Between Time and Timbuktu

NASA decides to launch the first "ordinary" man into space, based on writing a winning jingle. Our astronaut gets more than he bargained for with a bizarre trip through space and time. For myself the most memorable parts include: 1) Bob and Ray's ongoing commentary and their attempts to remember Armstrong's "one great step..." line and 2) a future in which the government tries to make everybody equal by reducing them to the lowest common denominator of abilities. It's a real trip watching a ballet performed in which the dancers have to wear weights to make themselves clumsy.

I was mesmerized by this strange film back in 1972, and it lingered in my memories for years until I was finally able to view it a few months ago. The parts that I recall held up beautifully, especially Bob & Ray's work (which was largely ad-libbed). Some of the Vonnegut stories work, some don't: the "Handicapper General" piece is quite scary and all too real, as is the section about ethical suicide parlors. But in the end it's Elliot and Goulding (and Hickey) who save the day.

I still can't think about "ex-astronaut Bud Williams, Jr." telling his story about Tang without smiling. Wish they would release this on DVD (and another early NET special - America, Inc. with Jean Shepherd).

I saw this on Public Television When I was 17 and really enjoyed it. Although the special effects were a bit hokey, the screenplay was well written and the production was wonderfully cast. I would love to have a copy of this in my video collection but short of that would at least like to see it again. If anyone out there has the rights to this they would do us a great service by re-releasing it.

When I went to college in the early 1970s the leading contemporary American novelists who were popular were Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan. Brautigan's TROUT FISHING IN America was very popular, but his subsequent writings failed to maintain his popularity. Not so Vonnegut, whose string of successes lasted far longer. I read SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER, CAT'S CRADLE, THE SIRENS OF TITAN, MOTHER NIGHT, and the other books. So this particular television show really interested me.

It was like a selection of episodes from the various novels and short stories of Vonnegut, hosted (as news reporters) by Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding. Goulding is reprising the role of "Walter Gesundheit" he played in a movie a few years earlier. Eliott is playing an astronaut (like Wally Schirra, who frequently appeared with Walter Cronkite at space shots). They get bogged down trying to recall Neil Armstrong's first words upon the Moon surface. William Hickey played Stony Stevenson, the best friend of the hero in THE SIRENS OF TITAN. He is chosen to be the world's first time traveler, and we see him going from one place to another.

Hickey meets Dr. Hoenikker/Hurd Hatfield (creator of "Ice 9" - and an example of the short sightedness of government sponsored science), and Bokonon/Kevin McCarthy (the ultimately powerless religious leader) from CAT'S CRADLE. He meets Wanda June from Vonnegut's play. He sees the threat of puritanical-ism mixed with inane political correctness in the future when he crosses the path of one woman vigilante Diane Moon Gompers.

The show as an introduction to Vonnegut was very good. Parts of it were shot in Flushing Meadow Park, not far from my home. So I thoroughly enjoyed the program.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Fred Barzyk; Produced by David R. Loxton for WBGH for PBS broadcast. Screenplay by Barzyk, Loxton and David Odell, from the writings of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Photography by Boyd Estus; Edited by Dick Bartlett; Special Video Effects by David Atwood; Animation by Ron Finley and Gail Gutradt. Starring: William Hickey, Kevin McCarthy, Bob & Ray, Hurd Hatfield, Bruce Morrow, Dortha Duckworth, Charles White, John Peters, Jay Gainer, Jerry Gershman, John Devlin and Frank Comer.

Wackily inspired, blackly comic science fiction satire -not all the gags work but many are classic, for example, a poet/schlump astronaut winding up in Schenectady; a radical minister ticking off the ten commandments intercut with a space launch countdown; and a nifty suicide commercial.