Mark Massari

creator
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s01e02)

The Playground


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.” —Michael Main
Ralph? The bully. When I was a kid, he used to wait for me on the corner every day.
William Shatner (as "the Papa") sits in a swing at night, looking on in horror
                at something nearby.
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s02e10)

Tyrannosaurus Rex


It’s hard to believe with a title like this, but just like Bradbury’s original “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” this adaptation for TV had no time travel. —Michael Main
My beauties. Not alive, but alive. Dead, but not dead. Clay and then liquid rubber. Yes, oh yes. I moved you and then frame by frame photographed you.
Cris Campion (as John Terwilliger) sits at his workbench building a T. rex
                model and eating peanuts.
  • Mainstream
  • No Time Phenomena
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e03)

The Lake


The TV adaptation of Bradbury’s “The Lake” focuses more on the adult man, who’s now thirty-something Doug, but the story structure and pathos of his lost childhood love remain intact. —Michael Main
If I finish it, will you come?
Exactly half of a large sand castle with a trail of footprints looping around
                it.
  • Science Fiction
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e06)

A Sound of Thunder


Bradbury himself wrote the teleplay for this first on-screen adaptation of his famous story, and somehow he managed to do it without the word “butterfly” appearing in the script (though we do see the critter at the end). —Michael Main
Travis: We might destroy a roach—or a flower, even—and destroy an important link in the species.

Eckles: So?
A gaping T rex shows its sharp teeth and red gums.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s04e06)

Touch of Petulance


A faithful adaptation of Bradbury’s 1980 story of a man who returns to his warn his younger self about the future course of his marriage. —Michael Main
We are one, the same person: Jonathan Hughes.
Sitting on a train, Eddie Albert (as old Jonathan Hughes) looks out over a
                newspaper.
  • Fantasy
  • Horror
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s04e08)

The Toynbee Convector


At the end of Bradbury’s adaptation of his own earlier story, he adds a holo-twist that viewers of The Ray Bradbury Theater may have enjoyed. —Michael Main
Stiles: For years I brooded on it. I was in complete despair, and then one night, I was rereading H. G. Wells and his wonderful time machine, and then it struck me. “Eureka!” I cried, “I’ve found it. This [pounds book in hand] is my blueprint.”
James Whitmore (as one-hundred-thirty-five-year-old Craig Bennett Stiles) sits
                in his Wellsian time machine with bright bluish light streaming through the high
                windows behind him.
  • Science Fiction
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s05e06)

The Utterly Perfect Murder


I felt that Bradbury’s adaptation of his own 1971 story lost its impact by turning young Doug’s childhood tortures into clichéd scenes—and still leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether there’s a moment of time travel. —Michael Main
Old Doug: Doug, Doug. . . . Come on out and play.
A black-and-white overhead photo of a young boy playing a grand piano.
  • Fantasy
  • Mainstream
  • Debatable Time Travel