ALL SCI-FI

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Playboy occasionally published sci-fi. Usually they were simplistic, such as this 1982 Ron Villani puzzle concept.


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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Custer]

"Date" the robot as in "assign a year to," rather than "invite out for a drink one evening" - that must have been confusing for Playboy readers...

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Oh, I don't know about that. There were several people I met at cons who would have dated a robot (and some apparently did).
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[John Thiel]

I don't know what caused Playboy to start publishing science fiction. When they did, it wasn't playboy any more. And the science fiction they used, well it seems like the authors weren't paying much attention to the traditions in what they were writing.

Alfred Bester took out a column in Rogue. The editor of that was Bill Hamling of Madge. I think that's where it all started, the crossover of some science fiction into entertainment magazines.
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How do you do, folks? I sure am glad to see y'alls.

[alltare]

Playboy published a short story by Asimov many years ago (sometime between 1970 and 1990. That's the best I can date it). It was about an autonomous robo-submarine that was introduced by the US (I think) as a defensive weapon during World War 3. It would respond in kind to any attack. Long after the war ended, it was still patrolling the seas, looking for enemies that no longer existed. Then alien invaders from space came, discovered the robosub, and attacked it, only to be defeated by it. A happy ending to a story that was pretty good.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I have never been able to find that issue, or the name of the story, but I'm sure it was by Asimov.

[Custer]

Playboy published enough sf to put together an anthology of the stories they had showcased:



The contents doesn't show Isaac Asimov (though he did write a tale called "Playboy and the Slime God" which was published in 1961 in Amazing), but there are a lot of big names there:

vii — Preface (The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy) — essay by Editors of Playboy
1 — The Fly — (1957) — novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)
40 — Blood Brother — (1961) — shortstory by Charles Beaumont
46 — Love, Incorporated — (1956) — shortstory by Robert Sheckley (variant of Pilgrimage to Earth)
61 — A Foot in the Door — (1960) — shortstory by Bruce Jay Friedman
75 — The Vacation — (1963) — shortstory by Ray Bradbury
84 — The Never Ending Penny — (1960) — novelette by Bernard Wolfe
101 — Bernie the Faust — (1963) — novelette by William Tenn
130 — A Man for the Moon — (1960) — shortstory by Leland Webb
140 — The Noise — (1959) — shortstory by Ken W. Purdy
155 — The Killer in the TV Set — (1961) — shortstory by Bruce Jay Friedman
166 — I Remember Babylon — (1960) — shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
179 — Word of Honor — (1958) — shortstory by Robert Bloch
187 — John Grant's Little Angel — (1964) — shortstory by Walt Grove
206 — The Fiend — (1964) — shortstory by Frederik Pohl
215 — Hard Bargain — (1958) — shortstory by Alan E. Nourse
221 — The Nail and the Oracle — (1965) — novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
244 — After — (1960) — shortstory by Henry Slesar
250 — December 28th — (1959) — shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas
254 — Spy Story — (1955) — shortstory by Robert Sheckley (variant of Citizen in Space)
268 — Punch — (1961) — shortstory by Frederik Pohl
274 — The Crooked Man — (1955) — shortstory by Charles Beaumont
286 — Who Shall Dwell — (1962) — shortstory by H. C. Neal
293 — Double Take — (1965) — shortstory by Jack Finney
314 — Examination Day — (1958) — shortstory by Henry Slesar
320 — The Mission — (1964) — shortstory by Hugh Nissenson
338 — Waste Not, Want Not — (1959) — shortstory by John Atherton
343 — The Dot and Dash Bird — (1964) — shortstory by Bernard Wolfe
359 — The Sensible Man — (1959) — shortstory by Avram Davidson
365 — Souvenir — (1964) — shortstory by J. G. Ballard (variant of The Drowned Giant)
378 — Puppet Show — (1962) — shortstory by Fredric Brown
390 — The Room — (1961) — shortstory by Ray Russell
394 — Dial "F" for Frankenstein — (1965) — shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
403 — Index of Authors — essay by uncredited

I should perhaps mention for the less hardcore sf readers here that "Madge" was the nickname for the sf magazine Imagination, which ran from 1950 to 1958...