For Sunday, 2 August, I’m thankful for The Ray Bradbury Theater.
About a year and a half ago I ordered a dvd set from somebody and they sent me this instead. I hadn’t watched it when it was coming out in the late-’80s and early-’90s. I checked the price of this item on the website to make sure neither of us was losing out; it was the same cost as the thing I had ordered, so I decided to keep it.
I’ve finally been watching them. I’m into the second disc now. It’s fun to settle into that time period of TV and take in all the streets and cars and houses. It’s a cool blast from the past that way. And each disc has a caveat at the beginning telling you the graininess and possible sound issues are because of the digital transfer from old media. The roughness really just adds to the experience.
The first dozen or so episodes have been a mix of strange, eerie and unsettling. The quality of the stories is consistently good so far and the productions are what you’d expect for a show of its kind with what looks like a pretty modest budget. That said, some of them have been international co-productions with New Zealand or France, set in Britain, Ireland or Paris, so they don’t seem to have been too strapped for cash.
One annoying thing about the set is that the episodes are not on the six discs in original airdate order. I wouldn’t have noticed except the openings of each episode, season to season, are different. After experiencing three or four different openings in as many episodes, I had to check the wiki linked above to find out what was going on. As the show is an anthology series, like Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone, and Tales From the Crypt — with each episode being entirely stand-alone — it’s not a problem continuity-wise; it’s just a minor bother.
I haven’t seen Messrs. Saxon or Shatner yet. Still a ways to go.
All in all, I recommend you check this show out.
