnoxious and mean-spirited drunk frightens his children with stories of a malicious anti-Santa Claus—was rejected by CBS' West Coast Program Practices. The segment, which was to be Ellison's directorial debut, was halted in mid-production. This cost the program between $150,000 and $300,000 and Ellison's services as a creative consultant.[citation needed] "[Their] suggestions were vile, infamous!" Ellison recalled of his aborted attempts to change the network's mind. On the DVD release, Mr. Ellison further expounds on his experiences during four audio commentaries to four of his stories that were adapted for the show.

The "Nackles" incident generated a flurry of press which ultimately proved inadequate to revive public interest in the series. "I can see why people who were expecting The Twilight Zone were disappointed with it," said staff writer Michael Cassutt of the show's low ratings. "...our show always seemed uneven to me. There were episodes perfectly in keeping with The Twilight Zone spirit, and then others that could have been from The Outer Limits or from anything."[citation needed] Despite poor ratings, The Twilight Zone was renewed for a second season in early 1986.

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