Author Topic: ABC's Masters of Science Fiction (Read 8867 times)

ClintMemo · **on:** August 03, 2007, 12:52:18 PM

They took some short stories written by SF masters (Robert Heinlein, Harlan Ellison...) and turned them into tele-plays directed by some well-known directors starring well-known actors. On paper, it sounds like a sure-thing. I hope it's good.
It premiere's 8/3/2007 at 10:00 PM EST on ABC in the USA.

Here is a review from CNN
http://www.cnn.com:80/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/02/apontv.scifi.ap/index.html

Listener · **Reply #1 on:** August 03, 2007, 01:36:30 PM

I like the idea of the show. I'll Tivo it at the very least, hopefully not to be disappointed.

Homr Zodyssey · **Reply #2 on:** August 03, 2007, 02:57:15 PM

Tivo's online listing says it will be on 8/4/07, not 8/3/07.

ClintMemo · **Reply #3 on:** August 03, 2007, 03:00:19 PM

Quote from: Homr Zodyssey on August 03, 2007, 02:57:15 PM

Tivo's online listing says it will be on 8/4/07, not 8/3/07.

Sorry, I must have fat-fingered the date.
You're right. It starts on Saturday 8/4/07.

Listener · **Reply #4 on:** August 03, 2007, 03:33:13 PM

Quote from: Homr Zodyssey on August 03, 2007, 02:57:15 PM

Tivo's online listing says it will be on 8/4/07, not 8/3/07.

Yeah, and make sure you turn off debugging when you try to look at Tivo listings on the web... their page nearly crashed my browser... Firebug found 90 errors.

Leon Kensington · **Reply #5 on:** August 03, 2007, 03:58:22 PM

On season pass. I hope that this gets good enough ratings to warrant a second set of stories. We may even see one that has appeared on EP if it goes long enough. I know I'd love to see "Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush" as a 90 minite feature.

DKT · **Reply #6 on:** August 03, 2007, 04:21:20 PM

I hope this is good. When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be similiar to the Masters of Horror thing one of the cable channels runs, where they get high profile horror directors to direct new horror stories. This actually seems like the opposite, high profile stories instead. I think that's probably a good thing. I just hope they don't screw it up.

schark · **Reply #7 on:** August 04, 2007, 01:47:25 AM

There's actually quite a bit of talent involved in this show. The premiere episode features Judy Davis and Sam Waterston and was directed by the guy who directed "On Golden Pond". I'm most excited about the one with Brian Dennehy and John Hurt.

Unfortunately, this show is essentially dead in the water. There was an initial order of 6 episodes that was cut to 4, and it's been sitting on the shelf for close to a year, and now they dump it unceremoniously in the middle of summer on Saturday night at 10pm to no fanfare whatsoever. It was a fluke that I even heard about this program.

Bottom line, here's hoping for 4 enjoyable hours of well-acted, well-written and well-directed SF, but don't get too attached to the show.

ClintMemo · **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2007, 04:57:49 PM

Quote from: schark on August 04, 2007, 01:47:25 AM

Unfortunately, this show is essentially dead in the water. There was an initial order of 6 episodes that was cut to 4, and it's been sitting on the shelf for close to a year, and now they dump it unceremoniously in the middle of summer on Saturday night at 10pm to no fanfare whatsoever. It was a fluke that I even heard about this program.

It always surprises me when networks do this kind of thing. They would be better off selling all 6 episodes to the Sci-fi channel - you KNOW there would be an audience there.

Russell Nash · **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2007, 05:33:04 PM

For what it's worth they reviewed it yesterday on Fresh Air on NPR.

