To Serve Man ( the Twilight Zone ) - wikipedia To Serve Man ( the Twilight Zone ) This article is about the Twilight Zone episode. For the short story by Damon Knight, see To Serve Man. `` To Serve Man '' The Twilight Zone episode Susan Cummings and Richard Kiel Episode no. Season 3 Episode 24 Directed by Richard L. Bare Written by Rod Serling ( Based on the story To Serve Man by Damon Knight ) Featured music Stock ( from Jerry Goldsmith 's scores for `` Back There '' and `` The Invaders '' ) Production code 4807 Original air date March 2, 1962 Recurring / Guest appearances Lloyd Bochner Richard Kiel Susan Cummings Joseph Ruskin Hardie Albright Theodore Marcuse Bartlett Robinson Carleton Young Nelson Olmsted Episode chronology ← Previous `` The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank '' Next → `` The Fugitive '' List of season 3 episodes List of Twilight Zone episodes `` To Serve Man '' is episode 89 of the anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 2, 1962 on CBS. The story is based on the 1950 short story `` To Serve Man '', written by Damon Knight. The title is a play on the verb serve, which has a dual meaning of `` to assist '' and `` to provide as a meal ''. The episode is one of the few instances in the series wherein an actor breaks the fourth wall and addresses the viewing audience at the episode 's end. The episode, along with the line `` It 's a cookbook ! '' have become elements in pop culture. Contents 1 Opening narration 2 Plot 3 Closing narration 4 Cast 5 Production 6 Critical response 7 Cultural influence 8 References 9 External links Opening narration `` Respectfully submitted for your perusal -- a Kanamit. Height : a little over nine feet. Weight : in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin : unknown. Motives ? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we 're going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone. '' Plot The Kanamits, a race of 9 - foot - tall ( 2.7 m ) aliens, land on Earth. One of them addresses the United Nations via telepathy, announcing that his race 's motive in coming to Earth is to aid humanity by sharing their advanced technology. After answering questions, the Kanamit departs and leaves a book in the Kanamit language without comment, which leads Michael Chambers, a US government cryptographer, to be pressed into service. Initially wary of an alien race who came `` quite uninvited '', international leaders begin to be persuaded of the Kanamits ' benevolence when their advanced technology puts an end to hunger, energy shortages, and nuclear proliferation. Trust in the Kanamits seems to be justified when Patty, a member of the cryptography staff led by Chambers, decodes the title of the Kanamit book : To Serve Man. The Kanamits submit to interrogation and polygraph, at the request of the UN delegates. When declaring their benevolent intentions, the polygraph indicates that the Kanamit is speaking the truth. Soon, humans are volunteering for trips to the Kanamits ' home planet, which they describe as a paradise. Kanamits now have embassies in every major city on Earth. With the Cold War ended, the code - breaking staff has no real work to do, but Patty is still trying to work out the meaning of the text of To Serve Man. The day arrives for Chambers 's excursion to the Kanamits ' planet. Just as he mounts the spaceship 's boarding stairs, Patty runs toward him in great agitation. While being held back by a Kanamit guard, Patty cries : `` Mr. Chambers, do n't get on that ship ! The rest of the book To Serve Man, it 's... it 's a cookbook ! '' Chambers tries to run back down the stairs, but a Kanamit blocks him, the stairs retract, and the ship lifts off. Michael Chambers 's ship quarters are a cot in a spartan interior. A voice offers him a choice of dish at all the regular meal times. Each time he refuses food with increasing irritation. At last he says to the audience : `` How about you ? You still on Earth, or on the ship with me ? Really does n't make very much difference, because sooner or later, all of us will be on the menu... all of us. '' The episode closes as he gives in and breaks his hunger strike. Closing narration `` The recollections of one Michael Chambers with appropriate flashbacks and soliloquy. Or more simply stated, the evolution of man. The cycle of going from dust to dessert. The metamorphosis from being the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in someone 's soup. It 's tonight 's bill of fare from the Twilight Zone. '' Cast Lloyd Bochner as Michael Chambers Richard Kiel as Kanamit ( also playing all of the other Kanamits ) Susan Cummings as Patty Joseph Ruskin as Kanamit voice Hardie Albright