To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone)

"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
Guest appearance(s)
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.

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.