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People who say this hasn’t aged well , I’ve just watched the first part in 2022 and it holds up , it’s still relevant and it still gives me chills like it did when I was 10
I think that is because we have the memory of seeing it back then. All the new watchers of it now would just see bad sets, out dated acting and unrealistic science (breathing Martian air and water to start with). I still re-watch this occasionally and always enjoy it!
@@3BrewI don’t think the sets are bad at all. The settler town of pre-fabricated houses and weird modern-art Martian architecture look surprisingly good. Oddly the rockets seem more convincing to me now in the era of Space X and Artemis.
This mini-series has it's own unique aura and vision of the near future. The mix of alien designs and the spirited soundtrack still give this a futuristic feel. When I first watched this in January 1980, I thought how far away the turn of the century seemed to be. Watching this now and looking back, it all seems like the blink of an eye in my mind.
Totally agree with everything you say. I don't think anybody could produce a more satisfying movie adaptation of the novel which was after all a loose collection of short stories.
I read Ray Bradbury's book and i saw the 3 part mini-series. The production values were good for the time and I liked it back then even though it only took key parts from the book. There was a gracefulness, elegance and beauty to the way the Martian civilization was portrayed. I have fond memories of it.
Yes, the Martians & the civilization was graceful & elegant. I liked how the settlements of the earthlings had a trailer park feel to them, a new squalor. Now, the book could not totally be adapted but I had fond memories of the series, too. This was at the time of Alien & Star Wars. The martians would have been totally above the interstellar "truckers" of Alien or the shoot-it-a-blaster mentality of Star Wars.
@@Easy-Eight, yes it was also 1 year after the television debut of Battlestar Galactica and the first season of Buck Rodgers in the 24th Century. Neither went beyond typical action/adventure. I thought given the limitations of television this was a good adaptation. I enjoyed the three part miniseries so much I taped it on our VCR. It was the most thought provoking sci-fi on TV since Star Trek. It’s a forgotten gem. I think I’d like to buy the digital version and watch it again.
@@radiotec76 It had been decades since I watched this and one day it came on my video feed, just as quickly disappeared into the vast digital sea. It's not the dated special effects that I mind, it's the clothing, that end-of-the-70s discount disco clothing wardrobe. The humans are dysfunctional in the extreme. The Martians are victims. I didn't catch the original broadcast but saw the show on a Spring 1980s re-run. It was a delightful surprise.
Saw it on release as a very young kid. The whole mutual destruction of earth terrified me, but the martians fascinated me. Really kindled my love of sci fi.
It's amazing how the simple design of the Martians -- a bald cap covering the ears, gold contacts, and some cleverly unusual costumes -- really gives a very alien feel to them. The visual design and the music is what really sets this series above the pack when it comes to science fiction adaptations.
I remember watching this as a kid, and remember the scene where Rock Hudson is with a child looking into a pool of water and Hudson says something along the lines of "We're the aliens all along."
Yes, it's a circular plot. I remember that aspect of it as well. I think I was 12 when this was shown. When he confronts the Martian who is living in a different time and insists that Hudson's character is from the past and Hudson responds, "Dont you mean the future?"
I vaguely remember watching this show as a child. The only thing I remember is this feeling of dread. There was something sad and dreary about the story.
@@BruceTheSillyGoose I found a summary of the stories on UA-cam. They sound far more interesting than this show. Hopefully, we get a proper remake one day.
@@GizmoMaltese paramount has been sitting on this property for years now without any action. we have to wait until paramount does something or sells it to somebody else.
This came out when I was in high school. I got to record it for our English class on an amazing new device for the time, a VCR. I still remember certain scenes from it.
I was a teenager, it had problems but the also some great stuff, the scene when earth was destroyed and they were seeing it through the telescope was frightening. A great attempt at putting decent literate science fiction on prime time television as a mini-series. I really should read the books again and watch this. Even with some dodgy SFX, the sets were pretty amazing for the time.
Like so many other shows I watched as a child, I only ever got but a small taste of them before I was sent to bed, or driven off to school, and The Martian chronicles was one that particularly fascinated me with its amazing retro futuristic Martian architecture, and brilliant costumes and make up. The visuals are what made this show so memorable to me. Now, finally as an adult, I can go back and re-experience it properly, and in sequential order. Re-watching it also brings back a flood of strange emotions and faded memories that are truly haunting. The ideas suggested in this show, like colonization of other planets, and modern technologically advanced cities, even making contact with an alien species, I thought for sure would come true, but never did. The world definitely turned out to be much different than I ever expected, much darker, and less sophisticated than what science fiction like this seemed to promise. Oh well, at least I can still dream of a better future.
