@RUTGERS.ARPA:DAUL@OFFICE-2.ARPA (01/30/85)
From: William Daul - Augmentation Systems - McDnD <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA> The general announcement here is that The American Playhouse (PBS) is showing a sci-fi play this week. It is called Overdrawn At The Memory Bank. I thought I had once heard it was good. Most material that the American Playhouse performs is excellent (a personal value judgement on my part). The specific message is for SF Bay Area folks. It will be shown on KTEH channel 54 on tuesday, february 5th at 9:00 pm. I believe there is some other computer-related show that follows it...something on privacy(?) --Bi\\
render@uiucdcsb.UUCP (01/31/85)
{Don't laugh, Monkey boy!}
A few particulars about the story--it is adapted from a John Varley
short and stars Raul Julia in the leading role. From the promos it seems
to be very well done and very entertaining.
Hal Render
University of Illinois
{pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render
render@uiuc.csnet render@uiuc.arpawjr@utcs.UUCP (William Rucklidge) (01/31/85)
> From: William Daul - Augmentation Systems - McDnD <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA> > > The general announcement here is that The American Playhouse (PBS) is showing a > sci-fi play this week. It is called Overdrawn At The Memory Bank. I thought I > had once heard it was good. Most material that the American Playhouse performs > is excellent (a personal value judgement on my part). > > The specific message is for SF Bay Area folks. It will be shown on KTEH > channel 54 on tuesday, february 5th at 9:00 pm. I believe there is some other > computer-related show that follows it...something on privacy(?) > > --Bi\\ I saw this show a few months back when it was aired by TV Ontario. It was filmed in Toronto, I believe. However, the plot was hacked, mangled and slaughtered by whoever adapted the original story (by John Varley). They added a villain, a conspiracy and a romantic interest, none of which the story needed. Also, when the hero is trapped inside the computer, he falls into a recreation of ... Rick's Cafe Americain. That's right, the one from Casablanca, complete with Bogart and Lorre clones. This was the touch that soured the whole thing for me. I don't know about the rest of the American Playhouse productions, but this one is barely worth watching. -- William Rucklidge University of Toronto Computing Services {decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,{allegra,linus}!utzoo}!utcs!wjr GISO - Garbage In, Serendipity Out. This message brought to you with the aid of the Poslfit Committee.
msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/01/85)
William Daul writes: > ... The American Playhouse (PBS) is showing a > sci-fi play this week. It is called Overdrawn At The Memory Bank. I thought > I had once heard it was good. Most material that the American Playhouse > performs is excellent (a personal value judgement on my part). I expect this is the same TV-movie I saw on the CBC last year. It was a Canadian production. I'd read the short story (same title, can't remember the author or where I saw it) a year or two before that -- long enough to forget some detail. While I enjoyed the short story, I think the TV adapters must have tampered with the plot. The tycoon character had a large and illogical part, which I don't remember from the story; he must have been added or altered. And this made the thing rather nonsensical. However, if this major flaw is overlooked, it wasn't bad. Mark Brader, Toronto, Canada
wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) (02/02/85)
Re "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" -- is this based on the John Varley
story of the same name? If so, it will be interesting to see what they
make of it. (On your specific message: I don't get 54. Do you know if
9 or 32 will be showing it?)
Varley is fast becoming one of my favorite SF authors. At first, although
I would occasionally stumble across one of his shorter works and say to
myself, "hmmm, that's nice...", I somehow never got motivated enough to
go out and track down more stuff. Then, there came a time when I didn't
have anything really pressing, but there was this copy of \\Titan//
lying around. By the time I finished it, symptoms of addiction were
beginning to manifest themselves; by now, I believe I'm hooked for good.
I recently got a copy of \\Demon//. In my opinion, this series has
maintained its high quality throughout, and \\Demon// may even be the
best of the lot. I have seen very little discussion of either \\Demon//
or Varley in sf-lovers - is anybody else out there reading him? I am
somewhat surprised that his name didn't crop up in the "good female
characters" discussion which took place recently (or maybe it did -
I missed a fair chunk of that one); many of his important characters
are female.
It seems to me that there must be a sequel in store here. Although
there is not an overwhelming tangle of loose ends that would demand
another book to tie everything up (the Riverworld phenomenon), there
is too much going on in this universe for me to be content with things
as they are at the end of \\Demon//. The principal characters are by
no means played out, either. Does anybody else concur with this opinion?
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbill