Serling Fest 2022: A Stellar Line-Up Set to Appear in Binghamton August 12-14

That’s right, fifth-dimension fans. It hasn’t even been a full year since the 2021 “Serling Fest,” but we’re getting set to gather again — this time on the second weekend of August.

But a couple of things haven’t changed, I’m glad to say. As usual, we’ll meet in Rod’s hometown of Binghamton, New York. And just as before, a great line-up of presenters and programs are on the slate. Check it out:

So we’ll get:

• Anne Serling, Rod’s younger daughter and author of “As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling“
• Tony Albarella, editor of “As Timeless of Infinity,” a 10-volume set of Serling’s Twilight Zone scripts
• Marc Zicree, author of “The Twilight Zone Companion“
• Nick Parisi, president of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation and author of “Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination“
• Mark Dawidziak, author of “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone”
• Mark Olshaker, a friend of Serling’s and author of numerous books, including the “Mindhunter” ones with John Douglas
• Courtland Hull, the artist who painted the Zone-themed panels at the Recreation Park carousel that inspired “Walking Distance”
• Jonathan Napolitano, director of “The Carousel”

Here’s what they’ve got lined up over the three-day period:

Serling’s Re-Framing Efforts: Night Gallery’s “A Death in the Family”

I hope you haven’t found the previous stops in my Night Gallery “Re-Framing Efforts” too unnerving … because our next sojourn in this shadowy world takes place at a funeral home. Get ready to meet Jared Soames, played by legendary actor E.G. Marshall. He’s probably the most compassionate undertaker you’ll ever meet.

He’s also the weirdest. Because if a particular corpse strikes his fancy, he won’t give it a dignified burial. He’ll bury a weighted coffin and adopt the dearly departed into the “family” of corpses that he keeps in the basement, all carefully arranged in a birthday-party tableau. (Spoilers ahead, naturally, so if you’d rather see the Gallery version first, check it out on DVD before reading further.)

We see Soames in the beginning as he takes possession of a charity burial. He’s disturbed by the cavalier attitude of the ambulance drivers, who turn over the body of one Simon Cottner with all the decorum of an Amazon package. Where, he asks earnestly, are the flowers, the music, and the mourners? They look at him like he’s crazy. Simon had no friends, one of them tells him. There’s no one to miss “the stiff,” as they call him more than once.

And they don’t seem all that broken up about it. To them, it’s just a job. But to Soames, this is a mission.

As he tells his latest charge after they’ve left: “Simon, old man. You lived 81 years. You deserve more than a $100 funeral. But don’t you worry. You shall have more. Much more.”