I remember it too, a lot of it went WAYYYY over my young head and I lost interest in it. Looking at these scenes it sure looks like NBC went all out on the production of this, surprising no one’s tried to remake it with state of the art FX
Yeah, my bedtime was 8:30p. All primetime shows started 8p so I remember this but I must have had to miss the 2nd act of every episode. Damn responsible parents!
I remember the scene at the beginning, where a Martian is sitting in his home. “listening to his book.” I remember how strange that sounded in 1980. Today, it sounds no stranger than “looking at pictures on his phone.”
Watched this a kid and I really liked it. The music stuck with me over the years and I got the soundtrack later. Much of it has not aged well but the series deserves to be remembered.
I remember watching it as a kid. First time I ever saw a gyro-copter was in that show. I remember going down to the library the next day to look up that strange airplane helicopter hybrid thing. No internet back then. My library didn't have any books new enough to cover it. I read the books in school, enjoyed the TV show for seeing the characters brought to life.
I watched this show when it was on tv back in the day, now managed to buy it on Blue Ray and i love the surreal feeling it gives off the music is so well written and enhances the show (:
Not forgotten at all in my view. I have a copy of it. It is a bit dated now but I still think it was one of the most atmospheric series made. I think those Martians could teach us a lot.
I remember watching this as an 8 year old with my dad. He let me stay up late. I struggled to understand it at that age but I remember it scared the pants out of me, especially the scene with Jesus. Now I'm older I appreciate it for what it is, a real hidden gem.
Thank for posting this so more folks know it exists. My fave part is when Hudson finally meets a Martian. The Martian's counsel is still sound today. Ray Bradbury hit some pretty deep truths there. I always wondered where they shot most of the Martian landscape scenes, though I know this one was near a beach, you can hear someone pack up their picnic brewski bottles in the background!
I was going to say, it ain't that forgotten. I loved this when I was a kid. I have all the episodes and it hasn't aged well but it's a great story. The book is so much better!! Babylon 5 has been the best SciFi TV series so far, although The Expanse isn't far off!
ray bradbury was an amazing writer, ive always loved martian chronicles , the martians fascinated me and the ending when rock hudson talked with the martian was a very interesting conversation and a great scene!
The Martian Chronicles is a great adaptation for 1980's television by the late Milton Subotsky (Dr. Who and the Daleks, At the Earth's Core) and Chuck Fries (The Amazing Spider-Man). It's EPIC in its scope, taking its time with numerous smaller stories linked together to create a larger narrative. The practical effects were fine for smaller sets at the time, but they frequently look fake on modern televisions in high definition. Ray Bradbury disavowed the series (calling it "Boring") based on ONE CHANGE that he did not approve. Chuck Fries altered one storyline, where the sole remaining man of one colony starts calling random phone numbers, looking for another human. In the book, he hears the voice of a sexy-sounding woman, but when he finds her, she is ugly. Chuck Fries changed the storyline, making her beautiful, but so totally vain that he fled from her after a short time. Ray's criticism is unfair, but similar to Harlan Ellison's criticism of his Star Trek story "City on the Edge of Forever," when the production staff changed key elements of his story (Harlan had drug-dealing on the Enterprise). The adaptation of the writing is good, and good science fiction is RARE in today's world. Most of what we get is flashy special effects and shallow storylines. This is the exact opposite. I highly recommend it.
As a kid myself when it first came out I thought it was great, a bit weird but great! Watching it again now I find it a bit amateurish with loads of holes in it. Still, was good tv back then.
Me & my wife watched this religiously, was on TV on a Friday night, this was February 1983, my wife was heavily pregnant at the time, we switched the TV on for the final episode, 10 minutes in she went into labour, my daughter was born the following evening, never got to see the final episode & I've never seen it TV since😮
I remember watching this when it was new on tv. All my kids and their families were staying in town celebrating my wife and my 40th wedding anniversary.
Cause they hadn't lived on Mars long enough (less than 5 years) to consider it home and they still had friends and family back on Earth. Was it logical? No.....but consider the same ones that returned to Earth were of the same race that started WW3 in the first place... Like moths to a flame or a dog to its own vomit
Always remembered this mini series,was on BBC TV in 80/81,then was repeated in 82/83,starred so many well known actors,From a long time before,the last 20 years in which several Martian,Mars films were made.
