Ray Bradbury and I Sing The Body Electric - Twilight-Tober Zone
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- čas přidán 6. 10. 2023
- "I Sing the Body Electric" was the only writing credit Ray Bradbury received for the series, but his shadow loomed large and his influence undeniably affected what we saw across this whole show. Join Walter as he discusses the 100th episode of The Twilight Zone.
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"I Sing the Body Electric" is episode 100 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The 1962 script was written by Ray Bradbury, and became the basis for his 1969 short story of the same name, itself named after an 1855 Walt Whitman poem. Although Bradbury contributed several scripts to The Twilight Zone, this was the only one produced.
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What did everyone think of the 100th episode of Twilight Zone?
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I liked it, as it was a simple, straightforward tale about an android nanny who loves and cares for her charges, until they're old enough to look after themselves.
I loved Ray Bradbury's works!
It is good! A straightforward story that makes me smile
A lot
I thought it was alright, but now that I know the behind the scenes stuff, that might sour it if I ever watch it again. I wonder what was on that cut out page.
Okay them never correcting “blaming mom for dying” thing throws me off a little, but I do think the ending is refreshingly wholesome and sweet.
One thing that always mildly infuriated me about the episode is the whole "I hate my mother for dying" thing. It wasn't treated like a misunderstood child's viewpoint, but a genuine fact that the mother was truly in the wrong for being...mortal. At no point did anyone in the story try to explain to the girl that her mother didn't *actually* abandon her. Even towards the end, we learn that the father resented his own mother for dying and STILL DOES.
It sorta proves right what Rod was saying about how things Bradbury writes may sound good in his head but weird when dramatized.
Not to mention, who, at least anyone raised in a loving family, doesn't still need their parent/person who raised them even after becoming an adult? My mother is 20 years dead and some days I just NEED her. (I am 58)
Even if people understand in a literal sense that their loved one died, emotionally, they can feel like that person abandoned them. My mom stated at one point that she felt like this; he died of cancer about five years ago but when she’s feeling vulnerable, she feels upset that my dad isn’t around to help her. She even used the phrasing ‘left me’. She very well understands that he didn’t choose to get cancer and didn’t want to die, but I think she sometimes feels upset because he *should* still be by her side; maybe he could have taken care of his health better (though since it was pancreatic cancer, I don’t think there’s a ton you can do to dodge that).
Yeah, it would've been better if the mother was negligent and disappeared from their lives. If Disney could handle that subject (Treasure Planet more specifically), I don't know why Twilight Zone couldn't have.
My father always adored Ray Bradbury. He read us his stories when my sister and I were just kids. It took my a while to truely appreciate his talent.
My dad was the same. This was the first story he read us
My dad dads grandpa loved the twilight zone especially this episode
The first book I remember reading by myself was my mom's copy of The Illustrated Martian Chronicles.
Which is a good one you remember him reading you? That sounds like a great idea. Sci fi really captures the imagination.
Well, you can't get more wholesome than this. "I Sing the Body Electric" may feel saccharine in its total lack of conflict, but it makes up with sincerity and relatability.
"I'll never die......... I'm just going to abandon you once you go to college."
Like NO ever needed an older, more experienced adult once they became an adult.
This episode was refreshing because it was a simple straight forward sci-fi story with no cautionary tale or anything like that
Agreed, it was a pleasant change, and it was nice to watch a robot nanny who loves and cares for her charges.
Yeah, I thought the twist was gonna be that the company was evil and was making female robots to be insanely beautiful and competent wives and mothers like _Stepford Wives_
I especially like the idea that her going back to the company to be disassembled is not framed as a bad thing. She has done her service and will be ready to do it again soon. A nice touch that she even gets to share her story with fellow robots.
@@rogue7723Even then that wouldn't be so bad as long as they aren't converting real women against their wills.
@@rogue7723or the daughter dies and the dad buys a new robot 🤖 😅daughter
For the curious, I found an article describing the scene that was on the page that was cut from the final version of the episode. It says this: "The scene in question concerns a moment in which George Rogers (David White) asks Josephine Hutchinson’s character: “Why are there electric grandmothers?” The brief exchange which followed was intended by Bradbury to illustrate the differences between being human and the approximation of human behavior. It lasted roughly a minute and was viewed as superfluous to the overall narrative. For Bradbury, this exchange between the father and the electric grandmother was the essence of his tale and its removal was unpardonable."
Very appropriate that a Ray Bradbury penned episode just so happens to coincidence with the 100th installment. This was a nice change from the more gloomy episodes, just a simple story about an android nanny who loves and raises her charges, until they're old enough to look after themselves.
