Spokane-filmed series ‘Z Nation’ 10th anniversary event at the Garland Theater becomes reunion for creators, crew and fans

Fans of the five -season television series “Z Nation” filmed in Spokane showed up Sunday at the Garland Theater for a 10th -anniversary event, but so many producers and crew members also showed up that it felt like a bit of a reunion.

Sunday’s event kicked off with a panel discussion featuring series co-creator and executive producer Karl Schaefer. His son, series writer Daniel Schaefer, said that while the main actors were unable to attend the event, plenty of crew members agreed to swap stories “about the deep chaos that was ‘Z Nation.’ ”

The discussion was followed by a mixer at 4 p.m. and a showing of Episode 301 at 6:30 p.m. The episode was essentially a double episode written outside the series timeline and is often called the “Z Nation” movie, Daniel Schaefer said. “It’s sort of become a fan favorite,” he said. “We wanted something everybody could watch even if they didn’t know anything about ‘Z Nation.’ ”

The free event was sponsored by Media Credit Union and hosted by We F.E.W. – Filmmakers of Eastern Washington, which Daniel Schaefer co-founded as a way to maintain and train crew members for future movies or television shows shot in the area.

Kari Page and her mother, Lisa Hanson, arrived early to the event. Page was in elementary school when “Z Nation” began, and she had never heard of the show until she spotted the cast and crew filming near her house one day. She and a group of neighborhood kids went over and were able to visit with actor Keith Allan, who played Murphy. Allan posed for photos with the kids.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, now I have to watch it,’ ” Page said.

She did begin watching it, with her mother’s approval. “I really liked it,” she said. “I was into that. My brother watched zombie movies all the time.”

Both Page and Hanson said it was fun to watch the show and spot familiar places and local landmarks. Ten years later, they remember the show fondly enough that they decided to come to the anniversary event. “We came out to pay homage,” Hanson said.

In addition to being a writer on the series, Daniel Schaefer was the on-set writer to make last -minute changes to the script and a behind the scenes photographer. “I was on set every day,” he said. “ ‘Z Nation’ was film school by fire. It was just really sassy social satire.”

A typical television show will spend upwards of $2 million per episode, Schaefer said, but “Z Nation” was filmed for about a quarter of that cost. “We shot an hour of television in five days with no prep days,” he said. “We knew we were cheap, we knew we didn’t have money, but we didn’t do anything that we didn’t know we could do well.”

The secret to their success was finding places to film and then writing the show to fit instead of the other way around, he said. Scenes were shot everywhere from people’s homes to vacant buildings.

Karl Schaefer said he once used the Spokane River to stand in for the Mississippi River. No matter what the show needed, Spokane had it, he said. “We needed a place that had a lot of looks and Spokane has that,” he said. “It’s like a giant back lot.”

Karl Schaefer said he enjoyed his time filming in Spokane a lot. “It was great, so much so that I moved up here,” he said.

Tyler Arnold, co-owner of the Garland Theater, said he was happy to host the anniversary event. “They did the premier here 10 years ago,” he said. “We knew we had to celebrate Spokane. I’m always wanting to support local as much as possible.”