I made my parents sit through three days of watching this, which I'm sure they hated, but I had anticipated watching. It had been shown on television again a decade later, but parts were cut out and i was saddened. Then, to my surprise, it was released on VHS, which I purchased. Ten years later, it was on DVD, which i purchased. No one really talks about this show too much, which is sad because it was a really good show, not exactly true to the book, but very enjoyable. This deserves a reboot and i would be proud to participate in its resurrection. My favourite sections are the blue globes with Fritz Weaver and Roddy McDowell, the last 2 people on Mars with Bernadette Peters and Christopher Connoly, and the family with Barry Morse.
Wow this is a blast from the past! I remember watching this with my family as a 14 year old, but that's all. I didn't remember anything of what happened or who was in it but this has brought it all back. It was quite scary at times and pretty weird!
It was TV! Not a huge budget. But they did a damn fine job of it. It follows the book chapter by chapter. ( I just re-watched this again the other night)
I remember it seemed very audacious at the time (1980) compared to other TV of the era. Just look at this list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_of_1980%E2%80%9381
I was 14 when I first saw it in 1980 and loved it and have watched it a few times since, recently last year. I love it and the book and I would love to get on of the Martian masks to hang in my man cave but there aren’t any that I could find.
So, you’re 53 or 54 now? I was 10 when I saw it. I had forgotten about it and some of my memories of it were mixed up with “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone.
@@NoahSpurrier yes 54 . I remember the ships flying back to Earth only to see the earth turn orange from nuclear war. They had us terrified of nukes back then.
I loved this show, even though it scared me silly when I was a kid. Like most kids in the 1980s I was terrified of nuclear war, so seeing this on the BBC on Saturday night, made my whole weekend go straight to hell.
There’s a lot to like in this mini series, & I find myself returning to it again and again. The aliens are suitably mysterious, there’s a strong cast & the sets & locations all work well. Despite being made in 1980, it still feels like a very 70s production, not that that’s a bad thing. Rock Hudson is a bit stiff at times as Wilder, but he really is the key character to the whole storyline. Thanks for posting.👍
i loved this when it first showed on tv way way way back. was ace always remembered it. sadly its now outdated. but still worth a watch. anything with roddy mcdowall in it has to be worth a watch. :)
The book was written before people really understood that Mars barely had an atmosphere, but especially not like the earth. The TV show just tried to tell the story from the book, albeit in a cheesy TV sort of way.
The book was written in the 50s, a time when everyone believed there were canals running all over Mars. The show was made 30 years later and even though the canals were almost fully disproven there was still some doubt (or hope). Plus, it made for better tv to have water there!!
I remember even as a small kid who was hardly old enough to understand it, I thought this was badly made. What made it worse, and I didn't read the book until much later in my life than the child I was, is that I saw the wasted potential -- as a small child!
Ray Bradbury, like the other Sci-fi writers of his time, wrote such classics as this. Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein. This was a good try on such a great story. 👍
I am obsessed with this series. I never really understood it when it aired, but i cant go a year without rewatching it at least once. I dont like the critism it gets comparing it to the book. They are different but i love a story that i can physically see and thats why its so special to me
I have the series in dvd. Recall it very well from watching as a child as I found it disturbing. It was originally on in the UK on Saturday nights I think before the Horror double bill, which I was allowed to stay up for as well, but always fell asleep during the second movie!
@@winternow2242 I think it ended with Rock Hudson character telling the kids (that you see in the boat in this clip) that they will soon meet the Martians on their trip. At the end of the day, he takes the kids to the waters edge and has them stare at their reflection and says something along the lines "We are the Martians now."
I watch this show, back in the eigthies with my grand father back in the 1983 summer, and watch this again bring me many good memories. Yet, i do still preffer the book.
I was a sophomore in high school when this aired on TV, but I never saw it, and don't even remember hearing of it. But I did watch another video on UA-cam that showed the entire final scene of Rock Hudson's character meeting the Martian from the past or future. That scene was brilliant. I will probably eventually get the DVD set.
I remember watching this as a kid, and thinking it was frightening, sad, and tragic with an intriguing ending, I think this is long overdue for a remake
I wish I had seen this when it first aired. Just discovered it today, and it tracks well with Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles," which I did read. A hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy, with a lot of metaphor thrown in.
