To Serve Man (the Twilight Zone) Article Index for
To Serve 		Website Links For
Serve 		 

Information About

To Serve Man (the Twilight Zone)
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



  episodetitle To Serve Man
  episodenumber 89
  season 3
  productioncode 4807
  originalday March 2
  originalyear 1962
  writer Rod Serling based on the story of the same name by Damon Knight , first published in the January 1953 issue of '' If ''
  director Richard L Bare
  music Stock



CAST



SYNOPSIS


A race of aliens known as the Kanamits land on Earth and promise to be nothing but helpful to the cause of humanity. They eradicate hunger, eliminate war, and obliterate expensive power sources. All is not well, however, when a decoder discovers the Kanamits’ true intentions. Their book, ''To Serve Man'', is a cookbook.


TRIVIA

  • The short story on which this episode is based was awarded the 1951 “Retro” Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 2001 .

  • The fullsize lower portion of the Kanimits' transport spaceship is the adapted version, with raising stairs, of the saucer-shaped United Planets Cruiser C-57D, seen in MGM's 1956 film Forbidden Planet .

  • In the first “ Treehouse Of Horror ” episode of '' The Simpsons '', the story “Hungry are the Damned” is based on “To Serve Man”.

  • The episode is spoofed in the film '''' when Lloyd Bochner runs through a crowded room shouting, “It’s a cookbook!”

  • In the game Warcraft III, the trollish witch doctor has a line of hidden dialogue in which he screams in frustration, “It’s a cookbook! A ''cookbook''!!”

  • In Angel's Fourth Season, a goddess named Jasmine comes to Earth promising world peace, which, strangely enough, is her actual intention. However, in order to keep her power and remain on Earth, she must occasionally eat humans. When Angel Investigations discovers this in the episode ''Peace Out'', Gunn comments: "'To Serve Man.' It's 'To Serve Man' all over again."

  • In the last show of NewsRadio 's Third Season, "Space," as news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) hands out copies of "To Serve Man" to everyone at a staff meeting he explains, "It's a cookbook." The staff responds with overwhelming enthusiasm.

  • The movie Madagascar had the lemeurs debating and one of them stands up and shouts "Its a cookbook!" pointing at a book saying "TO SERVE LEMURS."

  • Disney's The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror of Walt Disney World has a book in the library with a piece of paper taped on it saying "TO SERVE MAN."



THEMES

A theme explored in “ A Nice Place To Visit ”.


CRITICAL RESPONSE

Marc Scott Zicree in '' The Twilight Zone Companion '':
:In the show...a staff of Cryptographers led by 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’s comments have been seconded by many others, including Damon Knight , though an explanation as to how the cryptographers managed to translate the Kanamit language may be found in an early draft of Serling’s teleplay, which included this scene:

:(Close shot Chambers As seen over her shoulder. His eyes narrow.)

:Chambers: What’s the matter, Pat? What's going on?

:(Reverse angle looking toward her. Her lips tremble.)

:Pat: I...I finally deciphered their language. All of it. I read their book.

:(Close shot a suspended speaker overhead A Kanamit's metallic voice rings out.)

:Kanamit's voice: Please move ahead. You're holding up our departure. Kindly move ahead.

:(Cut to: Two shot Chambers and Pat)

:Chambers: Well?

:Pat: Mr. Chambers...Mr. Chambers, the first page is just a collection of English words with their own translation. But the rest of the book...the rest of the book—

:...at which point she delivers her famous punchline. It may be possible to decipher the Kanamit language provided the first page of the book represented what Zicree referred to as an “interplanetary Rosetta stone”.


REFERENCES

  • Zicree, Marc Scott: ''The Twilight Zone Companion''. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)



EXTERNAL LINK



TWILIGHT ZONE LINKS


"To Serve Man" is a science fiction short story originally written by Damon Knight , later adapted for use as a '' Twilight Zone '' episode.

The story involves aliens giving man all the necessary things to survive but secretly plotting to eat humans. The irony of the story is instead of 'serving man' by providing for his needs, in the sense the aliens were literally 'serving man' as a meal.