The Simpsons' 24th "Treehouse of Terror" episode - due to premiere this weekend - has an elaborate re-make of the entire Simpsons title sequence. I lost count of the number of familiar SF/fantasy genre references. There's a Bradbury reference in there, but if you blink you may miss it... so here it is, frozen for your extended enjoyment.
Here we see Ray inking up the Illustrated Man. And who's that looking over his shoulder? Richard Matheson?
Ray Bradbury has a lot in common with Richard Matheson. Both writers belong to the "Southern California" school of SF and fantasy writers, both have written extensively for film and television as well as print, and both have seen their finest works celebrated (and occasionally trashed) in adaptations created by others.
In 1979, by some quirk of fate, Matheson wrote the teleplay for Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles - which, in the hands of director Michael Anderson and producer Charles Fries, turned out to be one of those occasional trashings.
I see that Matheson's works as adapted for screen come under scrutiny in a new book by Matthew R. Bradley. Bradley has a blog, which has recently featured a great piece on another Matheson/Bradbury associate, William F. Nolan. Nolan also features in an interview here, where the secrets of his success and longevity are spelled out.
Please don't ask me why I was reading a web page for "seniors"... but I ran across this article about walking, which references Bradbury's short story "The Pedestrian", and also repeats an amusing anecdote about Bob Dylan.
I'm sure Bradbury would be pleased to know that the public library in his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois, now has dinosaurs - watch the new promo video:
