We need to discuss the fact that this list omits some of the most terrifying of all - mainly because of their themes.
Water - I agree that Dead Man's Float is revered as one of the most horrific episodes because as mentioned it plays on the water aspect and who isn't afraid of drowning? But: Honorable Mention needs to go to "The Tale of the Water Demons" - I refuse to swim in a lake due to this episode , it scares me more than Lake Placid did, and in that instance you get eaten. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9w3mYI4Pk)
Small Children as Ghosts - Once you put "Tale of the Lonely Ghost" I'm surprised to not see "The Tale of the Frozen Ghost" in there - while writing this I had to research for a clip and came across this iconic scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6KknHHoS54. I couldn't even bring myself to watch those 13 seconds because even at this point in life (23 years old) I would shit my pants thinking I'd see that kid who just wants a sweatshirt everywhere. Not classically scary as a shocking story line, just scary because of that child standing in the woods saying "I'm Cold." Need to say that the frozen ghost came on the same VHS as "The Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle" - going to prove that it WAS in fact a children's show because neither are scary and the bike episode (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG_pCkkgi-M) has a heroic story involved.
History repeating Itself: Nothing was scarier than Zeebo, solid placement at number 1 in the list, though it must be said that there may be a contender in the recurring theme of "20 years later the same thing happened to a different person." Zeebo was honored with his statue being put back in the attraction, but with Quicksilver ("The Tale of the Quicksilver" - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8069668903741761197) there was just a mysterious box and an ominous "Q" on the wall. Whenever there is a cloaked figure - who seamlessly floats toward you in ever growing size - you need to be scared. Dark magic is used to take down the "monster" and history is corrected by the Ralph Macchio lookalike (thank you Danielson [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0030122/]). Here we also deal with the "same" girl being in the story from the past as well as the current-day story, perhaps a scary motif, but has no inherent creepiness.
Interesting to note that in "The Tale of C7" (stumbled upon looking for the above mentioned water demon episode) at about 20 seconds into the clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXqeKdZvUb0&feature=relmfu) the girl in the rocking chair is reading none other than "The Ghastly Grinner" comic book series which had a feature episode in the prior season, just 9 episodes earlier. Some would say the story would have been famous and the company that writes the Ghastly Grinner series would have ended production and pulled all circulating copies from shelves for fear of having their comic book put in the microwave, but can just as easily be written off by the fact there was no internet back then like there is today (remember it was only "modernized" for full web text searches in 1994).
Finally, there were many episodes with a hint of reality or historical folklore involved, as shown by "The Tale of the Super Specs".
Having a working knowledge of Judaic Aggadah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggadah), this one really resonates with me to this day. The summary from Wikipedia says: "A prankster buys his girlfriend a pair of gag glasses, but when she puts them on, she sees strange beings in black who live among the humans." This theme is a direct corollary to a tale told in the Talmud in the "Brachote" tractate:
It was taught: Abba Binyamin said: "If the eye had been given the ability to [fully] see (referring here to demons/beings that exist in an alternate realm), no creature would be able to stand before the mazikim (aforementioned dangerous beings in kabbalistic teachings)."...
If you want to see them, bring the tail of a first born black cat, that is the daughter of a first born black cat. Burn it in fire, grind it up, fill your eyes with the ashes and then you will see them. (Berakhot 6b)
Another talmudic teaching brings down this:
Abba Benjamin says, If the eye had the power to see them, no creature could endure the Mazikin [the "damagers"]
Abaye says: They are more numerous than we are and they surround us like the ridge round a field.
R. Huna says: Every one among us has a thousand on his left and ten thousand on his right (Psalm 91:7).
Raba says: The crushing in the Kallah lectures comes from them. Fatigue in the knees comes from them. The wearing out of the clothes of the scholars is due to their rubbing against them. The bruising of the feet comes from them. If one wants to discover them, let him take sifted ashes and sprinkle around his bed, and in the morning he will see something like the footprints of a rooster. If one wishes to see them, let him take the placenta of a black she-cat that is the offspring of a black she-cat that is the first-born of a first-born, let him roast it the placenta in fire and grind it to powder, and then let him put some into his eye, and he will see them. Let him also pour it into an iron tube and seal it with an iron signet that they the demons should not steal it from him. Let him also close his mouth, lest he come to harm.
These stories display the close connections between the show and kabbalistic teachings of demonology (referred to by the Talmud as "Sheidim") the first story is closely related with "The Tale of the Super Specs" and the second (with the sprinkling of ashes around one's bed) is drawn upon by the sprinkling of the dust in "The Tale of the Quicksilver." These stories obviously had an effect on me since I have learned the stories from the Talmud and therefore see their clear origins - I don't think the "Tale of the Super Specs" could have just been a coincidence.
This episode also featured the first appearance of Mr. Sardo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvDT6z12RWA): "That's SarDO! No mister; accent on the doh!". Not to be confused with Mr. Vink (with a va-va-va) from the very first episode of "The Tale of the Phantom Cab." This character would later be involved in selling a trap door to a flaming house, and various items throughout the series which always possessed some magic - most notably in the two part mini-series of "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure."
To summarize, the four that were omitted ["The Tale of the Water Demons" ; "The Tale of the Frozen Ghost" ; "The Tale of the Quicksilver" ; "The Tale of the Super Specs"] or deserve honorable mentions (IMHO) could have easily replaced "The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor" or could have been given a hat tip. That being said, thank you for compiling this list and bringing back some very fond memories of parental neglect and involuntary childhood nightmare bed wetting.
P.S. to all potential future commenters, these are merely my opinions and though I mentioned the Jewish Talmud, please show the proper respect for the beliefs and teachings of others, their inclusion is no statement of my beliefs or religious leanings, it was merely for informational purposes.