as Secretary General Theo Marcuse as Citizen Gregori ( credited as Theodore Marcuse ) Bartlett Robinson as Colonel # 1 Carleton Young as Colonel # 2 ( credited as Carlton Young ) Nelson Olmsted as Scientist Robert Tafur as Señor Valdes Lomax Study as Leveque Jerry Fujikawa as Japanese Delegate ( credited as J.H. Fujikawa ) Production The arriving Kanamit ship is shown as scenes extracted from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but with different sound ; the departing Kanamit ship is shown as a scene extracted from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, also with different sound. Critical response Marc Scott Zicree, writing in The Twilight Zone Companion, has criticized a cardinal plot point in `` To Serve Man '' : `` In the show... a staff of cryptographers led by ( Michael Chambers ) Lloyd Bochner attempts to decipher the alien language as though it were some secret code, which is utterly ludicrous. Without some sort of interplanetary Rosetta stone, deciphering an unknown language would be impossible. '' Zicree also points out that the chances of the word `` serve '' having the same dual meaning in both English and another language, especially an alien one, are almost nil. In 1997 TV Guide ranked the episode at No. 11 on its `` 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time '' list and in 2013 ranked the ending as the `` Greatest Twist of All Time. '' In 2009, Time listed the episode among the `` Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes. '' Cultural influence An unofficial badge of the 509th Bomb Wing based in Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri shows a space alien with huge eyes holding a stealth bomber near its mouth. The text reads, `` To Serve Man, '' and the caption below reads, `` Gustatus Similis Pullus '' -- dog Latin for `` Tastes Like Chicken ''. The plot device of the alien cookbook is parodied in the segment `` Hungry Are the Damned '' on The Simpsons episode `` Treehouse of Horror '' ( 1990 ). In the segment, the seemingly benevolent aliens Kang and Kodos are discovered to have a book titled `` How to Cook Humans ''. The humour is played up by a series of reversals in revealing the actual title of the book. What begins as `` How to Cook Humans '', through a series of repeated blowing of `` space dust '' from the book, becomes `` How to Cook for Humans '', `` How to Cook Forty Humans '', and finally `` How to Cook for Forty Humans ''. Ultimately, the trope is subverted, as Lisa later comments on their suspicious attitude towards the aliens : `` Truly there were monsters on that ship, and truly we were them. '' In the Futurama episode `` A Fishful of Dollars '' ( season 1, episode 6 ), Bender is shown wearing an apron that says `` To Serve Man ''. The American heavy metal band Nuclear Assault featured a song of the same title on their 1993 album `` Something Wicked ''. The lyrics focus around the same theme. American deathgrind band Cattle Decapitation has a 2002 album of the same name. References Jump up ^ Zicree, Marc Scott : The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman - James Press, 1982 ( second edition ) Jump up ^ DeVoe, Bill. ( 2008 ). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA : Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978 - 1 - 59393 - 136 - 0 Jump up ^ Grams, Martin. ( 2008 ). The Twilight Zone : Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD : OTR Publishing. ISBN 978 - 0 - 9703310 - 9 - 0 Jump up ^ Belasco, Warren James ( 2006 ). Meals to come : a history of the future of food. University of California Press. pp. 130, 358. ISBN 0 - 520 - 24151 - 7. Jump up ^ TV Guide Guide to TV. Barnes & Noble. 2004. p. 667. ISBN 0 - 7607 - 5634 - 1. Jump up ^ Roush, Matt ( November 4 -- 10, 2013 ). `` Eyes on Surprise ! The 60 Most Startling Twists of All Time ''. TV Guide Magazine. TV Guide. 61 ( 3187 ) : 22 -- 23. access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ Cruz, Gilbert ( 2 October 2009 ). `` Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes ''. Time Inc. Retrieved March 6, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Inside the black budget ''. The New York Times. 1 April 2008. Jump up ^ Booker, M. Keith ( 2006 ). Drawn to television. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 67 -- 68. ISBN 978 - 0 - 275 - 99019 - 0. Jump up ^ Booker, M. Keith ( 2006 ). Drawn to television. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 117. ISBN 978 - 0 - 275 - 99019 - 0. External links `` To Serve Man '' on IMDb `` To Serve Man '' at TV.com The Twilight Zone ( 1959 ) episodes Season 1 `` Where Is Everybody ? '' `` One for the Angels '' `` Mr. Denton on Doomsday '' `` The Sixteen - Millimeter Shrine '' `` Walking Distance '' `` Escape Clause '' `` The Lonely '' `` Time Enough at Last '' `` Perchance to Dream '' `` Judgment Night '' `` And When the Sky Was Opened '' `` What You Need '' `` The Four of Us Are Dying '' `` Third from the Sun '' `` I Shot an Arrow into the Air '' `` The Hitch - Hiker '' `` The Fever '' `` The Last Flight '' `` The Purple Testament '' `` Elegy '' `` Mirror Image '' `` The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street '' `` A World of Difference '' `` Long Live Walter Jameson '' `` People Are Alike All Over '' `` Execution '' `` The Big Tall Wish '' `` A Nice Place to Visit '' `` Nightmare as a Child '' `` A Stop at Willoughby '' `` The Chaser '' `` A Passage for Trumpet '' `` Mr. Bevis '' `` The After Hours '' `` The Mighty Casey '' `` A World of His Own '' Season 2 `` King Nine Will Not Return '' `` The Man in the Bottle '' `` Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room '' `` A Thing About Machines '' `` The Howling Man '' `` The Eye of the Beholder '' `` Nick of Time '' `` The Lateness of the Hour '' `` The Trouble with Templeton '' `` A Most Unusual Camera '' `` The Night of the Meek '' `` Dust '' `` Back There '' `` The Whole Truth '' `` The Invaders '' `` A Penny for Your Thoughts '' `` Twenty Two '' `` The Odyssey of Flight 33 '' `` Mr. Dingle, the Strong '' `` Static '' `` The Prime Mover '' `` Long Distance Call '' `` A Hundred Yards Over the Rim '' `` The Rip Van Winkle Caper '' `` The Silence '' `` Shadow Play '' `` The Mind and the Matter '' `` Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up ? '' `` The Obsolete Man '' Season 3 `` Two '' `` The Arrival '' `` The Shelter '' `` The Passersby '' `` A Game of Pool '' `` The Mirror '' `` The Grave '' `` It 's a Good Life '' `` Deaths - Head Revisited '' `` The Midnight Sun '' `` Still Valley '' `` The Jungle '' `` Once Upon a Time '' `` Five Characters in Search of an Exit '' `` A Quality of Mercy '' `` Nothing in the Dark '' `` One More Pallbearer '' `` Dead Man 's Shoes '' `` The Hunt '' `` Showdown with Rance McGrew '' `` Kick the Can '' `` A Piano in the House '' `` The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank '' `` To Serve Man '' `` The Fugitive '' `` Little Girl Lost '' `` Person or Persons Unknown '' `` The Little People '' `` Four O'Clock '' `` Hocus - Pocus and Frisby '' `` The Trade - Ins '' `` The Gift '' `` The Dummy '' `` Young Man 's Fancy '' `` I Sing the Body Electric '' `` Cavender Is Coming '' `` The Changing of the Guard '' Season 4 `` In His Image '' `` The Thirty - Fathom Grave '' `` Valley of the Shadow '' `` He 's Alive '' `` Mute '' `` Death Ship '' `` Jess - Belle '' `` Miniature '' `` Printer 's Devil '' `` No Time Like the Past '' `` The Parallel '' `` I Dream of Genie '' `` The New Exhibit '' `` Of Late I Think of Cliffordville '' `` The Incredible World of Horace Ford '' `` On Thursday We Leave for Home '' `` Passage on the Lady Anne '' `` The Bard '' Season 5 `` In Praise of Pip '' `` Steel '' `` Nightmare at 20,000 Feet '' `` A Kind of a Stopwatch '' `` The Last Night of a Jockey '' `` Living Doll '' `` The Old Man in the Cave '' `` Uncle Simon '' `` Probe 7, Over and Out '' `` The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms '' `` A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain '' `` Ninety Years Without Slumbering '' `` Ring - a-Ding Girl '' `` You Drive '' `` The Long Morrow '' `` The Self - Improvement of Salvadore Ross '' `` Number 12 Looks Just Like You '' `` Black Leather Jackets '' `` Night Call '' `` From Agnes -- With Love '' `` Spur of the Moment '' `` An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge '' `` Queen of the Nile '' `` What 's in the Box '' `` The Masks '' `` I Am the Night -- Color Me Black '' `` Sounds and Silences '' `` Caesar and Me '' `` The Jeopardy Room '' `` Stopover in a Quiet Town '' `` The Encounter '' `` Mr. Garrity and the Graves '' `` The Brain Center at Whipple 's '' `` Come Wander with Me '' `` The Fear '' `` The Bewitchin ' Pool '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)&oldid=799935995 '' Categories : 1962 television episodes The Twilight Zone ( 1959 TV series ) episodes Alien visitations in fiction Hidden categories : Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL Citation overkill Articles tagged with the inline citation overkill template from March 2017 Tv.com template using numeric id Talk Contents About Wikipedia فارسی Français Nederlands Edit links This page was last edited on 10 September 2017, at 18 : 13. 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Question: who played the kanamit in the twilight zone
Answer: Richard Kiel