It's funny because that ending time skip is what made the episode for me. You're right in that there seemed to be nowhere to go initially but I think the time skip just helps to reinforce the ideas of coping with the death of a loved one. Anne is upset that a robot is trying to replace her mother and will leave her just like her mother did but that's not the case. The time skip shows what the true intentions are. Grandma is there to be protectors for the children. She will watch over them as they take care of themselves and not worry about her because she's indestructible. Seeing them all grow up shows that Grandma did her job. Anne and her siblings were able to focus on their future and move on from the death of their mother. Grandma may have to leave one day but she proven that they can handle life again without her. It's that saccharine ending I definitely took away and why this episode became one of my favorites. Yeah, it may feel rushed but as a kid watching this when I did, the focus on the kids specifically was all I needed.
Plus I like nobody was villainized either. The father wasn't selfishly finding a replacement, Anne wasn't demonized for rejecting Grandma, Grandma wasn't evil for coming into their lives. Even the company was seen as a good thing and not a future dystopian replacement building. It's a great allegory for the loss of a family member and the ways others deal and can feel about it. Especially the ideal that bringing a new person into the family is not meant to be a replacement to the one they lost but a support to move on and continue living you life.
I'll definitely look into The Electric Grandmother for what's considered the better version, but this will still be one of my all time favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone.
this is one of my favourite episodes ever of the Twilight Zone, no monsters, no aliens. just love. a love story of the family, of a creation, who became a much-loved grandmother, until she left them, when they got older. you know that the love they all shared, will be passed on and that the children will tell their children of their grandmother, who wasn't human. but had a soul
It was "The Electric Grandmother" that introduced me to this, my favorite of all Bradbury's short stories. You're right on the money--that movie did the story a lot more justice. The longer runtime gave it room to develop instead of rushing through plot points at bullet-train speed...and it didn't lop off that wonderful coda where the three children, now elderly and widowed with their own children off leading their own lives, move back into the old house and send for Granny to look after them once more. (I'm guessing that was the page the Twilight Zone version omitted?)
ETA: I've just found out that the TZ episode actually predated the short story, but I still prefer the short story and its later adaptation.
Awww, what a beautiful ending!
If anything, the ending to the short story could’ve been the content of that final script page since they were both written by the same guy.
So if anything, The Electric Grandmother was truly Bradbury’s original vision finally brought to fruition.
That ending always brings a tear to my eye. My grandmother raised me when I was 5 and when she passed away when I was 21 this episode hit me the hardest. They don't deactivate her or shut her down. She goes away to make some other soul feel joy and love. The best ending through all of my favorite dimension
Ray Bradbury’s writing reads as poetry. A special talent.
I've been meaning to read more of his stuff. I'm so curious what scene got cut, that supposedly had the thesis of the whole story in it!
I met Veronica Cartwright at a convention and she said she enjoyed working on this and Rod Serling was very nice to her. She was definitely the best thing about this episode. This episode doesn’t really fit The Twilight Zone, even though it’s a great and emotional story.
Also there was a short lived series that was essentially "Ray Bradbury Presents" that definitely mirrors the Twilight Zone from the 80's I think. We had a DVD with the whole series and I enjoyed it.
Yes, The Ray Bradbury Theater! Some of the better ones were "The Crowd," about the same group of eerie spectating people always showing up at car crashes within seconds, and "The Playground" with William Shatner. The series came out in the mid 80s amid a sudden resurgence of anthology tv shows like Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Amazing Stories, Tales from the Darkside ... Bradbury Theater is worth tracking down for anyone into fantasy anthology shows from that era.
A lot of that were Ray's short stories.
Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite authors and writers! His books like "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "the Halloween Tree" and stories such as "The Dwarf", "The Whole Town sleeping" and "Next In Line" are always amazing to read and re-read and re-read! He was truly a master of the craft!
Bradbury's descriptions and writing style hammer home looming terrors and wonderland-like bliss that can be found in a wordless evening of simply looking at the trees blowing in the wind or the stars at night!
Bradbury would actually go on and narrate the animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree, which is pretty cool.
I loved The Halloween Tree!
Fahrenheit 451.
I love the history behind the writing of this show!
I have so many fond memories of The Electric Grandmother. Through the years I also thought back on it. And in recent years, I got the chance to see it again. One hell of a story that stuck with me. And now I find out it was a Ray Bradbury inspired movie… wow , it’s so cool. Watching this video I kept saying, it’s the same thing as TEG, and it was. Good stuff. Cool memories.
