New Podcast Episode: Radio Classics - Dimension X / X Minus One

  

Here's another new episode of Bradbury 100, and this time I return to Ray's stories in the golden age of radio, looking at the classic science fiction drama series Dimension X and X Minus One.

I've mentioned these shows before on the podcast, but I figured it was time to make them the focus.

Although Ray Bradbury was himself a scriptwriter and dramatist, he didn't do any writing specifically for these two shows. And unlike the series Suspense (which I looked it in episode 61), Dimension X and X Minus One only produced adaptations of stories which had already been published.

But what terrific adaptations they were! With scripts by future Emmy Award winners Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, these series never put a foot wrong. The scripts are pretty close to the original stories, without being simple, lazy transcriptions.

In this episode I include clips of many of the Bradbury-based episodes, the most striking of which is the run of episodes based on stories from The Martian Chronicles. But if you've never listened to a Dimension X or X Minus One in its entirety, I would urge you to do so. Go to a darkened room, and let your mind conjure up... well, something like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits... or wherever your imagination takes you.

You can find all episodes of Dimension X and X Minus One online for free. Here are the best links for them, with the best available quality:

 

Links to DIMENSION X episodes (via Old Time Radio Researchers website, OTRR.org)

1. To the Future
   
2. There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour  
3. Mars is Heaven! 
   
4. The Martian Chronicles  
5. And the Moon Be Still As Bright  
6. Dwellers in Silence
7. The Veldt
8. Marionettes, Inc.  
9. Kaleidoscope

Links to X MINUS ONE episodes (via Old Time Radio Researchers website, OTRR.org)

1. And The Moon Be Still As Bright
2. Mars is Heaven!
3. The Veldt
4. Dwellers in Silence
5. There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour
6. To The Future
7. Marionettes, Inc.

 

And here's the podcast episode. Enjoy!

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One

 

 

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Bradbury 100 - episode 12

This week on my podcast Bradbury 100 we take another look at Bradbury on radio - but American radio this time.

Bradbury's radio credits date back to 1946, when Mollé Mystery Theatre dramatised his story "Killer, Come Back To Me". During the 1940s and 1950s Bradbury submitted many stories to radio networks, just as he submitted stories to magazines. Occasionally, a story would sell.

But as Bradbury became better known, with appearances in "slick" magazines and in books, so his stories became sought-after by radio producers. His short stories in particular became regular fare on shows like Suspense and X Minus One.

In the podcast, I talk about various production companies which continued both the tradition of American radio drama and the tradition of adapting Bradbury. My guest is the multi-talented and prolific Jerry Robbins of Colonial Radio Theatre.

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 12 - with Jerry Robbins of Colonial Radio Theatre

Show Notes

Find out more about Colonial Radio Theatre...

...and specifically their productions of Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree and The Martian Chronicles. (This link will take you to a page which includes ordering links.)

I also mentioned Bradbury Thirteen, the 1980s series produced by Mike McDonough. The series no longer has an official web presence, but you can find episodes just by Googling. (But don't for one minute believe anyone who tells you the series is "public domain" or "out of copyright". It isn't.)

And I mentioned Peggy Webber's California Artists Radio Theatre, which also no longer has an official web presence. But you can read my review of one of their Bradbury productions, and this report on CART's production of Leviathan '99.

Bradbury 100 - episode 8

Time for another episode of my podcast Bradbury 100. This week, a topic very close to my heart: radio drama. I continue my interview with dramatist Brian Sibley, and we talk mostly about adapting Ray Bradbury for radio.

Brian talks about adapting to different media, and the need for compression (and occasional expansion) of stories in the process. We cover especially The Illustrated Man, "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" and "The Next in Line".

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 08

Show Notes

See my list of Bradbury's radio credits.

I've written a number of articles about Ray's work on BBC Radio. Read them here and here.

Brian contributed many scripts to the 1990s BBC series Ray Bradbury's Tales of the Bizarre, which continues to be repeated periodically on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Brian's own Soundcloud channel includes a vast amount of his work, including his episodes of Tales of the Bizarre.

Ray Bradbury discussion - BBC Forum

Here it is: the BBC World Service Forum radio programme about Ray Bradbury. A few weeks back, I took part in the discussion of Bradbury's life and career, with Jonathan R. Eller and Miranda Corcoran.

