# Question For Dougspaulding



## Non Compos Mentis (Apr 14, 2004)

I'm curious about the "Ray Bradbury Theater" show. I've seen old episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" by means of the Scifi Channel.

Was this show similar to these shows? Are any of these RBT's shows on DVD? And what are the "best" episodes in your opinion?


----------



## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

How about "The Town Where No One Got Off?"


----------



## dougspaulding (May 22, 2004)

Non Compos Mentis said:


> Was this show similar to these shows? Are any of these RBT's shows on DVD? And what are the "best" episodes in your opinion?


Well, three of the best ones were collected in "Strange Tales: Ray Bradbury Theatre" which was a videotaped collection of stories from the series. "The Town Where No One Got Off" stars Jeff Goldblum in the tale of a murder scheme gone awry. "The Screaming Woman" stars Drew Barrymore as a little girl whose penchant for lies backfires when she hears the sound of a woman's screams emanating from under her feet, and "The Banshee" features Peter O'Toole in the story of a roguish old film director whose amorous past comes back to literally haunt him (it is said that Bradbury wrote this story to settle an old score with filmmaker John Huston who gave him hell whilst he was writing the screenplay to Huston's 1953 film "Moby Dick"). My favourite episode is "The Coffin". Other fine ones are "The Emissary", "The Small Assassin", "There Was an Old Woman", "Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms In Your Cellar!", "The Veldt", "Mars is Heaven", "The Black Ferris", "Usher II", "The Day it Rained Forever", "Here There be Tygers", "The Earthmen", "The Jar", "Let's Play Poison" - there are quite a few!

All sixty-five episodes are on DVD.

The problem with the series (other than production value due to funding) is that Bradbury is nearly impossible to adapt to the screen - even when he's adapting himself! What reads like poetry on the page often doesn't translate well to film. The show doesn't hold up in comparison to "The Twilight Zone" (1959), but is more similar to "Roald Dahl's 'Tales of the Unexpected'" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (to which Bradbury contributed several stories in the fifties).

In summary, it's worth a look - even a purchase for those who are fans - but in the end it's much better to read Bradbury.

Thanks for the question.


----------

