Bradbury 100 - episode 10

On this week's Bradbury 100, I talk about Ray Bradbury's long-running TV show, The Ray Bradbury Theatre. And my interview guest is the composer of the theme music for that show, John Massari.

I've often referred to The Ray Bradbury Theatre as Ray's own personal Twilight Zone, and I guess there's some irony in that. Ray did actually write for The Twilight Zone, both the original 1950s/60s version and the 1980s revival. But even if he hadn't written for it, TZ would still have felt quite Bradburyan. There are so many episodes which either take ideas from Bradbury, or situations, or inspiration. And so it shouldn't be too surprising to learn that Bradbury was more than once invited to do his own show. Listen to the podcast, and I'll tell you more about how it came about.

And John Massari - composer for Ray Bradbury Theater and Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Prison Break, to mention just a few - will also let you in on how his music demo ended up being used at the official theme for RBT for the whole seven years. John is pictured below with Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 10 - with composer John Massari

Show Notes

Read more about John Massari.

John Massari's music can be found on Soundcloud. 

You can also find a lot of his work on his Youtube channel.

Ray Bradbury's Birthday

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born ninety-four years ago today.

Even now, two years after he passed away, the fascination with his life and work continues. In a few weeks' time, a second volume of literary biography will be published: Ray Bradbury Unbound by Jon Eller. Shortly after, the second volume of The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: a Critical Edition will appear. The successful tribute volume Shadow Show is being developed into a comic-book series. Film composer John Massari has developed his Ray Bradbury Theater music into a symphonic suite. Dramatic Publishing is expanding its list of Bradbury-authored theatre plays with Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Illustrated Bradbury. And this week, the Indianapolis Public Library inaugurated an annual Ray Bradbury Lecture in conjunction with Indiana University's Center for Ray Bradbury Studies.

I think that deserves a round of applause!