Customer Reviews

The Ray Bradbury Theater, Vol. 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like "the Twilight Zone" then you will probably like "the Ray Bradbury Theatre". This bargain priced DVD offers 13 episodes of the show that ran on HBO in the mid-80s. HBO did not skimp on production costs either. Great sets and effects for the era, HBO recruited the likes of Peter O'Toole, Jeff Goldblum, Drew Barrymore Leslie Neilsen, and even William Shatner to star in the episodes. All the shows are based on short stories written by Mr. Bradbury who we see in the opening credits typing away and telling us how he comes up with his ideas. Some of the shows are horror, some sci-fi, some just kind of fun. You cannot go wrong with this one. Some of the best stuff produced for TV in the 80s. "The Town where nobody got off" is a personal favorite.

Ray Bradbury has written some of my favorite "science fiction" stories, although he is not limited strictly to the rockets and space genre. He also writes some creepy drama stuff, which is the main content of this TV-produced series.

Each one is a half hour (or 24 minutes in this case), and normally features a single big-name actor (Jeff Goldblum, William Shatner, etc) surrounded by mostly unknown Canadian or British actors.

Picture is only VHS quality, sound is OK.

The performances are nothing special, however, and in general the story on screen is not as powerful as the written word. This is due of course to Bradbury's story-telling ability and talent as a writer.

The episodes are mostly so-so, but a couple do stand out - "The Crowd" (about accident-anticipating watchers), "The Small Assassin" (unhappy baby) and "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" (paranoid killer) are some of the most memorable.

If you've never read any Bradbury, this series probably will not encourage you to do so, but I do. Some of his books are legitimate candidates for "best ever". Here are some I like best:

Novels include:

Fahrenheit 451 (mind control and thought suppression)(also movie)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (boy and fantasy carnival)(also movie)

The better short story collections:

"The Martian Chronicles" (exploration and settlement of Mars).

"R is for Rocket", or "S is for Space" are early collections of short stories ranging from true science fiction (collecting a portion of the sun) through fantasy (love-lorn sea monster meets lighthouse/foghorn).

"The Illustrated Man" (a man's tattoos have a "mind of their own" and tell 19 stories about rains on Venus, strange children's nursery, etc)(movie with Rod Steiger.)

For the same reasonable price, I'm getting Vol 2 as well (not sure which titles are on it).

Most of the stories were interesting and entertaining, but the DVD was lacking in quality. The presentation was a bit amateurish, as if someone had copied it directly from the television program: many pixels and blurry scenes also.

I had the VHS of 3 of these short stories. I was surprised when the DVD came with those 3 plus many others--all great. Great short stories.

These were meant for cable TV in the 1980's. So it's still so-so on DVD.