Same😊
This is a shockingly saccharine episode, much more than I expected. It also, like, doesn't really have a twist? I watched this with a friend of mine and we were trying to guess what would happen the whole time, but then nothing does!
I agree with you a little on that front. It took a little while to get going, and not much conflict really arose. But if you like your stories straightforward and sweet, then I can recommend this installment.
Yes, this Bradbury story just wasn't suited to Twilight Zone and was probably a better fit for something like Outer Limits. It's unfortunate because there are a ton of other Bradbury stories that would have worked well for TZ, like "A Sound of Thunder" for instance. But as this installment of Twilight Tober notes, those attempts at other stories failed and we wound up landing on this one, which makes not a terrible episode but not a very strong one either.
"And they all lived happily ever after" is actually a shocking twist for the Twilight Zone.
Being both a fan of the Twilight Zone and Ray Bradbury's writing, I'm saddened to know the struggles both had to agree on certain terms. I can only imagine what would've been if Bradbury had had more participation within the show
This Twilight-tober is just getting better and better guys! You rock! 🖤🖤🖤🧡🧡🧡
I love this The Twilight Zone episode!
The OG Twilight Zone was a really good series and man shame the reboot didnt made it far
Which TZ reboot? :-) I believe there have been three (1980s, early 2000s, 2010s).
I find the radio play of this episode to be a much better told and a more fleshed out telling of this story than the episode itself.
Ooh, a Twilight Zone radio play?
I've only read Fahrenheit 451 out of all of Bradbury's books, but it's still enough to make me respect his work and wish he and Rod Serling had ended things on better terms
That ending bit was fun callback
Truthfully anyone can get emotional during this mixed episode of The Twilight Zone. The most emotional being when the grandma gets hit by the van after saving Anne’s life: only to come back because as a robot she’s indestructible.
With today’s movie making tech there’s definitely a lot more that could be done with that concept!
A far more heartfelt and emotional episode to review is coming up soon: “Changing of the Guard!” I am really looking forward to what you guys think of that one!
I'm curious what that one page was that would have changed the entire story.
Real bittersweet finally coming to this episode. On the one hand, its cool to finally hear everything about the complicated relationship between Bradbury and TZ after so many allusions these past few years. On the other, its a stark reminder that we are in the final drive of this series.
The best part of October
The mother of Ray Bradbury
was Esther Moberg, a Swedish
immigrant from Smedjebacken,
the province of Dalarna .
Serling was correct in that Ray Bradbury is a very tricky writer to adapt, because he has such a unique writing style. It's telling that the best adaptations of Ray's work ("Something Wicked This Way Comes", "The Halloween Tree", "The Ray Bradbury Theater") were the ones he adapted himself.
I love Ray Bradbury, and "I Sing The Body Electric" is among my favorite short stories of his. The climax never fails to cause me to burst into tears.
I love that both Robbie the Robot, and the head created for a similar episode, still exists today.
It's a sad story of what happened between Rod and Ray. I have always admired both writers and enjoyed their works. I honestly wish some other Bradbury stories were made into TZ episodes. "The Velt" and "A Sound of Thunder" are not only great stories, but they already seem like Twilight Zone episodes.
They should've adapted A Sound of Thunder into an episode
There is so much that goes into the production of a show, let alone one episode. It is no surprise that they weren't able to utilize Ray Bradbury to his fullest, but it would have been something if he was a major player like it sounds he was supposed to be.
picking the body parts and then listening to voice samples reminds me of the process of making your characters in a modern RPG game.
this also seems to comment on a.i. and the personhood of the machines. at the end where they say she is going to be dismantled for part, but then her mind will be uploaded to share its knowledge with future a.i. minds and then the robot expresses a desire , hoping to become a "real" person someday.
it makes one wonder if that's even ethical to create stuff like this and we might be on the verge of it right now.
this reminds me of that Black Mirror episode where the woman brought back her dead husband's personality in a robot form.
I watched that electric grandmother movie on tv as a kid, and I did watch this episode of this twilight zone in reruns on syfy channel once because it reminded me of that electric grandmother movie I had seen as a kid, and I wanted to compare this to that movie in my mind🙂.
I adore The Electric Grandmother! I grew up watching it as often as I could in the 80s. It's such a sweet, yet somewhat off-putting movie. The scene where the daughter attempts to unplug her was creepy to little me. I should find that movie. I haven't seen it in so long.
Oh this will be interesting. The rocky relationship between Ray Bradbury and Rod Serling is the stuff of legends.