Each contributor recorded at home while in isolation, and our contributions were recorded down the line by the BBC. (We also submitted recordings we made locally, so the editors would have more control over the sound quality.)

What we didn't get at the time of recording were the various clips of Ray speaking, the readings from his work, and other played-in contributions. So listening to this programme is, even for me, like listening to something new. I'm quite impressed with how much they've been able to cram in to forty minutes!

Click here to listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjvr

BBC Discussion on Bradbury: The Forum

Coming up in a week's time - 13th August -  the BBC World Service radio programme The Forum will be all about Ray Bradbury.

The Forum is a round-table discussion, and this edition features Bradbury biographer Jon Eller, editor of a book on Bradbury's supernatural fiction Miranda Corcoran - and some fellow called Phil Nichols...

We recorded the programme quite a few weeks ago, and it is being released now to (roughly) coincide with the one-hundredth anniversary of Ray Bradbury's birth. The Forum is broadcast on the BBC's World Service radio channel, and episodes are made available to listen online after the broadcast. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed to get episodes delivered straight to your preferred listening device.

Look here for more information as it becomes available.

Podcasts - all in one handy place

I've taken part in a number of podcasts over the years, discussing various Ray Bradbury works in film, television, theatre and radio. I thought it was time to put links for them all in one handy place.

So, without further ado, I give you Phil's podcasts!


A Sound of Thunder - short story, film and other adaptations - Take Me To Your Reader 

Fahrenheit 451 - novel and 1966 film - Take Me To Your Reader 

Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen - The Ray Harryhausen Podcast 

Fahrenheit 451 - novel and 2018 TV film - Radio Free Acton

Fahrenheit 451 - novel and 2018 TV film - Take Me To Your Reader

Fahrenheit 451 - novel and 2018 TV film - Studio 360/American Icons 

The Halloween Tree - book, film and radio play - Take Me To Your Reader 

The Illustrated Man - short story, book and film - Take Me To Your Reader

Ray Bradbury Classic Radio

Part of Ray Bradbury's sustained popularity since the 1940s comes from his presence across a range of media. Starting as an author making frequent contributions to pulp magazines in the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror in the 1940s, he moved onto to be a writer of quality short stories for the "slick" magazines of the 1950s.

The 1950s also saw his reputation expanded through many adaptations on radio (and later in television and film). Most of the radio adaptations were carried out by other writers, although Bradbury himself was very active in circulating his short stories to the radio networks. Sometimes, the networks bought the stories before they had even been published elsewhere.

My view has always been that radio is the most natural home for adaptations of Bradbury stories. While his stories can work well in film and television, the very act of showing requires that things have to be made concrete. Often, when adapting from a written text, it is better to leave some things in the mind of the viewer/reader/listener.

My full(ish) list of Bradbury's radio outings can be found here.

And if you've never experienced Bradbury on radio, where better to start than with the classic episodes of the 1950s series Suspense and Escape. Most of these episodes are not science fiction. Instead, these series adapt Bradbury's more suspenseful stories set pretty much in the real world. But with a twist.

There is a well-curated collection of the Suspense/Escape episodes here: http://www.escape-suspense.com/ray-bradbury/

KALEIDOSCOPE returns...

Following hot on the heels of Brian Sibley's radio dramatisation of Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope" (as part of The Illustrated Man for Radio 4's Dangerous Visions season), the archive radio channel BBC Radio 4Extra is today broadcasting a 1991 production of the same story. 4Extra's web page thinks it's a new production, but it isn't.

"Kaleidoscope" is a classic SF short story, in which a group of astronauts find themselves flung aimlessly through space when their spaceship is destroyed; each one of them faces a slow, isolated death. As I have noted elsewhere, the premise seems to have inspired part of John Carpenter's movie Dark Star and Alfonso Cuaron's recent Gravity.

This 1991 radio adaptation is unusual, because the script is by Bradbury himself. It's a modified version of his stage play, and based on his own original short story. It was only the second BBC production to have used a Bradbury script (the first was Leviathan '99, which I reviewed here.).

