ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Comedy sci-fi about an unusual TV which is delivered to the home of a philosophy professor (Hans Conried).

Conried learns that the apparently-normal TV can actually walk, talk, and manipulate objects with energy beams. The film's funniest lines go to Conried's friend (Billy Lynn), a dottering old football coach who theorizes that the television is actually a diabolical robot which "accidentally" came from the future. He suggests that the robot is just masquerading as an innocuous TV while it dutifully indoctrinates people into the dictatorial superstate which designed it.

At first the walking TV performs a variety of domestic chores such as washing dishes and lighting Conried's cigarettes.



But then it begins to take control of Conried's life, tampering directly with his brain, preventing him from delivering a lecture on human freedom to his college class. It even censors the books he reads.

Writer-director Arch Oboler genuinely hated television, but the film's anti-TV message is somewhat defeated by the unskilled comedy it attempts. United Artist waited a year and five months after the film's completion before releasing it.

The original story was first published in the September 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction by husband-and-wife team Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett) is markedly different from the film.

In the story, a factory worker from the future is accidentally projected back in time. The single-minded and highly trained individual finds himself in a factory which makes radios. Out of pure habit he builds a super-complex mechanism that appears to be a normal radio. After the worker is snatched back to the future, the innocent-looking radio is sold to an unsuspecting consumer whose life is changed by the mechanism.

Here's the original Astounding illustration by Orban.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

I saw this as a child, although I don't recall where or with whom. I lived in Oklahoma at the time of its release, and I do recall seeing Arch Oboler's previous film, Bwana Devil in 3-D. (Everybody ducked when the native threw his spear toward the camera.) My parents weren't taking me to sci-fi movies, but they may have decided from its promotional advertising that it was enough of a comedy to be "safe". (Movies were unrated back then.)

My vague memories of The Twonky stuck with me through to adulthood, so when I started acquiring nostalgic DVD titles, this was one of them. My matured assessment after all those years...

"I have no complaints."
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Gord Green]

I too recall seeing this as a child, but I always confused it with "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T", another Hans Conried film.

[Bud Brewster]

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In found a great online article about this movie and the story it's based on that site below. If even contains the text of the origianl story and a link to an audio version!

It's a real treat, and it will raise your appreciation for the movie and the short story.

"The Twonky" (1942) by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (Lewis Padgett)

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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~ A Question for the Members: What would it be like to suddenly possess a device from the future which — like the smart phones and Alexis-like devices we now have — was not only designed to serve us in hundreds of way, it would also want to control our lives to make sure we only did what as "in our best interests".

~ My Theory: We've seen this concept over the years, presented in literature, television, and movies!

These are A.I. systems in the form of robots or supercomputers which want to "do what's best" for certain individual or for mankind collectively.

Colossus: The Forbidden Project is a perfect example.

But the difference between those stories and our current reality — which is now saturated with helpful mechanisms we carry in our pockets and have in our homes — is that The Twonky is about a hi-tech device from a future society where the population has shamefully surrendered their personal freedom and fully accepted the dominant role of these well-meaning mechanisms!

I'd loved to see a story in which one-or-more present day characters are forced to deal with a mechanism from the future — one that is the logical extension of our current "helpful" devices — but which takes its duties so seriously that we, the humans, are like children who must accept the authority of these mechanical masters . . . for our own good!

This device would be a smart phone / computer / remote control etc which would force its owner to "do what is best for them", and avoid what is harmful!

In other words, the device would decide which activities the owner would do, which foods he would eat, which friends he would have, which entertainments he would enjoy — etc. etc. etc.

Admit it, guys! This seems to be exactly where we're headed.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]