Ray Bradbury’s first TV series acclaimed

Press, 24 February 1986, Page 13

Ray Bradbury’s first TV series acclaimed

By

JERRY BUCK

Associated Press Beverly Hills Ray Bradbury, one of America’s most popular and prolific storytellers, has never written for his own television series. He wrote for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Twilight Zone,” but he never created a show. Five of his books have been made into movies, and he has written screenplays for several films, including the 1956 version of “Moby Pick.”

“Once I was in a room full of smiling faces and I was ready to sign a contract,” he said. “Then I got to thinking that as soon as I signed they’d say, ‘No, you can’t do this and you can’t have that’. “So I excused myself, got into a cab and came to my office. I phoned them and said I couldn’t do it.” Another time an N.B.C. network executive told Bradbury he did not want anything "highfalutin.” Bradbury said he looked at the executive and said, “Highfalutin?” ..

“The man corrected himself and said he wanted something like Franz Kafka,” he recalled with delight. “I said 'Kafka. Now, that’s highfalutin.”

Bradbury allowed his book, “Martian Chronicles” to be adapted for television. Trashed for television is closer to what happened. Its ethereal stories were treated with a heavy

hand. The roles were miscast. The special effects were amateurish. The greatest sin, Bradbury believes, is that it was boring. But, fear not, Bradbury has reached the home screen in his own series in the United States. The “Ray Bradbury Theatre” made its first appearance on the Home Box Office cable television network last May. The series picked up three of cable television’s Ace Awards and made “Time” magazine’s 10 best list.

Each episode is adapted from a Bradbury short story. Don’t worry that he will run out of stories.

Bradbury, aged 66, has written a short story a week, or its equivalent while doing a book, since the age of 12.

Among those starring in the new shows are Peter O’Toole, Drew Barrymore and Jeff Goldblum.

The O’Toole show, “Banshee,” was inspired by Bradbury’s visit to the Irish home of the director, John Huston, to consult him on the screenplay for “Moby Dick.” O’Toole plays the director and Charles Martin Smith the young writer. Goldblum stars as a city dweller who quickly learns his dream of a rural paradise is not all that he expected. Miss Barrymore plays a 10-year-old girl whose warnings about a woman’s cries coming from underground are ignored by her parents. Bradbury works in the middle of Beverly Hills in an office that looks like it belongs to a kid with an unlimited supply of toys and treasures.

It’s filled with posters, stuffed animals, Buck Rogers ray guns, spaceships, robots of all sizes, dinosaurs, stacks of comic books, drawings, a Mickey Mouse telephone and a life-sized doll of Bullwinkle the Moose sitting in a chair.

After saying no to everyone else, why did he succumb to the offer from H. 8.0.?

“I was around the producers, Larry Wilcox and Mark Massari, and I got to know them and trust them,” he said.

“They are a buffer between me and the network. They are concerned

with quality. I started a year and a half ago and I insisted on writing all the scripts. I can blame only myself. I’m around when they edit the shows. I’m delighted with what they’ve done.” Bradbury said he learned early not to be swayed by money. “I found whenever I got a little money something happened to destroy my life,” he said. “I got $5OO from Colliers for a story and the next day broke up with my girl.

“In 1953 before I did Moby Dick I was making about SUSISO (SNZ279) a week from writing. My wife and I were living in a little tract house. I remember seeing Cinerama and having tears because I’d never been able to travel.”

“ ‘Moby Dick’ was the first time I made any money,” he said, but after that he turned down the screen offers and went back to writing stories and books. “You can make a lot of money writing movies, but nobody ever knows who wrote a movie. Can you tell me who wrote ‘Casablanca’? I decided to make my own way in books.”

Bradbury recently completed his first murder mystery, “Death is a Lonely Business,” and now is working on another one.

“I have always felt the murder mystery is a neglected form,” he said.