Wednesday, October 22, 2014

31 Days of Suspense: "Kaleidoscope"

With 10 days of October remaining, I'm now counting down my top ten favourite episodes of Suspense! Let's visit #10!

Ray Bradbury was still a young author when he began writing for Suspense; the series not only adapted several of his popular stories for radio, but some of his stories appeared on Suspense before turning up in print (ie "Riabouchinska" & "The Screaming Woman")! Although Bradbury was adept at penning mysteries and thrillers, he's best remembered as a science fiction author. My tenth-favourite episode of Suspense is the July 12, 1955 adaptation of Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope," the story of a smashed-up rocket and its crew who are now drifting in space with almost no hope for survival. William Conrad is the show's featured player. You may download the episode from archive.org here.

Although Bradbury had a pretty good relationship with the producers of Suspense (especially with William Spier), "Kaleidoscope" was first heard on the radio on September 15, 1951 as an episode of Dimension X. If you like, you can hear their adaptation from archive.org here.

Tomorrow: "You're not hunting that cat anymore. That cat's hunting you."

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