The very first episode ever broadcast for one of the most iconic sci-fi television series of all-time, "Where is Everybody?" really is essential Twilight Zone viewing with certain aspects that return time and again throughout the five seasons. The subject of loneliness and how humans try to deal with that is the first episode's engine, driven effectively through the performance of Earl Holliman, unaware of who he is, seemingly suffering amnesia, finding himself in a town where no one is around. What appears to be a ghost town, as Holliman peruses a soda shop, diner, mannequin warehouse, movie house, among other locations, leaves him an eventual basket case as the absence of any folks whatsoever becomes too much to bear. Looking in the mirror as he eats ice cream at the soda shop, talking of this experience as if he were Scrooge unable to accept that Jacob Marley's Ghost is in the room with him, seeing "Last Man on Earth" on a book rack spinning, feeling as if someone is watching him (the eye on an optometrist sign, tools for shaving and toothbrushing left in a jail cell, pies cooking on a stove, a jukebox playing, a Rock Hudson movie about the Air Force, which reminds him a bit about who he is, etc.), locating a female mannequin in a car he thought was a local (chatting her up afterward in jest), and begging a recorded operator in a phone booth to get him information to no avail; these experiences continue to weigh on him until he's a hysterical mess, dying for a voice to return his conversation. And the end results of this: Air Force superiors removing him from "the box"-an experimental pod where he was left for nearly 500 hours on his own, with food provided, entertainment of a sort, the necessities to survive but without a crucial part of existence that seems almost irreplaceable, that being human companionship. Holliman having to carry an entire episode nearly on his own (the final five or so minutes has James Gregory (The Manchurian Candidate), the general and authority of this program to train Holliman for a trip to the moon, with his fellow officers and press asking him questions about the human experiment's success and/or failure), proves how much of a personable, likable guy he could be. Not to mention, he has to hold our attention and not bore us considering it is his experience of loneliness we must connect and relate to while those in charge of the warped (when Holliman starts to come apart) camera angles and creative imagined machinations that often convince Holliman someone is around somewhere (like the subtle eeriness of a jail cell door closing slightly or the phone ringing) lend a hand in offering up reasons why he would come unglued. As a foundation for the series moving forward I couldn't think of a better starting point than this episode. It mentions what does eventually happen not long ahead-man's trip to the moon-giving the viewer a bit of the nearest future while also offering an imaginary respite that turns into a nightmare for a man in desperate need of a recreation of home, without the desired company to make it a bit more worthwhile.
Review of Where Is Everybody?
