Wednesday, February 8, 2017

THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER - "The Long Years" (Are You A Boy Clone Or A Girl Clone?) (1990)

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved the writing of the genius Ray Bradbury! His novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes," was the book that made me realize the difference between movies and books, and that your own imagination can be far greater than that of any actor, director, or cinematographer!

"The Long Years" is a prefect example of what I'm talking about, I do believe!

  "The Ray Bradbury Theater" ran for eight years from 1985 to 1992! "The Long Years" was from Season 4, episode 11, in the year 1990! I was trying to figure out why I wasn't more familiar with this show when I found out it was a Canadian production that aired only on HBO or the USA network, and later on the Sci-Fi Network.

I had the opportunity to get Ray Bradbury to sign a copy of "Fahrenheit 451" at a convention a few years ago, probably not long after this show was made, and he looked about like this! I have to say that he really wasn't very friendly, but it was a crappy venue and it was hot, so I never blamed him for being kind of grumpy!

Robert Culp is John Hathaway, the man left behind on a now deserted Mars, the planet!
Robert will always be remembered as Kelly Robinson in the classic 60's TV show "I Spy" with Bill Cosby before he was a creeper prevert! Robert was also in an unprecedented 3 episodes of "The Outer Limits!!!"

John Hathaway and his wife missed the last bus out of town, and have now waited some 20 years for another one to show up!

They now have two kids!
FINALLY!!! They've come to get us!

Two or four wheels aren't good enough on Mars, you got to have six if you really want to get around!!

No stranger to weirdness, George Touliatos as Captain Wilder can't believe that Mrs. Hathaway hasn't aged a bit in 20 years! It must be that good clean Martian air!!

Mars is a lonely town when you're the only surfer boy around!

Seriously, at that point, you might as well just give it away!

So, as it turns out, those aren't really John Hathaway's wife and children!

His real wife and children got sick and died many years previous!

He was all alone with nothing else to do, so he cloned himself a whole new family! So when Captain Wilder tells him there's not enough room on the ship for the whole family, John Hathaway has a massive heart attack and dies, and his family remains behind!

So, what else is there to do? His clone wife clones him, and they can all live happily ever after!
Not bad, but I'll bet you anything that the short story is better!
In the meantime, while you're contemplating that, here's something you need in your life
"Are You A Boy Clone Or A Girl Clone" by everybody's favourite poet, the right honourable Reverend Glen Armstrong! Dig In!

3 comments:

Lacey said...

Sorry to hear that your time with Ray Bradbury was so unhappy.
I met him several times at the San DIego COmic-con and he was always friendly and seemed happy to see his fans.

Of course I also got MY copy of "Fahrenheit 451" autographed.
(Didn't we all - LOL)

Being left behind on Mars was a common theme for Mr. Bradbury.
Look up "Night Call Collect." Some premise but the phone system becomes sentient.

EEGAH!! said...

Thanx Lace! It was a very conservative business convention that I got free tickets to, and I think Ray was out of his element! I know he always used to go to the small town where I grew up, and help raise funds for the "Friends Of The Library" because he knew one of the women there, and that would have been really out of his way to get to, so I was surprised he was a little surly for this event, but understandable, considering the crowd!

Anonymous said...

Congrats, you two, on meeting The Man! As for the TV series with his name, I bought the DVD set years ago for something like $5 in a bargan bin, but have yet to watch a single episode. Guess I need to start doing so, soon!

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