The 1991 "Kaleidoscope" was directed by Hamish Wilson, who later co-produced the Bradbury series Tales of the Bizarre. It was also the first BBC production to use digital sampling technology in a drama production: they used a Synclavier to create the complex soundscape.

As with most BBC Radio broadcasts, the show will be available for streaming on the web for seven days, and should be accessible from anywhere in the world. Here's a direct link to the web page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0499l5n

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Today is also the 91st birthday of science fiction writer, critic and historian James Gunn. I met Jim last year, as I recounted in this blog post.  He's still going strong, and last year published a well-received novel, Transcendental.

Dangerous Visions from BBC Radio 4

Today sees the start of BBC Radio 4's week-long season of science drama Dangerous Visions, which is topped and tailed with adaptations of classic Ray Bradbury books.

Today at 2.30pm UK time, Brian Sibley's dramatisation of The Illustrated Man gets its first airing. You can listen live online from the link below. Alternatively, you can listen on demand for seven days following the broadcast.

The BBC website has some interesting background material on the production, the dramatist and the cast, and the link for listening:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046j2jc

And if you haven't already done so, check out Brian's own blog: every day this week he has posted audio recordings of his previous Bradbury dramatisations - and very good they are, too.

BBC Bradbury

The BBC web pages for the forthcoming Ray Bradbury adaptations have started to appear. The page for The Illustrated Man by Brian Sibley is here!

My original blog post about the shows is here.

Exclusive: New BBC Radio Productions of Bradbury Stories

Next month, BBC Radio 4 launches a new week of science fiction drama, starting and ending with dramatisations of two of Ray Bradbury's most celebrated works.

On Saturday 14th June at 2.30pm, The Illustrated Man opens the series. This all-new production is written by award-winning radio dramatist Brian Sibley, whose previous works include the 1990s series Ray Bradbury's Tales of the Bizarre as well as the classic BBC Radio adaptations of Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast and The History of Titus Groan. Brian knew Ray personally, and tells me he is particularly pleased that the new production airs forty years to the week since he received Ray's first letter. (Brian is also a doodler, as you can see from this "Sibleytoon" of Ray.)

Of course, The Illustrated Man is not a novel, but a collection of short stories linked loosely together with the framing device of a tattooed man whose tattoos have a life of their own. As with previous adaptations, due to limitations of time it has been necessary to select which stories to adapt. Brian has chosen (in this order): 'Marionettes Inc', 'Zero Hour' and 'Kaleidoscope'  - and has managed to also include passing references to other stories in the collection, as well as the separately published short story 'The Illustrated Man'.

Studio recordings were completed last week, with Ian Glenn playing The Illustrated Man and Jamie Parker the Youth who meets him and hears his story. The drama is currently in post-production.

The broadcast launches a short season of dramas entitled 'Dangerous Visions' that runs for the week with a two-part classic serial (beginning on Sunday 15th June) of Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and five thematically-linked afternoon plays from Monday to Friday (details yet to be announced)

And to end the season: The Martian Chronicles will be aired on Saturday 21st June at 2.30pm. Unlike the in-house BBC production of The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles is an independent production created by B7, the team behind the radio adaptation of Blake's Seven. The dramatisation is by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle, produced by Patrick Chapman and directed by Andrew Mark Sewell. While I don't have full details on this production yet, early notes on the dramatisation suggest that the stories selected from Bradbury's book will include: '...And the Moon be Still as Bright', 'The Off Season', 'The Long Years' and 'The Million Year Picnic'.

These new productions, acting as bookends to such a major new series, promise to add to the already impressive BBC Radio track record for Bradbury productions (as you can see from my Bradbury radio list). Radio 4 streams live on the web, and can be accessed from anywhere in the world - and their shows usually remain online for catch-up listening for seven days after broadcast. The Radio 4 web page is here.

Bradbury News

Earlier this week, The Guardian reported that Ray Bradbury's books are finally to be released as e-books in the UK. No big deal, you might think - except that Bradbury was famously opposed to his works being made available in this form right up until his final year on this planet. I don't believe there was any great earth-shattering moment when he "caved in", or when he had some great epiphany; I think it was just a case of the new contract arriving, and the continued publication of the print editions of his works would be conditional on e-book rights also being made available to his publisher.

