This is our second Ray Bradbury story that questions the social effects of television (the first being The Veldt). Set in 2053, almost everyone stays indoors all night watching TV. Leonard Mead doesn’t. He enjoys going out for a long walk every evening. This is so unusual that he comes to the attention of police. Fortunately, Bradbury’s predictions about TV were wrong. Other than people binge watching streamed content when there are better things they could be doing, TV has proved to be relatively harmless. However, something far more dangerous may be replacing it: social networking on mobile devices!
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Video Version
This is an episode from Season 3 of the Ray Bradbury Theater TV series. It was first aired in August 1989, and includes a personal introduction by Bradbury himself. To create added suspense, the video places greater emphasis on the “Big Brother” aspects of the plot… including the addition of drones patrolling the night sky! A second character (Bob) is also included who accompanies Leonard on the fateful walk. This was presumably to provide a foil to help get Leonard’s ideas across. When I first watched the video I thought the actor who played Bob did a terrible job. However, I later realized that part of his role may have been to demonstrate how living a “TV Life” could ultimately turn you into an indecisive simpleton. Incidentally, this actor is a young David Stiers who later achieved fame playing Major Winchester in the television series M*A*S*H. Watch and enjoy!