With Mother's Day, I knew early on which literary character (as seen on TV)
would grace the "ASOTV" showcase. But inspiration eluded me for a Father's Day
choice. I knew eventually I would think of a good example, but I never dreamt
that it would take the death of Ray Bradbury for me to find that
inspiration.....
PETER HATHAWAY
CREATED BY:
Ray Bradbury
PORTRAYED BY:
Barry Morse
AS SEEN IN:
'The Martian Chronicles'
TV STATUS:
Recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Alternate Toobworld
From Wikipedia:
Peter Hathaway is living retired on Mars with his wife Alice and daughter
Margarite, even though everyone else has departed. Hathaway is a mechanical
tinkerer, who has wired an abandoned town below their house to sound alive at
night with noise and phone calls.
One night, he sees a rocket in orbit, and puts
on a laser light show to signal the rocket. It turns out to be Father Stone and
Wilder, who have just returned from Earth. They land and have a reunion with
Hathaway, who is troubled by his heart. Undeterred, Hathaway brings the crew to
his house for breakfast. Wilder remarks that Hathaway's wife looks exactly as
she did many years ago when they got married, as he knows her real age and was
present at their wedding. Wilder goes off to check some headstones that he saw
earlier. He returns, pale, and says that the adults now before them died in July
2000.
Even though he worked on the script, Ray Bradbury wasn't too thrilled with
'The Martian Chronicles', calling it "boring". So when he got the chance to
play Rod Serling with his own anthology series, he set out to re-do several of
the stories. ("Mars Is Heaven", "And The Moon Be Still As Bright", "The
Martian", and this tale.......)
JOHN HATHAWAY
CREATED BY:
Ray Bradbury
PORTRAYED BY:
Robert Culp
AS SEEN IN:
'The Ray Bradbury Theater'
("The Long Years")
TV STATUS:
Recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Yet another alternate Toobworld
The more O'Bvious changes made by Bradbury begin with the father's name -
from Peter to John. And because he wasn't telling the whole story of "The
Martian Chronicles", characters like Ben Driscoll and Father Stone were
dropped. Also, Hathaway now has a son as well - Tom.
As I mentioned previously, because Mr. Bradbury stuck with his timeline in
which this story took place in the first decade of the new millennium, it had to
be placed in an alternate TV dimension, just as 'The Martian Chronicles' had to
be.
The ending on each story was different as well. Without a Ben Driscoll to
come in and replace Peter Hathaway as the paterfamilias, "The Long Years" came
up with a new solution which would give the Hathaway androids a reason to
continue. (As you'll see with the next post.)
BCnU!
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