Episode 24
To Serve Man
An alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A team of linguists sets out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce to be "To Serve Man."
Season 3
The third season of The Twilight Zone aired Fridays at 10:00–10:30 pm on CBS from September 15, 1961 to June 1, 1962. There are 37 episodes. Continuing with Marius Constant's theme music, a different set of graphics was used for the opening, consisting of a rotating cone with concentric circles suggesting a spiral, receding into a star field. Rod Serling's narration from the second season was used, with the verse "That's the signpost up ahead" taken out: "You're traveling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop—The Twilight Zone." Some subtle changes in the opening's acoustics were made beginning with Person or Persons Unknown.
All Episodes
Episode 1
Two
September 15, 1961
A man and a woman, on opposite sides of a future war, encounter each other in a deserted town.
Episode 2
The Arrival
September 22, 1961
A plane lands safely, but all its passengers, pilot and crew are missing.
Episode 3
The Shelter
September 29, 1961
When a nuclear attack appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors fight over control of a single bomb shelter.
Episode 4
The Passersby
October 6, 1961
On the road home from the Civil War, a Confederate soldier stops at a burned-out house and gets to know the owner, a recent widow.
Episode 5
A Game of Pool
October 13, 1961
Championship pool player Fats Brown returns from the grave for one last game.
Episode 6
The Mirror
October 20, 1961
After a poor but ambitious Central American farm worker overthrows his country's tyrannical leader, he believes he sees assassins everywhere. A look in the mirror reveals his most dangerous enemy.
Episode 7
The Grave
October 27, 1961
Before he died, notorious gunslinger Pinto Sykes put a curse on hired-gun Conny Miller. Miller returns to town and is challenged to visit the grave of Sykes, despite the curse.
Episode 8
It's a Good Life
November 3, 1961
On an isolated family farm in Peakesville, Ohio, young Anthony Fremont, who has vast mental powers but lacks emotional development, holds his terrified family and neighbors in thrall to his every juvenile wish.
Episode 9
Deaths-Head Revisited
November 10, 1961
A former Nazi SS Captain returns to the ruins of a concentration camp to reminisce, and is met by one of his victims.
Episode 10
The Midnight Sun
November 17, 1961
The Earth's orbit has been changed, drawing ever closer to the sun and promising imminent destruction.
Episode 11
Still Valley
November 24, 1961
Confederacy scout Sgt. Joseph Paradine finds a town full of Union soldiers, and an old man who claims he used witchcraft to paralyze them.
Episode 12
The Jungle
December 1, 1961
Alan Richards plans to build a dam in Africa on a tribe's ancestral land. The tribe's voodoo doctor puts a curse on him.
Episode 13
Once Upon a Time
December 15, 1961
Woodrow, a janitor living in the year 1890, accidentally activates a time travelling helmet which transports him to 1962.
Episode 14
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
December 22, 1961
A hobo, clown, bagpipe player, ballerina and military officer are trapped in a huge cylinder.
Episode 15
A Quality of Mercy
December 29, 1961
A gung ho young soldier gets a new viewpoint on war when he inexplicably changes places with a Japanese officer trying to stop his superior from leading a charge against American forces.
Episode 16
Nothing in the Dark
January 5, 1962
A lonely old woman refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
Episode 17
One More Pallbearer
January 12, 1962
Paul Radin has invited three people to join him in his bomb shelter.
Episode 18
Dead Man's Shoes
January 19, 1962
A vagrant steps into a murdered gangster's expensive shoes and is taken over by the dead man's ghost, who vows to remain on Earth to seek revenge against his killer.
Episode 19
The Hunt
January 26, 1962
On a hunting trip, Hyder Simpson and his dog Rip dive into a lake after a raccoon. When he gets home he finds that no one can see or hear him.
Episode 20
Showdown with Rance McGrew
February 2, 1962
The star of a Western TV series suddenly finds himself transported back in time to the real Wild West, and face-to-face with the real Jesse James.
Episode 21
Kick the Can
February 9, 1962
A retiree living in a rest home thinks he has discovered the secret of youth — acting young, and in particular playing a children's game called "kick-the-can".
Episode 22
A Piano in the House
February 16, 1962
Fortune discovers that a piano he bought his wife for her birthday has magical properties - the music that it plays makes people reveal their true essence.
Episode 23
The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
February 23, 1962
Jeff Myrtlebank comes back to life at his own funeral and soon begins to act very strangely...
Episode 24
To Serve Man
March 2, 1962
An alien race comes to Earth, promising peace and sharing technology. A team of linguists sets out to translate the aliens' language, using a book whose title they deduce to be "To Serve Man."
Episode 25
The Fugitive
March 9, 1962
Old Ben, who is able to transform himself into anything, tries to help a crippled little girl.
Episode 26
Little Girl Lost
March 16, 1962
Awakened by the cries of their daughter Bettina, Chris and Ruth Miller enter her room to find that she has vanished, even though they still hear her crying for help. Chris' physicist friend Bill thinks she moved into another dimension.
Episode 27
Person or Persons Unknown
March 23, 1962
David Gurney wakes up to find that no one - his wife, his co-workers, his best friend, not even his own mother knows him.
Episode 28
The Little People
March 30, 1962
An astronaut declares himself a god when his ship lands on a planet populated by people smaller than ants.
Episode 29
Four O'Clock
April 6, 1962
Oliver Crangle is a bitter, prejudiced man. Through unknown means he intends to shrink every evil person in the world at four o'clock.
Episode 30
Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
April 13, 1962
A loud-mouthed braggart's boasts attract the attention of some aliens.
Episode 31
The Trade-Ins
April 20, 1962
An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies.
Episode 32
The Gift
April 27, 1962
An alien who crash-lands into a remote mountain village stirs up the villagers' fears and animosity, but he befriends a little boy and gives him a mysterious present.
Episode 33
The Dummy
May 4, 1962
A ventriloquist is convinced that his dummy, Willie, is alive and evil. He makes plans for a new act with a new dummy: plans that Willie doesn't support!
Episode 34
Young Man's Fancy
May 11, 1962
When a newlywed couple briefly return to the groom's childhood home, the ties of the past prove too strong to resist.
Episode 35
I Sing the Body Electric
May 18, 1962
A widower buys a robot grandmother for his three children.
Episode 36
Cavender is Coming
May 25, 1962
Cavender, an angel trying to win his wings, tries to help down-on-her-luck Agnes, who has just been fired.
Episode 37
The Changing of the Guard
June 1, 1962
An elderly private school teacher wonders if his life has meant anything as he contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve and is reminded by former students that he has, indeed, made an effect on the lives of his students over the years.