This "play" sports one of the finest moments of acting, when a young Rip Torn plays a renegade android. The role humanizes the android, just as Shakespeare's words humanize Hamlet. The action takes place in a society that lives on the backs of a slave class of androids that are so humanoid that an "A" must be branded on their foreheads to tell them apart from real humans. One android becomes aware and has a psychological breakdown in which he is violent. The android runs to his creator's home for asylum where he meets the researcher's empathetic daughter (played by a young Suzanne Pleshette). The "A" is removed from his forehead, but can he really pass for human? (The climax of the story occurs when the daughter's finance attempts to rat-out the android and then he and the android get into a fight.) The dialog attempts to illuminate the question: What is it that makes us human?
5 Reviews
Unforgettable show
carflo1 October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I was about 13 when I saw this episode of "Sunday Showcase" and I never forgot it. I remembered the title, the plot and the fact that Rip Torn played the android. I remembered it so well that I was able to answer a long standing question on the "I Need to Know" board about a show with an android with a A on his forehead. That's a lot to remember after 45+ years. It was very very good. It made me think about what it means to be human, not a very common subject when you are 13. It was one of the first (along with Twilight Zone which started the same year) to use sci fi or fantasy to explore the ethical, moral, religious or philosophical problems that haunt mankind. Besides The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits always and Star Trek often did the same thing. Sci fi in both movies and books is the perfect medium for exploring these themes without the preachiness of some based on reality stories. If you ever get a chance to see it, please do. You may find it as good as I did.
Based on Bester's Original Story
Ramjet23 August 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I also saw the original teleplay (as it was called in those days) and it was definitely based on "Fondly Fahrenheit" and follows the story fairly closely. Amazing to think that Bester was writing about transference in 1954. I believe this (the story) is the first fictional treatment of transference, at least from the point of view of those affected by it.
Bester's most-famous work was the novel "The Stars My Destination," whose protagonist suffered from intermittent bouts of synesthesia, which is again a first as far as I can tell. A number of attempts have been made to turn this into a movie and I remember seeing at least three different scripts, but it was a difficult challenge. As of this writing, no one has gone beyond the development stage, as far as I know.
Bester's most-famous work was the novel "The Stars My Destination," whose protagonist suffered from intermittent bouts of synesthesia, which is again a first as far as I can tell. A number of attempts have been made to turn this into a movie and I remember seeing at least three different scripts, but it was a difficult challenge. As of this writing, no one has gone beyond the development stage, as far as I know.
If this is what I think it is...
mpvorkosigan11 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
...it's an adaptation by Alfie Bester of his short story "Fondly Fahrenheit", where a plantation owner, James Vandeleur, has an android that keeps going berserk and killing people. The android's psychosis is triggered by the heat rising above a certain point, at which stage the andy starts getting twitchy. The punchline is that Vandaleur himself is the psycho, and the andy is acting out the suppressed mania of his owner. Bester based this story on an account of a slave owner prior to the Civil War who refused to surrender a murderous slave because the man was too valuable. In this story, Vandaleur sells his property and moves because the andy costs too much to part with. And, as with all of Bester's tales, there's a nifty little twist at the end...
I think it's a different story, mpvorkosigan
jiw229 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Or at least, the screenplay may have been a heavily-rewritten version of the story you cite.
It's been a *very* long time since I saw "Murder and the Android" on live TV, but here's how I remember it:
In a near-future society, androids that are essentially indistinguishable from human beings are maintained as a sort of slave class. It's illegal for androids to pose as humans or to act independently of their owners. One owner -- a scientist of some sort, I think -- has created an android that is a physical clone of himself.
The scientist is brutal and sadistic, and torments his wife mercilessly. At this point, my memories are less clear, but I think he may have committed a murder and planned on pinning it on his android clone.
There's a car chase as the scientist, his wife and his android would-be fall guy run from the police, with the scientist at the wheel. The android, outraged that the man would not only try to get away with murder but possibly harm his wife in the process, commits the forbidden act of attacking his owner. The car swerves off the road and rolls over.
In the last scene, the cops are getting a statement while medics haul the dead driver from the wreck. The man and his wife stand together, and when the cop asks him if the android in the car was killed, the two of them look at each other. Then the man says "Yes. The android is dead." We understand that it was actually the scientist who was killed in the crash, and the android will now take his place, with the wife's grateful participation.
Assuming that I'm remembering the details correctly (I don't think this show is available on DVD anywhere), it was one of the heavy-handed, preachy "socially-conscious statements" on the evils of racism that were so popular at the time. Even as an eleven-year-old kid I was unimpressed.
It's been a *very* long time since I saw "Murder and the Android" on live TV, but here's how I remember it:
In a near-future society, androids that are essentially indistinguishable from human beings are maintained as a sort of slave class. It's illegal for androids to pose as humans or to act independently of their owners. One owner -- a scientist of some sort, I think -- has created an android that is a physical clone of himself.
The scientist is brutal and sadistic, and torments his wife mercilessly. At this point, my memories are less clear, but I think he may have committed a murder and planned on pinning it on his android clone.
There's a car chase as the scientist, his wife and his android would-be fall guy run from the police, with the scientist at the wheel. The android, outraged that the man would not only try to get away with murder but possibly harm his wife in the process, commits the forbidden act of attacking his owner. The car swerves off the road and rolls over.
In the last scene, the cops are getting a statement while medics haul the dead driver from the wreck. The man and his wife stand together, and when the cop asks him if the android in the car was killed, the two of them look at each other. Then the man says "Yes. The android is dead." We understand that it was actually the scientist who was killed in the crash, and the android will now take his place, with the wife's grateful participation.
Assuming that I'm remembering the details correctly (I don't think this show is available on DVD anywhere), it was one of the heavy-handed, preachy "socially-conscious statements" on the evils of racism that were so popular at the time. Even as an eleven-year-old kid I was unimpressed.
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