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"Marionettes, Inc." is a short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, originally published in Startling Stories (March 1949) and later reprinted in his collection of short stories The Illustrated Man . In the story, Bradbury conjures a conflict between man and machine and depicts the human dependence on technology, a common theme for Bradbury's stories.
In 1990, friends Braling and Smith take a walk one evening, much to the surprise of the latter, as Braling's wife generally tries to keep him from doing things he enjoys. Braling reveals to Smith that he has been using a robot duplicate of himself, Braling Two, to fulfill his obligations as a husband while he pursues his personal interests. His wife is completely unaware of the duplication. He plans to visit Rio de Janeiro for a month while his robot covers for him at home.
Smith, fascinated by this new (and technically illegal) technology, considers buying a duplicate to deal with his own wife, Nettie, who in the last month has been overly affectionate. Braling gives him a contact card for Marionettes, Inc. Smith goes home and finds his wife sleeping. He briefly wrestles with the ethics of deceiving his wife before getting out his bankbook to set aside the $8,000 he would need to purchase the duplicate. To his surprise, Smith finds that $10,000 is missing from their account. He checks the sleeping Nettie and realizes that she herself is a robot duplicate of his wife.
When Braling tries to return home and hide Braling Two, the robot resists him, expressing a love for his wife. Realizing that the duplicate is trying to replace him, Braling panics, only to be locked in a box by Braling Two. The story ends ambiguously in the Bralings' bedroom with "someone", presumably Braling Two, kissing Mrs. Braling affectionately.
The short story was adapted for the radio programs Dimension X on August 30, 1951, and X Minus One on December 21, 1955, and for television as a fourth-season episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (titled "Design for Loving") and a first-season episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater (under the original title).[ citation needed ]
In the 1966 Televisión Española's anthology Historias para no dormir , Chicho Ibáñez Serrador adapted the short story in the Season 1 episode El doble (The double). This version makes clear that the robot duplicates dispose of their human "originals" in order to replace them. Rodrigo Sorogoyen worked on a modern version for Amazon Prime Video and Televisión Española for the 2021 reboot of the series. [1] Who survives is left unclear in this version.
The story has most recently been adapted on BBC Radio 4 as part of The Illustrated Man production on the Dangerous Visions series, broadcast on June 14, 2014, and starring Iain Glen as "The Illustrated Man".
Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
The Martian Chronicles is a science fiction fix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writer Ray Bradbury that chronicles the exploration and settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth that is eventually devastated by nuclear war.
The Illustrated Man is a 1951 collection of 18 science fiction short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. A recurring theme throughout the stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952.
Fredric Brown was an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He is known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the "short short" form—stories of one to three pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well. One of his stories, "Arena", was adapted to a 1967 episode of the American television series Star Trek.
Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Saber Marionette is a Japanese series created by Satoru Akahori featuring android girls. It has been produced in the form of anime, manga, and light novels.
X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium.
Green Shadows, White Whale is a 1992 novel by Ray Bradbury. It gives a fictionalized account of his journey to Ireland in 1953-1954 to write a screen adaptation of the novel Moby-Dick with director John Huston. Bradbury has said he wrote it after reading actress Katharine Hepburn's account of filming The African Queen with Huston in Africa. The title itself is a play on Peter Viertel's novel White Hunter, Black Heart, which is also about Huston.
The Heart of a Goof is a collection of nine short stories by English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on April 15, 1926, by Herbert Jenkins, and in the United States on March 4, 1927, by George H. Doran, New York, under the title Divots. The stories were originally published in magazines between 1921 and 1926.
"Demon with a Glass Hand" is an episode of the American television series The Outer Limits, the second to be based on a script by Harlan Ellison, which Ellison wrote specifically with actor Robert Culp in mind for the lead role. It originally aired on October 17, 1964, and was the fifth episode of the second season. In 2009, TV Guide ranked "Demon with a Glass Hand" #73 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" is a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury written as a chronicle about a lone house that stands intact in a California city that has otherwise been obliterated by a nuclear bomb, and then is destroyed in a fire caused by a windstorm. The title is from a 1918 poem of the same name by Sara Teasdale that was published during World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. The story was first published in 1950 in two different versions in two separate publications, a one-page short story in Collier's magazine and a chapter of the fix-up novel The Martian Chronicles.
The Ray Bradbury Theatre is an anthology series that ran for three seasons on First Choice Superchannel in Canada and HBO in the United States from 1985 to 1986, and then on USA Network, running for four additional seasons from 1988 to 1992; episodes aired on the Global Television Network in Canada from 1991 to 1994. It was shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel and later on the Retro Television Network. It currently airs on Comet and can be streamed on IMDb TV, Peacock, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.
A marionette is a type of puppet moved by strings.
The following is a list of works by Ray Bradbury.
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, also known as Chicho Ibáñez Serrador or by the pen name Luis Peñafiel, was a Spanish television, film and theater director, actor and screenwriter. He received many accolades throughout his career including the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Spanish Television Academy in 2002, the National Television Award presented by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in 2010 and the Honorary Goya Award presented by the Spanish Film Academy in 2018.
"Banshee" is an autobiographical short story written by Ray Bradbury in the September 1984 issue of Gallery and later adapted by Bradbury as an episode of Ray Bradbury Theater. The story is based on Bradbury's experiences with John Huston during pre-production of their film Moby Dick, directed by Huston and adapted into a screenplay by Bradbury from Herman Melville's novel.
"The Rocket" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury. It is also included in The Illustrated Man, a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury.
Historias para no dormir is a Spanish horror anthology television series written and directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, produced by Televisión Española and broadcast on its flagship Primera Cadena network from 1966 to 1982.
Stories to Stay Awake is a Spanish horror anthology television series consisting of a reboot of the series of the same name created by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and broadcast on TVE from 1966 to 1982. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on 5 November 2021 and it is slated to air on RTVE in the future. The four parts are directed by Rodrigo Cortés, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Paco Plaza and Paula Ortiz.
Come into My Cellar, alternatively titled Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!, is a science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury. It was originally published in Galaxy Magazine in October 1962, and was subsequently included in the short-story collection S is for Space.
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