The Ray Bradbury Theater

Overview

Every one of the 65 episodes was penned by Ray Bradbury himself, drawing from his own short stories and novels. Among the works adapted were "A Sound of Thunder", "Marionettes, Inc.", "Banshee", "The Playground", "Mars is Heaven", "Usher II", "The Jar", "The Long Rain", "The Veldt", "The Small Assassin", "The Pedestrian", "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl", "Here There Be Tygers", "The Toynbee Convector", and "Sun and Shadow". While most episodes stuck to a single Bradbury story, he sometimes wove in pieces from other writings. For example, "Marionettes, Inc." brought in Fantoccini, a figure from "I Sing the Body Electric!", and "Gotcha!" used an opening sequence borrowed from "The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair". To stretch the material to a 23–28 minute runtime or make it work better on TV, characters got new names and extra details were added. Each episode kicked off with Bradbury in his office, looking over personal keepsakes, which he says in a voiceover spark his story ideas. In the first season, he occasionally popped up on screen in short introductory scenes. By the second season, he simply narrated the opening without any special remarks about the episode. The third season used a shortened version of that narration, and Bradbury would toss in comments specific to the story. From the fourth season onward, a slightly briefer, generic narration was used, with no extra comments.