Who: Arlen Schumer
What: Live webinar about the legacy of The Twilight Zone
Where: Online link emailed with registration through New York Adventure Club
When: Wednesday, April 29, $10, 8:00
Why: I am a full-fledged member of the Twilight Zone cult. I’ve been watching the show since I was in single digits, which probably explains a lot. Now I check it out every night on MeTV, belong to a private TZ Facebook group, and look forward to settling in for the annual holiday marathons. On April 29 at 8:00, writer, illustrator, and TZ scholar Arlen Schumer, who posts regularly in the group and is the author of the seminal book Visions from the Twilight Zone, will host the live webinar “The Twilight Zone: Ahead of Its Time.” Registration for the “visualecture,” hosted by New York Adventure Club, is $10, with limited spaces. The talk and Q&A will focus on TZ in the age of coronavirus, working off the debut episode, “Where Is Everybody?,” in which Earl Holliman plays a man seemingly alone in the world. In the 1959 episode, written by creator and genius Rod Serling, an army doctor explains, “We can feed the stomach with concentrates. We can supply microfilm for reading, recreation, even movies of a sort. We can pump oxygen in and waste material out. But there’s one thing we can’t simulate that’s a very basic need: Man’s hunger for companionship. The barrier of loneliness. That’s one thing we haven’t licked yet.” The five-year series has dozens of prescient episodes that seemingly predicted sociocultural aspects of computerization, militarization, contagion, fascism, racism, romance, medicine, the space race, and, yes, solitude. Schumer will also explore other key episodes and the roster of high-level guest stars. Register now for this virtual journey into another dimension.