Between Time and Timbuktu

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Between Time and Timbuktu
Timeimbuktu.JPG
Written by David Odell
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Directed byFred Barzyk
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producer David Loxton
EditorDick Bartlett
Running time90 minutes
Original release
ReleaseMarch 13, 1972 (1972-03-13)

Between Time and Timbuktu is a television film directed by Fred Barzyk and based on a number of works by Kurt Vonnegut. [1] Produced by National Educational Television and WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, it was telecast March 13, 1972 as a NET Playhouse special. The television script was also published in book form in 1972, illustrated with photographs by Jill Krementz and stills from the production.

Contents

The first draft of the script was written by David Odell, with contributions from Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, and the film's director. Vonnegut himself served as an "advisor and contributor to the script." [1] The primary title refers to a collection of poetry written by one of the main characters in Vonnegut's second novel, The Sirens of Titan .

Plot

Stony Stevenson, a young poet living with his mother, receives notice on nation-wide TV that he has won the grand prize in the Blast-Off Space Food jingle contest. The prize is a trip on the Prometheus-5 rocket into the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum. TV reporter Walter Gesundheit and ex-astronaut Bud Williams, Jr. explain that Stevenson was chosen for this mission because it is believed that only a poet could find the words to describe the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, a type of time warp, which may hold the answer to all creation. Bud Williams, Jr. recalls that he had trouble describing Mars, comparing it to his driveway back home.

After traveling through space for six months, Astronaut Stevenson hits the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, his capsule explodes, and he is scattered through time and space. While the TV correspondents struggle to remember the immortal words spoken when man first stepped on the Moon, Stevenson pops in and out of a series of strange scenes (based on Vonnegut's novels and stories):

Cast

The televised production of the play starred William Hickey as Stony Stevenson. The rest of the cast included:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Vonnegut, Kurt (2020). Between Time and Timbuktu: Or, Prometheus-5, a Space Fantasy. United States: Random House.
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