I loved this book! Wish they could do a mini series of it! His commentary on McCarthy isum was subtle be good. The 70's version was kinda low budget. You really apply the story to today's world! Someone please do a remake!
Cancel culture in 2021 would make McCarthy blush. Also it turns out he was completely correct about Hollywood. They hate everything about America except the money. They can't get enough of that...oh and children too.
Ironically, NBC spent a ton of money on the budget for this TV Miniseries. The story (and idea to adapt Bradbury's book) got kicked around for years before NBC picked it up and got what was considered a lot of money at the time, to produce this series.
Sadly Brabury hated, hated this adaption. He said so during a comic convention. The thing is, it was a tv movie in the 1980s. Back when networks were taking chances and doing mini-series. It would inspire kids to actually read Bradbury's books. Sure it was flawed but we'll never see network tv do anything this risky ever again. Except for the disco track, the music soundtrack is exceptional.
The music soundtrack takes it to the next level. Imagine if the budget met with that .I'm sure they had bigger ideas but budget restraints.I'm so glad CGI wasn't used.
Exactly right treatment of the Bradbury stories. Great screenplay and characteristic solid acting from some great Hollywood names some lesser known as the main star of the show Rock Hudson who is superb. The narrator adds his own touch of class to a pretty above average tv mini series from the 1980s. I like the special effects.
I'd like to get and watch this again as well. Thanks for making it look enticing again! I'm surprised Bradbury says on Fahrenheit 451 that THAT was the only Science Fiction book he really ever wrote. I guess the Martian Chronicles could be perceived as simple 'democracy vs. communism' in it's barest form. But seems to have much more to it than that.
The clue as to who was whom was the conversation between Rock and the "Martian", and their time references. The Martian quoted the year as a very large number... SEC... I gather that the SEC was "Since Earth Colonization". Kind of demonstrating non-linear time. The past, present, and future all together. Rock sees the past ruins, perceives himself as present. The Martian sees the future city, and perceives himself as present. The "martians" are descendants of the first human colonists, in one big cycle of time. Humans colonize, evolve, go to extinction, leaving ruins, and the cycle begins again. The book was a great collection of short stories.
Igor Schmidlapp, That's an interesting proposition. Is it contained in one of Bradbury's original stories? I must say, though, that it's belied by a number of other things we see in the movie. Clearly, there wasn't any temporal disconnect in three other encounters that were depicted. First, Mr. K wouldn't have been able to kill York and the British astronaut if they weren't existing in a congruent reality. Also, Captain Black (and his crewmates) physically interacted with the Martians who were manipulating them, in direct opposition to what we see in this sequence. The same holds true for the Martian who disguised himself as Lustig, Jesus, and a few other of the rustics among the settlers. Similarly, if their calendar had the meaning you ascribe to it, why didn't any of those characters have some cognition of that fact? The individual here, doesn't even recognize Earth as the name of the planet that was the neighbor of his own. Hence, why in the world would his race reference their way of tracking time around a world totally unknown to them? Finally, while both bipeds, it's clear that the two species had distinct differences in their physiological make-up. How could the human population, if even able to sustain itself with such a seemingly small number of people left, possibly have evolved into the physical form of the Martians (save some extraneous source playing into the equation, such as extraterrestrial visitors coming to the planet and breeding with them, which I know isn't in Bradbury's work). Perhaps, you're simply being sarcastic, in a very convincing way. I'm certainly prone to not as effectively wielding my credulity as many other folks do. But the manner in which you made the statement, doesn't argue for such an interpretation.
I saw this as a child, and though I love chocolate pudding, I still get a little twinge in the back of my mind once in a while....wondering if it is drugged, lol.
I've always been fascinated by this series. I saw it when it first aired on television as a child. It left me confused. I had always hoped that maybe the book would enlighten me with the questions this adaptation left me with, but I never perused reading the book at all. I just assumed it was more confusion waiting for me to read. I don't understand how the Martians can be both alive and dead. The end scene is most confusing of all with Rock Hudson in conversation with a living Martian, both perceive the other as a ghost... with one of them actually being dead and long gone. It still confuses me to this day.
I was about 12 when this came on tv. I can still remember when the they killed off my favorite Spider Man actor!! I was devastated! I still am...... Damn Martians! 👽
I remember Star Wars coming out 3 years before this. 2 years later Ridley Scott dropped Alien on us.. Given the pace of this story and the special effects, it's no surprise I'd forgotten it. Fuck. I'm old.
