episode #100 - I Sing the Body Electric
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episode #100 - I Sing the Body Electric
Air Date: 5/18/62 written by Ray Bradbury, based on his story
Bradbury proposes a time (a future, one supposes) when companies can build and provide robotic grandmothers, usually for families which have lost a loved one. One particular family, a father (David White) and 3 kids, have recently lost the wife & mother. They note an ad in a Popular Mechanics magazine and head over to the 'store' to select a new grandma. The younger two kids are enthusiastic but the eldest daughter (Veronica Cartwright) is resentful; she wants no part of this. The newly-assembled grandma (Josephine Hutchinson) soon arrives at their home - she looks like any human woman but can perform some parlor tricks. The resentful daughter says that she hates this new member of the family - it's then revealed that she is actually resentful towards her dead mother, who she thinks lied to her by leaving her.
As mentioned by Serling in the climactic narration, this is a fable, not an extrapolation of where society is actually heading - there are no explanations for how these miraculous robots are created, robots which seem to feel and behave like humans. What the story sidesteps, despite Bradbury's poetic style, is the impact on families and humans by these indestructible, immortal robots. One of the most basic if harsh lessons of life is learning the concept of loss, usually the loss of family members; that's how the world works and that's how humans learn and grow. Such undying robotic grandmas would change all that - sons & daughters would no longer have to deal with such loss, and this seems unnatural to me. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/?pid=Uu_c6HnPFAkj_L5zCDTxM4kk4cMUZ8bF
Bradbury proposes a time (a future, one supposes) when companies can build and provide robotic grandmothers, usually for families which have lost a loved one. One particular family, a father (David White) and 3 kids, have recently lost the wife & mother. They note an ad in a Popular Mechanics magazine and head over to the 'store' to select a new grandma. The younger two kids are enthusiastic but the eldest daughter (Veronica Cartwright) is resentful; she wants no part of this. The newly-assembled grandma (Josephine Hutchinson) soon arrives at their home - she looks like any human woman but can perform some parlor tricks. The resentful daughter says that she hates this new member of the family - it's then revealed that she is actually resentful towards her dead mother, who she thinks lied to her by leaving her.
As mentioned by Serling in the climactic narration, this is a fable, not an extrapolation of where society is actually heading - there are no explanations for how these miraculous robots are created, robots which seem to feel and behave like humans. What the story sidesteps, despite Bradbury's poetic style, is the impact on families and humans by these indestructible, immortal robots. One of the most basic if harsh lessons of life is learning the concept of loss, usually the loss of family members; that's how the world works and that's how humans learn and grow. Such undying robotic grandmas would change all that - sons & daughters would no longer have to deal with such loss, and this seems unnatural to me. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/?pid=Uu_c6HnPFAkj_L5zCDTxM4kk4cMUZ8bF
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