Running an hour and 36 minutes - this unsold pilot was presumable going to run 2 hours on network TV with commercials.
Although the biggest problem here is Harrison who is obviously reading from a teleprompter and is about as bland and uninteresting as one can get - the 3 short film segments that make up the bulk of the show are fairly good - albeit typically 70's "Movie of the Week" genre pieces with pacing that is a bit too slow. It's a shame that some of these never really saw the light of day in some other type of airing.
The first segment is based on Kurt Vonnegut's short story Epicac with Bill Bixby and Julie Sommars. The piece has lots of annoying beeps and boops to signify its about computers including in the music. In a stroke that is both racist and progressive, the computer programmer who is German in Vonnegut's story, is Asian in this. Also - while the computer communicates with written code in the story, Bixby's character pushes a button called VOX that allows the machine to speak and then is able to have a conversation with it here. The computer is also linked to cameras - so he can "see" the female love interest and sort of spy on what happens. It is mentioned that it is supposedly set in 1979. In one scene, the characters go to a club where everyone wears headphones - sort of presupposing silent discos which is interesting. Bixby calls the computer "Ep" rather than the full name Epicac. And leaving the plot from the novel behind a bit, here, the protagonist confesses that the poetry is composed by the computer - but in this case - the female love interest does not believe him. The end does follow the original story closely.
Also in the episode is Daphne du Maurier's Kiss Me Again Stranger (with Leonard Nimoy). This is really an unusual story - and one that does not seem derivative or referenced often in later films. Nimoy has a hard time with his accent here - it comes and goes - in a story set after WWII about a RAF vet who meets a girl (Juliet Mills) that blames all flyers for her parents dying in a bombing whether German or not. She has killed some other vets and is going to kill Nimoy until his honest sweetness affects her and she kills someone else instead and gets caught. The piece ends with a scene in a police station that is quite nice and unlike anything else exactly where Nimoy's characters sweetness and kindness again directs the story to a lovely conclusion.
And the final story is the most humorous and clever of the 3. Based on W Somerset Maugham's The Fortunate Painter with Loren Greene, Agnes Moorehead and Alan Hale. This is an amusing and interesting story that does quite well in wrapping up the show in a more lighthearted mood. Moorehead is fantastic in her last role before her death. Another disappointment that comes with this short film never really being seen. She's as good as anything else she's ever been in - and quite funny. Greene is surprisingly good as a Frenchman. The ending is a bit of a surprise - and makes you reconsider all the has happened before. And it is surprising again that this story has not been more oft told. It's very good and done very well here. It's too bad these short films aren't more well know. This is definitely worth a watch if you can find it - just skip the pointless Harrison intros.
Although the biggest problem here is Harrison who is obviously reading from a teleprompter and is about as bland and uninteresting as one can get - the 3 short film segments that make up the bulk of the show are fairly good - albeit typically 70's "Movie of the Week" genre pieces with pacing that is a bit too slow. It's a shame that some of these never really saw the light of day in some other type of airing.
The first segment is based on Kurt Vonnegut's short story Epicac with Bill Bixby and Julie Sommars. The piece has lots of annoying beeps and boops to signify its about computers including in the music. In a stroke that is both racist and progressive, the computer programmer who is German in Vonnegut's story, is Asian in this. Also - while the computer communicates with written code in the story, Bixby's character pushes a button called VOX that allows the machine to speak and then is able to have a conversation with it here. The computer is also linked to cameras - so he can "see" the female love interest and sort of spy on what happens. It is mentioned that it is supposedly set in 1979. In one scene, the characters go to a club where everyone wears headphones - sort of presupposing silent discos which is interesting. Bixby calls the computer "Ep" rather than the full name Epicac. And leaving the plot from the novel behind a bit, here, the protagonist confesses that the poetry is composed by the computer - but in this case - the female love interest does not believe him. The end does follow the original story closely.
Also in the episode is Daphne du Maurier's Kiss Me Again Stranger (with Leonard Nimoy). This is really an unusual story - and one that does not seem derivative or referenced often in later films. Nimoy has a hard time with his accent here - it comes and goes - in a story set after WWII about a RAF vet who meets a girl (Juliet Mills) that blames all flyers for her parents dying in a bombing whether German or not. She has killed some other vets and is going to kill Nimoy until his honest sweetness affects her and she kills someone else instead and gets caught. The piece ends with a scene in a police station that is quite nice and unlike anything else exactly where Nimoy's characters sweetness and kindness again directs the story to a lovely conclusion.
And the final story is the most humorous and clever of the 3. Based on W Somerset Maugham's The Fortunate Painter with Loren Greene, Agnes Moorehead and Alan Hale. This is an amusing and interesting story that does quite well in wrapping up the show in a more lighthearted mood. Moorehead is fantastic in her last role before her death. Another disappointment that comes with this short film never really being seen. She's as good as anything else she's ever been in - and quite funny. Greene is surprisingly good as a Frenchman. The ending is a bit of a surprise - and makes you reconsider all the has happened before. And it is surprising again that this story has not been more oft told. It's very good and done very well here. It's too bad these short films aren't more well know. This is definitely worth a watch if you can find it - just skip the pointless Harrison intros.