Ray Bradbury did some remakes of this in his series "the ray bradbury theatre". I thinks its about time the book had a full 21st century reboot keeping true to the book.
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People who say this hasn’t aged well , I’ve just watched the first part in 2022 and it holds up , it’s still relevant and it still gives me chills like it did when I was 10
I think that is because we have the memory of seeing it back then. All the new watchers of it now would just see bad sets, out dated acting and unrealistic science (breathing Martian air and water to start with). I still re-watch this occasionally and always enjoy it!
I think it looks fantastic. Very good production values.
@@3BrewI don’t think the sets are bad at all. The settler town of pre-fabricated houses and weird modern-art Martian architecture look surprisingly good.
Oddly the rockets seem more convincing to me now in the era of Space X and Artemis.
No its dreadful - this was made the same year as Empire Strikes Back. Even Dr Who (Logopolis etc.) had equal effects on a smaller budget.
This mini-series has it's own unique aura and vision of the near future. The mix of alien designs and the spirited soundtrack still give this a futuristic feel. When I first watched this in January 1980, I thought how far away the turn of the century seemed to be. Watching this now and looking back, it all seems like the blink of an eye in my mind.
Totally agree with everything you say. I don't think anybody could produce a more satisfying movie adaptation of the novel which was after all a loose collection of short stories.
I read Ray Bradbury's book and i saw the 3 part mini-series. The production values were good for the time and I liked it back then even though it only took key parts from the book. There was a gracefulness, elegance and beauty to the way the Martian civilization was portrayed. I have fond memories of it.
Yeah in the miniseries there was no Mr Ooh Ooh or Mr Ah Ah
The only thing that was REALLY BADLY done was the Sandship sequence! This miniseries could really benefit from new computerized special effects!
Yes, the Martians & the civilization was graceful & elegant. I liked how the settlements of the earthlings had a trailer park feel to them, a new squalor. Now, the book could not totally be adapted but I had fond memories of the series, too. This was at the time of Alien & Star Wars. The martians would have been totally above the interstellar "truckers" of Alien or the shoot-it-a-blaster mentality of Star Wars.
@@Easy-Eight, yes it was also 1 year after the television debut of Battlestar Galactica and the first season of Buck Rodgers in the 24th Century. Neither went beyond typical action/adventure. I thought given the limitations of television this was a good adaptation. I enjoyed the three part miniseries so much I taped it on our VCR. It was the most thought provoking sci-fi on TV since Star Trek. It’s a forgotten gem. I think I’d like to buy the digital version and watch it again.
@@radiotec76 It had been decades since I watched this and one day it came on my video feed, just as quickly disappeared into the vast digital sea. It's not the dated special effects that I mind, it's the clothing, that end-of-the-70s discount disco clothing wardrobe. The humans are dysfunctional in the extreme. The Martians are victims. I didn't catch the original broadcast but saw the show on a Spring 1980s re-run. It was a delightful surprise.
When I was young,I watched this.What the Martian said to Hudson on how to live,has always stuck with me.
Saw it on release as a very young kid. The whole mutual destruction of earth terrified me, but the martians fascinated me. Really kindled my love of sci fi.
It's amazing how the simple design of the Martians -- a bald cap covering the ears, gold contacts, and some cleverly unusual costumes -- really gives a very alien feel to them.
The visual design and the music is what really sets this series above the pack when it comes to science fiction adaptations.
I know what you mean - beyond the makeup and costume there was a certain affect the actors playing Martians maintained that was so otherworldly.
I remember watching this as a kid, and remember the scene where Rock Hudson is with a child looking into a pool of water and Hudson says something along the lines of "We're the aliens all along."
He said,"We are the Martians now."
@@karlydoc Ah! Cheers - I knew it was something like that!
@@karlydoc Yes, I remember this too. I really liked this mini series.
Yes, it's a circular plot.
I remember that aspect of it as well. I think I was 12 when this was shown.
When he confronts the Martian who is living in a different time and insists that Hudson's character is from the past and Hudson responds, "Dont you mean the future?"
The mentality of the Martians almost seam legit ,I do feel the wise ones will be still and peaceful.
I vaguely remember watching this show as a child. The only thing I remember is this feeling of dread. There was something sad and dreary about the story.
ray bradbury described it in one word- "BORING!!" IOW he didn't like the adaptation, or didn't like what the NBC suits did to his story.
