1986 ‘The Twilight Zone' Episode Ranked the No. 1 Script Written by George R.R. Martin

George R. R. Martin, the iconic writer ofGame of Thrones, worked on other television shows throughout his career. During the revival of The Twilight Zone in the ‘80s, he wrote multiple episodes across the first two seasons, and TV Line recently ranked them. They determined that the best script he wrote, which aired in 1986, was called "The Road Less Travelled."

This episode was directed by Wes Craven. It was about a married father who fled to Canada to escape the Vietnam war draft. When he discovered another man in his house, in a wheelchair, he realized it was an alternate version of himself who went to war.

According to Syfy, Martin has revealed that "no film school in the world" could have taught him as much as he learned while working on the series. He stated, "None of it would have been possible, if not for the things I learned on Twilight Zone as a Staff Writer and Story Editor."

Related: 1962 ‘The Twilight Zone' Episode Was Ranked as Having the Best Plot Twist in the Entire Series

When speaking about how the opportunity came about in the first place, the writer explained, "Much as I enjoyed television, I never dreamt of writing for it until 1985, when CBS decided to launch a new version of The Twilight Zone, and executive producer Phil DeGuere invited me to write an episode for them. A freelance script; that was how you began back then. I decided to give it a shot… and Phil and his team liked what I did. So much so that within days of delivery, I got an offer to come on staff. Before I quite knew what had happened, I was on my way to L.A. with a six-week deal as a Staff Writer, at the Guild minimum salary."

He continued, "The moment I arrived, Phil threw me into the deep end. I wrote five scripts during my season and a half on TZ, and I was deeply involved in every aspect of every one of them. I did not just write my script, turn it in, and go away. I sat in on the casting sessions. I worked with the directors. I was present at the table reads... In TV I was so green that I would have been invisible against a green screen. And that, in my opinion, is the most important of the things that the Guild is fighting for. The right to have that kind of career path. To enable new writers, young writers, and yes, prose writers, to climb the same ladder."

Martin, who is now 77, is currently working as a writer and producer on the HBO show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

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This story was originally published May 10, 2026 at 6:31 AM.