2009 Conference

Keynote Speaker

George Clayton Johnson, writer
Johnson wrote of a number of Twilight Zone scripts and shares screenplay credit on The Twilight Zone - The Movie. He co-authored the novels Ocean's 11 and Logan's Run. He also wrote the premiere episode of Star Trek as well as segments of Route 66, Honey West, The Law and Mr. Jones, Mr. Novak and Kung Fu. His short stories have appeared in 100 Great Fantasy Short Stories, Author's Choice #4, Masters of Darkness, and elsewhere.

Conference Sessions

Speakers are listed in alphabetical order.

• War and Remembrance: Examining the Impact of War on Rod Serling’s Life and Work
  Tony Albarella
• Stark Humanity: Serling’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight”
  Barbara Audet
• What Goes Around: Comeuppance and Schadenfreude in The Twilight Zone
  Jeffrey J. Bianchine
• Early Attempts at Science-Fiction and Fantasy
  Amy E. Boyle Johnston
• Don’t Assume the Current Norm Shall Be Your Norm
  John Keshishoglou
• “It’s a Cookbook!” Gender Anxieties in The Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man”
  Adam Knee
• Adapting The Twilight Zone to Graphic Novel
  Mark Kneece
• How Parenting Is Represented in The Twilight Zone
  Douglas C. MacLeod Jr.
• Speak Your Mind
  Patricia Dawn MacLeod
• Underneath the Mask: Using Rod Serling’s “Eye of the Beholder” to Teach about Appearance versus Reality
  Timothy J. Madigan
• The Symbiosis of Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont
  Keith Muchowski
• Surviving The Twilight Zone: An Alternate Reality with Alternate Rules
  Samuel B. Prime and Dave Stinton-Czuprynski
• Divining Rod: Illumination and the Twilight Zone Experience
  Richard Rees
• Second Chances: Rod Serling, Redrafting, and Adaptation
  Andrew T. Smith
• Time Enough at Last: A Few Considerations on the Human Condition
  Ed Uszynski
• The Twilight Zone on Videotape: Is the Medium the Message?
  Gordon C. Webb
• Scriptwriting Competition Winners Panel
  Excerpts from this year's winning scripts will be read and discussed by some of the winning writers and members of the judge's panel.

Dinner Program

• Paying Homage: The Twilight Zone in Popular Media
  Ari Kissiloff

Bus Trip to Binghamton (Saturday)
Bus will leave from north entrance of Park Hall at noon and return at approximately 5:00 p.m. A walking/trolley tour of Serling sites, including the Forum Theatre at the Broome Center’s display of Day of a Playwright; the Binghamton High School’s Rod Serling School of the Arts, which will present a special gallery display; Serling’s boyhood home on Binghamton’s west side; a stop at the downtown Metro Center’s walk of fame; and a final visit to Recreation Park, the inspiration for The Twilight Zone episode “Walking Distance,” where visitors will have a chance to see the Serling Pavilion and ride the carousel while continuous viewings of “Walking Distance” will run throughout the day on large television monitors. Bus will feature video presentation:

• TZ or Not TZ: Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Soliloquies
  Steve Schlich