Episode #01 - Where is Everybody?

Air Date: 10/2/59   written by Rod Serling    Directed by Robert Stevens

The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch, could be our journey.

...the first episode, the pilot episode...

Earl Holliman guest stars as a man first seen wandering on an empty road; fact is, everything's empty - he reaches a small town and there is still no sign of any other people. When I first watched this a long time ago, my first thought at this point was 'uh-oh, one of those neutron bombs went off, getting rid of all people' - but why is this guy still around? Hmm.. he's dead too, just doesn't know it. No? That's the attraction of such an episode - it's a mystery and you need to find out what's what by the 10-minute mark... or you'll go bust.
There is a daring aspect to this one, being way back in the late fifties: having just one character for most of the story was an unusual way to go back then. And, I do admit, I do get annoyed with Holliman talking to himself pretty quickly. But, it holds up well overall and was a fitting beginning to the famous show. Note the use of mannequins, which figured prominently in a few later episodes.  The reveal at the end is that

Spoiler:

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10. I recently became aware of the true (unofficial) earlier pilot for the TZ show: The Time Element.
Trivia From the Zone:
at one point, the man peruses a revolving book rack; all the books are the same one - The Last Man on Earth, presumably the novel by Richard Matheson, though it's titled I am Legend in our reality; it's the 1st film version in 1964 which was titled as The Last Man on Earth