"Here There Be Tygers" would have been great if not for this one but one of the later versions to do. It has a great interplanetary exploration, a very imaginative planet, and a great environmentalist theme that if you take care of the Earth, it will take care of you. It's a shame none of the later versions picked it up but the 80's one did Bradbury's stories "Burning Man" and "The Elevator"and the 2019 one had "Six Degrees of Freedom" that while was not a Bradbury story paid tribute to him by naming the ship after him.
It's like a "torn between two lovers" situation when you greatly admire both figures and can see both sides in the disagreement. Ray Bradbury is one of ny favorite authors and Twilight Zone one of my favorite series. I guess just because people are great individually, it doesn't always mean that they can or should work together.
"I Sing the Body Electric" is a sweet more fantasy like story. I do miss the book ending though and understand Bradbury's discontent about it being removed. (The three children have grown, married and had children. In the end they are seniors and still have the tools to make Grandma live again and it leaves them wondering if she will come back.)
You could tell Veronica and Angela Cartwright (Brigitta in Sound of Music/Penny in Lost in Space) are sisters. They look a lot alike and voices and delivery are so similar.
"Robit" 😅😂 Never change, Walter, never change.
In the scene where Veronica Cartwright is standing on the stairs in the family living room, behind her lining the stairway wall are several paintings of birds. She was filming Hitchcock's "The Birds" around this time.
In the cast, David White, of course, who was "Larry Tate" on "Bewitched."
Doris Packer (here playing the aunt who questions the father's ability to raise the kids alone) who played the school principal, "Mrs. Rayburn", on "Leave It To Beaver" and made a very memorable appearance on "The Andy Griffith Show" in which she tangled with Ernest T. Bass.
And, of course, Veronica Cartwright, here playing "Anne", who played "Jemima" on "Daniel Boone" and later played "Lambert" in the film "Alien."
Also, Josephine Hutchinson as the robot Grandma, who played one of the "Baldwin Sisters" in the TV film "The Homecoming", which was the pilot for "The Waltons." (She didn't carry over her role to "The Waltons.")
I had the opportunity of meeting Veronica cartwright at a con and I didn't know she was in this until I saw one of her photos.
I never knew about any of this and it was a pleasure to learn about!
I just love Bradburys work and Serling was incredible. The Twilight Zone is my favorite series of all time. I love all the iterations, save for the 2000's one, which has its moments. I do wish Bradbury would have got another chance with Rod's iteration, though.
Really shows you that Darrin Stephens' boss was going through some heavy stuff at home.
Wow, had no idea Bradbury had a hand in this show! So cool.
I’m sad a page was cut as this is one of my favorite episodes
I have to say this is one of my favorite episodes, but I'm a sucker for a good eucatastrophe. After so many tales that didn't always end well for their characters, in this one, you really can say that they all, though bittersweetly, did live happily ever after. At least it seemed so to me.
I love it🎉
OH MY FREAKING GOD, THAT OLD LADY WAS THE LITTLE GIRL IN THIS?! I LITERLALLY JUST SAW THAT SHOW A MONTH AGO XD!!!
Awesome
as soon as you said the plot I recognized it as The Electric Grandmother (TV Movie 1982) which actually is based on this episode. check out that movie too if you get a chance.
I think I saw that movie when I was in grade school.
Do the Twilight Electric!
I love how Ray Bradbury began making accusations of plagiarism against The Twilight Zone, when this episode is almost exactly the same as a short story from I Robot.
For cryin' out loud! You mention the "missing pages" that Bradbury wrote--TWICE-- and how critical they were....and yet you don't even SAY what they were!!! What's up with that!!?? Why tantalize us with that and leave us hanging??
You know, I just had a thought: when Christmas rolls around, how about doing a review/retrospective of Serling's TV-movie Carol For Another Christmas? It could easily have been an episode of The Twilight Zone.
I got two books signed by Ray Bradbury!
As an answer to the Twilight Zone and Serling’s critique of Bradbury’s translation of writing to script, “Ray Bradbury Theater” proves many of his short stories work.
My brother's a big Ray Bradbury fan, we watch the Halloween tree every year. You got to see it it's really good animation and everything.
I think the point of the time jump was to show a juxtaposition between the daughters fear of death and the robots acceptance of her disassembley now that she's not needed anymore
I wonder what was in the cut page that Ray Bradbury considered so crucial...
This I haven't seen before
I wonder how it was supposed to end, what with the missing page being so important to the plot.
Love to see The Twilight Zone getting love! It's one of my favorite shows and I love all the cerebral stories Rod Serling and his team brought us. Thanks so much for making this video!
