To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone) To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone) "To Serve Man" is episode 89 of the anthology series "The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)". It originally aired on March 2, 1962 on CBS. The episode was written by Rod Serling and Richard L. Bare and directed by Bare. The story is based on the 1950 short story "To Serve Man", written by Damon Knight. The title is a paraprosdokian using the verb "serve," which has dual meanings of "to assist" or "to provide as a meal." The episode is one of the few instances in the series wherein an actor breaks the
Twilight of the Idols with a Hammer". The former title, "Götzen-Dämmerung" in German, is a pun on the title of Richard Wagner's opera, "Götterdämmerung", or 'Twilight of the Gods'. "Götze" is a German word for "idol" or "false god". Walter Kaufmann has suggested that in his use of the word Nietzsche might be indebted to Francis Bacon. Nietzsche criticizes German culture of the day as unsophisticated and nihilistic, and shoots some disapproving arrows at key French, British, and Italian cultural figures who represent similar tendencies. In contrast to all these alleged representatives of cultural "decadence", Nietzsche applauds Caesar, Napoleon, Goethe, Thucydides and the Sophists