Clancey · **Reply #10 on:** August 05, 2007, 07:41:50 AM

I have been waiting for this since I first heard about it while I was googling "Jerry Was A Man." I sure hope they do a good job on that one - the third in the series. It's a story that has stuck with me for many many years. I remember being excited when Ray Bradbury did "Sound Of Thunder" on his show. It was another story I had read and that had stayed with me. Bradbury is such a great writer - his use of language is so good that I enjoy reading his books even when the concept doesn't resonate with me. The movie Fahrenheit 451 was a wonderful adaptation of one of his stories. I also Loved Something Wicked This Way Comes in movie form. His own series just didn't do his stories justice and I was disappointed in SOT - and the Movie version....well, the less said, the better.

I enjoyed the first show - well done. Now I am really disappointed they aren't doing more of them.

Listener · **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2007, 04:15:33 PM

Quote from: Russell Nash on August 04, 2007, 05:33:04 PM

For what it's worth they reviewed it yesterday on Fresh Air on NPR.

Yeah, but who listens to NPR?

Listener · **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2007, 04:16:53 PM

I don't know that "A Clean Escape" was the best story to begin with. It started very slowly, and even my wife and I, who are SF fans, couldn't really get into it. Plus Sam Waterston didn't really get good until the last couple of segments.

Unfortunately really good SF sometimes needs to reveal things slowly, and TV audiences by and large aren't smart enough or don't have long enough attention spans for that. Shame.

Really, it's just The Outer Limits with Stephen Hawking instead of Batman (Kevin Conroy).

Russell Nash · **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2007, 11:19:00 AM

Quote from: Listener on August 08, 2007, 04:15:33 PM

Quote from: Russell Nash on August 04, 2007, 05:33:04 PM
For what it's worth they reviewed it yesterday on Fresh Air on NPR.

Yeah, but who listens to NPR?

Enough people listen to NPR that the major comercial networks threatened to boycott the Armatron (sp?) ratings service if they included non-comercial public radio. They were afraid the advertisers would run to underwrite NPR (and such) rather then advertise on Clear Channel (and such).

ClintMemo · **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2007, 12:02:53 PM

Quote from: Listener on August 08, 2007, 04:15:33 PM

Quote from: Russell Nash on August 04, 2007, 05:33:04 PM
For what it's worth they reviewed it yesterday on Fresh Air on NPR.

Yeah, but who listens to NPR?

A year and a half ago, the cd player in my car broke. I replaced it with an MP3 CD player, but I was unable to hookup the antennae for lack of an adapter - so no radio. I quickly realized that I didn't miss radio at all - except for NPR. In my town, music on the radio is the pits. At least it was five years ago when I stopped listening to it.

Russell Nash · **Reply #15 on:** August 09, 2007, 12:09:52 PM

Quote from: ClintMemo on August 09, 2007, 12:02:53 PM

Quote from: Listener on August 08, 2007, 04:15:33 PM
Quote from: Russell Nash on August 04, 2007, 05:33:04 PM
For what it's worth they reviewed it yesterday on Fresh Air on NPR.

Yeah, but who listens to NPR?

A year and a half ago, the cd player in my car broke. I replaced it with an MP3 CD player, but I was unable to hookup the antennae for lack of an adapter - so no radio. I quickly realized that I didn't miss radio at all - except for NPR. In my town, music on the radio is the pits. At least it was five years ago when I stopped listening to it.

Have you tried their podcasts yet? All their best stuff is available.

Drabbler · **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2008, 04:39:55 AM

Has anyone seen this show on ABC?

Some really great stuff. And great to see scifi on primtime. I love that they have Stephen Hawking hosting.
Masters of Horror is great too.

oddpod · **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2008, 09:02:24 AM

i have sean 1 or 2 , thare good

Russell Nash · **Reply #18 on:** March 15, 2008, 09:09:18 AM

Moderator: Merged the two threads about this show.

Drabbler · **Reply #19 on:** March 16, 2008, 07:27:28 AM

Ahh, I was sure I must have missed a thread on this. Still, I'm very surprised to see this show and all of its episodes not being discussed at length in these forums. When ABC throws this much money and attention at a sci-f- AND horror series, and does as good a job as they are doing, I think it deserves as much attention and promotion as we can muster.