Nevertheless, the process caused more strain in the Serling-Bradbury relationship. Houghton arranged to have most of the scenes reshot during February 1962, and this attempt proved much better. Uring October the first attempt to film the episode was not successful. But, as Jonathan Eller writes in his biography Ray Bradbury Unbound, the writer found both process and product unsatisfactory: The pair patched up their differences, but the relationship would not end well.Īfter preproduction problems snared another script, Bradbury substituted “I Sing the Body Electric!” Based on an unpublished story, “Electric” told the story of three children placed in the care of a robotic “grandmother” after their mother’s death. Not long after, Bradbury came to believe Serling had gone too far in appropriating others’ ideas and situations (his own in particular), a belief shared by a number of Serling’s other contributors. Bradbury’s first attempt, “Here There Be Tygers,” about a planet that turns explorers’ fantasies into reality, ran aground due to a need for expensive special effects. What he had done in print, Rod Serling brought to early television. The anthology series The Twilight Zone often worked a Bradburian side of the street and added a potent dose of the realism that had earned Serling accolades and Emmy Awards throughout the 1950s.įrom the start, Serling acknowledged the influence of Bradbury on the show, and naturally sought him out to contribute scripts.

Ray Bradbury had made his name fusing science fiction with an abiding concern for humanity.

I sing the body electric ray bradbury