The Guardian faithfully reported this story, but slipped in a new piece of information which to me is much more significant. It appears that Dark Carnival is among the books which will be made available as an e-book.

Dark Carnival. Bradbury's first book. Not science fiction, but dark fantasy and horror. The book that he refused to be re-issued, on the grounds that he had re-written (improved?) all of its constituent short stories, which continued to be available in the collection The October Country.

Dark Carnival has only ever been available in three editions: the US hardcover, out of print since the 1940s; the UK hardcover, also out of print since that decade; and a limited edition re-issue from Gauntlett Press (2001), also long out of print.

At the moment, any copy of Dark Carnival is likely to set you back at least £600 (900 USD). The first edition typically goes for 2000USD.

So issuing Dark Carnival as an e-book is a very big deal. (Assuming, of course, that they use the original text from Dark Carnival. If they instead cobble the contents together from the text in The October Country, thinking that the stories are identical, they will be making a big mistake.)

Is there much of a difference between the stories in Dark Carnival and the re-written versions in The October Country? In some cases, not so much. But in other cases the stories are somewhat transformed. In general, the earlier versions of the stories are darker and a bit more raw; the re-writes are a bit more poetic, but sometimes read like a more "respectable" Bradbury has gone back and tidied up the work of his earlier self. This isn't far from what actually happened, as Dark Carnival came out when Bradbury was known only from stories in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, but The October Country was assembled when he had gone up in the world and was appearing in slick, upmarket magazines.



Speaking of Dark Carnival, BBC Radio 4 Extra this week broadcast a dramatisation of one of the stories from that book. "The Emissary" is a thirty-minute drama broadcast in the Haunted strand. Although marked on the BBC website as a "Radio 4 Extra debut", the closing credits of the show place it as a BBC World Service production, so it is probably not new... but I haven't been able to work out when it was made. Oddly, the late Percy Edwards is credited with playing the dog in the story, but he died a long time ago. Either it's a much older recording than it appears, or Percy is being played in as a sound effect!

"The Emissary" is still available right now for listening online, but it won't stay there forever. Get it while you can.

Birthday Special

I imagine that Bradbury's birthday (22 August) will be a natural focal point for the celebration of the author's life, and I hear various rumours of planned activities for that day. I'm not in the business of publishing rumours, though, so I will only post confirmed and actual events. Here's one:

At 7pm PST on 22 August, California Stage will be presenting a live performance of a 1954 radio play version of "Mars is Heaven!" This is taking place in Sacramento, California. If, like me, you live in a whole 'nother continent, you may prefer to listen to a live audio stream of the show. Full details are here.

I'm not entirely sure which version of "Mars is Heaven!" will be performed, as according to my records there was no 1954 radio version of the story. My guess is that they will use the 1950/1955 Ernest Kinoy script from Dimension X and X Minus One, since this is readily available online. On the other hand, there might be a Bradbury-scripted adaptation from that time which was never broadcast. If I find out, I'll let you know.

Happy Listening

There's a lot of Bradbury audio material freely available out there, especially radio drama adaptations from the 1950s. Many of these are of a dubious copyright status: series such as Dimension X are generally regarded as being in the public domain in the US simply because of their age and lack of copyright renewal at the appropriate time; but in most cases the underlying Bradbury short story is still in copyright and will remain so for many years.

My own audio listings give details on all the known productions, and in some cases I have provided links to Archive.org and other places where the shows can be heard. However, I'm not too diligent lately in keeping these links up to date, so don't be surprised if some of these are broken.

Another convenient resource is this little collection of embedded links from Sci-Fi-London. If you have nothing better to do this festive season, why not just click, sit back, and listen.

The Wonder Of It All

There's an excellent blog out there called Thrilling Wonder Stories. In September it carried a review of Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope", as adapted for the 1950s radio series Dimension X by George Lefferts. It also includes the episode for you to listen to.

In many ways, "Kaleidoscope" is an ideal piece for radio drama, as its impact can be carried largely through the use of voice and the odd sound effect. The story involves astronauts who become physically isolated from other, and the sense of isolation can work well on radio... which is perhaps why "Kaleidoscope" has been adaptedly repeatedly for the medium. Check out my log of Bradbury radio adaptations and see how often it appears.

