The Playground
- by Ray Bradbury, directed by William Fruet
- TV Episode
- Fantasy
- Adults
- Debatable Time Travel
- English
- “The Playground” by Ray Bradbury, directed by William Fruet (HBO, USA, 4 June 1985).
Charles visits his boyhood playground, at first on his own and then with his own son. There, he sees Ralph, the bully who tormented him, who’s still a boy and who still seems to be tormenting Charlie.
Perhaps Ralph was meant to be a ghost bully, perhaps the curly haired boy is young Charlie, perhaps Charlie switches bodies with his own son, or perhaps there’s time travel invovled. We doubt that even Captain Kirk could sort out all those perhapses in this TV version of Ray Bradbury’s story starring William Shatner. But clarity can be had if you read the original story, which takes about the same amount of time as watching the TV episode but shows the rich inner life of Charles Underwood and leaves no ambiguity about what’s up with “Ralph.”
Perhaps Ralph was meant to be a ghost bully, perhaps the curly haired boy is young Charlie, perhaps Charlie switches bodies with his own son, or perhaps there’s time travel invovled. We doubt that even Captain Kirk could sort out all those perhapses in this TV version of Ray Bradbury’s story starring William Shatner. But clarity can be had if you read the original story, which takes about the same amount of time as watching the TV episode but shows the rich inner life of Charles Underwood and leaves no ambiguity about what’s up with “Ralph.”
—Michael Main
Ralph? The bully. When I was a kid, he used to wait for me on the corner every day.
Tags
(5)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1940 to 1949: Presumed time of Charlie’s childhood.
- Circa AD 1970 to 1999: presumed time period, circa 1985.
- Time Travel Methods
- Themes
- Self-Visitation: The curly-haired boy may be young Charlie.
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- “The Playground” by Ray Bradbury, directed by William Fruet (HBO, USA, 4 June 1985).
Ray Bradbury (story)
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created by
Mark Massari (based on another source)
Previous Works
based on “The Playground” by Ray Bradbury