I remember watching the Electric Grandmother on Nickelodeon's Special Delivery. It was better since they had more time to develop the story including a better ending where the grandmother returns to take care of the children when they're old.
You could say things between them was getting
Heated? 😂
Robo granny’s run. Looks familiar.
Two different series might’ve used it featuring gynoids.
As for this something definitely off and since it had to be reshot and they didn’t have the father (Acording to John Rodgers of Jackie Chan Adventures and Leverage fame stated: That Characters have Actors attached to them. Sometimes you can’t get schedules to match (I hope it was accurate)).
And this one I really don’t think it’s impossible to get a Ray Bradbury script to screen. Just do like other great movies and shows have done: Have writers on set.
Anne is obviously meant to be older than Tom. In real life, the late Charles Herbert was one year older than Veronica Cartwright. Also, despite seemingly there being some bigger age difference between the kids, all three child actors were born in span of just three years - Herbert in 1948, Cartwright in 1949 and Dillaway in 1950.
“She will go back to the place where she either be stripped for parts, or given to another family.” Any one else a little freaked out by that?
I enjoyed this TZ episode.
You sing the body electric but I sing the mind electric
I wish that they would do that sort of thing for pets! That way, you would never face any heartbreak of losing a pet!
There are already robot pets
@@22especNot realistic ones.
You mentioned that a page got cut from the script that contained valuable context, but did not specify what that might be... unless I missed it? In any case, my narrative balls are downright Prussian right now.
It also a made for TV movie in the 80’s.
Yes, and the same with Stopover at Willoughby! It was a tv movie named “For All Time”, starring Mark Harmon.
The fact that all three now grown children are going away to college does not mean they are starting college at same time as it would not be possible due to age difference. It is most likely that Grandma stayed until the last child grew up and was leaving for college to join her siblings on the day they all said their goodbyes. Father's absence, however, was never explained. It is my opinion that he passed away in the meantime. I mean, if he was still around, I would think it would be the right thing to do to drive her back to where she came from as a way of saying thank you after so many years.
I have it on good authority that the grandmother robot is the same one who taught Steven Segal how to run. It's a small world.
From Twilight zone to Gorham knights, how the mighty have fallen.
I was banking on the twist being the eldest daughter was ALSO a robot from the company...she just never knew it...
Do you plan on doing the reboots if so looking forward to it 😀
5:12 the Twilight Zone's companion guide has a youtube channel?! 5:31 this was the 100th episode?
The link for Zicree's video gave me a 404 so I went rummaging on his channel but didn't find the video. I found a bunch of other stuff to watch though. I want to see why we didn't get Sulu show
THIS is the 100th episode?!
Twilight zone is always a win
I would like to know the contents of that missing page of script. What would it have changed? Hmmm....
Veronica Cartwright as Anne bears such an uncanny family resemblance to her younger sister Angela (from Lost in Space and "The Sound of Music"), I had to look up IMDb to make sure I had my Cartwrights right.
And yes, I remember seeing the 1982 Maureen Stapleton version first, in a series of NBC family specials--That one was a little heavier on the fantasy-schmaltz and lighter on the Bradbury, but did a better version with the story.
11:39 is that a boom mic in the top left?
*(scrolling through CZcams)*
*(sees a Lana Del Rey lyric leaping out at me on a Channel Awesome Twilight Zone video)*
wait, what
I sing the body electric
Boogie woogie woogie woogie
~_~
Holy cow. I never knew that girl was the woman from Alien. 🤯
Does anyone else remember that episode of Juniper Lee where shes in a rock band? I just thought the song she sang had weird lyrics.
What was in the page that was cut that was so important to the story?
Watch the long episode to find out
I wonder if Stephen King was involved in one of the episodes of The Twilight Zone.
ROW-BUTT!!
What if danny phantom was in ghost buster movies
Sup guys wonder whats next for next october and hopeing we get Batmay again but batman beyond!!
At end of last BatMay he said that this takes so much time and energy that he might not do new things... Thease are good so maybe he will get boost
I thought the twist reveal was going to be the two younger kids ended up re-creating their mom.
With maybe one or two things off.
When it comes to twilight zone episodes, it’s hard to tell which direction an episode is going to go, which is more or less a strong suit of the twilight zone but sometimes it makes it a little hard to tell if it’s going to stay or whimsical story, or go in a twisted way.
You are right about not knowing what direction each episode will go. In general, I really dislike any of the episodes where it’s revealed that what was going on was only in the character’s head… with the exception of A World of His Own.
What’s the music that plays out throughout this vid? I’ve heard it somewhere before.