EXCLUSIVE: The Martian Chronicles from Colonial

On June 7th, Colonial Radio Theatre releases its latest Ray Bradbury production: a full cast dramatisation of The Martian Chronicles. Colonial has a great track record of adapting Bradbury, with their award-winning productions of Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Halloween Tree. This one, though, is probably the most complex of them all: Bradbury's book is neither novel nor short-story collection, but something in between the two. This makes for some difficulty for the would-be adaptor, and it's a difficulty that has proven insuperable for Hollywood.

Colonial has one great advantage: radio is the theatre of the mind, and can create visions that Hollywood can only dream of.

I have had the privilege of a preview copy of the entire production, and so here is my review of this remarkable new adaptation.

Charles Binger - and a Colonial update

A California gallery is currently exhibiting work by the late Charles Binger, the first time in 45 years that his works have been on display. Binger was a British-born painter, and did some of his best work as cover art for paperback books in the 1950s and 1960s, including covers for books by Bradbury and Aldous Huxley.

On the left is his cover design for the first paperback edition of The Illustrated Man (Bantam, 1954).

For a selection of his science-fictional paperback covers, see this listing on the ISFDB website.

There is a biography of Binger here, and an online gallery of his works - with details of the physical exhibition - at the website of La Luz de Jesus, here.




According to Jerry Robbins' Facebook page, recordings are underway for Colonial Radio Theatre's production of The Martian Chronicles. This is the latest in a string of Bradbury productions from Colonial; previous dramatisations have been very good and picked up a few awards. I have my fingers crossed for this one, due for release later this year.

On the left is the poster/CD artwork - click on it to see full-size. You can follow developments at Colonial on Jerry's Colonial blog.

New Year, New Stuff

I haven't seen James Cameron's Avatar, and nor do I know much about it - or have much interest in it, for that matter. However, I have seen a few blogs where Cameron's inspirations are catalogued, including this one which sees a link with a couple of X Minus One radio shows, including Bradbury's "And The Moon Be Still As Bright".

Thanks to another blog, Chasing Ray, I have been alerted to a new graphic novel by Brian Fies called Whatever Happened To The World Of Tomorrow. It's full of iconography familiar from World's Fairs of the early twentieth century - the kind of Fairs that inspired the young Ray Bradbury. There is a detailed review of the book, with lots of images, on Forbidden Planet's site. Brian Fies is a blogger himself - you can find him here.

Bradbury's own recent connection to graphic novels, Tim Hamilton's adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, gets a mention in "New Books from Old" from Publisher's Weekly.

Exclusive: New Martian Chronicles Adaptation

In a world exclusive, I am pleased to reveal that Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is to be given its first complete full-cast audio production.

The Colonial Radio Theatre already has award-winning productions of Something Wicked, Dandelion Wine and The Halloween Tree under its belt, and is now set to embark on a full-length dramatisation of the Chronicles, from a new script by Jerry Robbins.

Jerry says, "I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be able to produce this iconic work. Ray is allowing me to adapt the script for the audio production from his book as I did with The Halloween Tree, and for this I am doubly honored!"

Two of Colonial's earlier productions were audio presentations of Bradbury's own stage plays. Bradbury does already have a stage play of The Martian Chronicles. In my view, though, it is one of Bradbury's weaker adaptations - largely because Bradbury has written a very synopsised, yet highly episodic, adaptation. Bradbury has also written a number of screenplay adaptations over the years, some of which will shortly be published by Subterranean Press.

I asked Jerry what running time he envisages for his new adaptation. His answer I find quite pleasing: "I plan on adapting the entire book, so I'm not sure on the running time yet. I hope to have the script finished mid-December for Ray to read through. At that time I should have a rough idea as to the length. I don't plan on an abridgment of content by any means. If we're going to do Martian Chronicles, we're going to DO Martian Chronicles."

I hope to bring more news on this production as it proceeds, but you can also keep informed on Colonial's work on the Colonial blog.

Breaking News - Bradbury Thirteen

Here's some great news: it's been brought to my attention that Bradbury Thirteen is available for download from Twilight Zone Radio.

This is one of the all-time best radio dramatisations of Bradbury stories. The full story of the series' creation is told on my Bradbury Thirteen page.