@@BruceTheSillyGoose I found a summary of the stories on UA-cam. They sound far more interesting than this show. Hopefully, we get a proper remake one day.
@@GizmoMaltese paramount has been sitting on this property for years now without any action. we have to wait until paramount does something or sells it to somebody else.
Only thing I remembered about this show as a little kid was that the Martians were bald and had no ears.
Kinda how I remember it as well.
I recall watching this as a 14 year old in 1982 on a Saturday night. I absolutely loved it. Quite atmospheric and poetic.
This came out when I was in high school. I got to record it for our English class on an amazing new device for the time, a VCR. I still remember certain scenes from it.
Tell me more about this V-C-R?
@@peterjv8748 Video Cassette Recorder. Came in two flavours, Betamax from Sony and VHS. But you knew that.
I remember seeing this on TV as a kid and being scared as fk
Same. Especially when they killed off that first group with poisons making them think they had somehow reached heaven.
Yes, me too. But it's a great story.
I was 10 years old when this came out on NBC it was so hyped up and it was a letdown.
I was a teenager, it had problems but the also some great stuff, the scene when earth was destroyed and they were seeing it through the telescope was frightening. A great attempt at putting decent literate science fiction on prime time television as a mini-series. I really should read the books again and watch this. Even with some dodgy SFX, the sets were pretty amazing for the time.
@@ScottCheatham, That was actually the second team.
Like so many other shows I watched as a child, I only ever got but a small taste of them before I was sent to bed, or driven off to school, and The Martian chronicles was one that particularly fascinated me with its amazing retro futuristic Martian architecture, and brilliant costumes and make up. The visuals are what made this show so memorable to me. Now, finally as an adult, I can go back and re-experience it properly, and in sequential order.
Re-watching it also brings back a flood of strange emotions and faded memories that are truly haunting. The ideas suggested in this show, like colonization of other planets, and modern technologically advanced cities, even making contact with an alien species, I thought for sure would come true, but never did. The world definitely turned out to be much different than I ever expected, much darker, and less sophisticated than what science fiction like this seemed to promise. Oh well, at least I can still dream of a better future.
I remember it too, a lot of it went WAYYYY over my young head and I lost interest in it. Looking at these scenes it sure looks like NBC went all out on the production of this, surprising no one’s tried to remake it with state of the art FX
"got but a small taste of them before I was sent to bed, or driven off to school"
Parents are good at making kids miss out.
Yeah, my bedtime was 8:30p. All primetime shows started 8p so I remember this but I must have had to miss the 2nd act of every episode. Damn responsible parents!
I remember the scene at the beginning, where a Martian is sitting in his home. “listening to his book.” I remember how strange that sounded in 1980. Today, it sounds no stranger than “looking at pictures on his phone.”
Watched this a kid and I really liked it. The music stuck with me over the years and I got the soundtrack later. Much of it has not aged well but the series deserves to be remembered.
1982-1983 ... I was 12-ish. I remember my JH science teacher playing this in class for "science". Better than a POP Quiz...
I remember watching it as a kid. First time I ever saw a gyro-copter was in that show. I remember going down to the library the next day to look up that strange airplane helicopter hybrid thing. No internet back then. My library didn't have any books new enough to cover it.
I read the books in school, enjoyed the TV show for seeing the characters brought to life.
Gyrocopters go back to the 20's. (1920 that is)
Barry Morse from Space 1999.
I watched this show when it was on tv back in the day, now managed to buy it on Blue Ray and i love the surreal feeling it gives off the music is so well written and enhances the show (:
What a great series! True, it seems to have been forgotten.
An underated classic. Saw this as a kid and thought it was kinda scary.
The Martians were fascinating but scary as a kid. Eerie as an adult.
One of my favorite movies. Got it on DVD. Highly Recommended
Not forgotten at all in my view. I have a copy of it. It is a bit dated now but I still think it was one of the most atmospheric series made. I think those Martians could teach us a lot.
I want one of those Sweet Sand Sail Ships.
I was a freshman in college when this aired. I love SciFi but I couldn't get into this. I read the book probably 45 years ago, that was great.
I remember watching this as an 8 year old with my dad. He let me stay up late. I struggled to understand it at that age but I remember it scared the pants out of me, especially the scene with Jesus. Now I'm older I appreciate it for what it is, a real hidden gem.
I remember this as a kid. It was so strange and dreamlike.
Thank for posting this so more folks know it exists. My fave part is when Hudson finally meets a Martian.
The Martian's counsel is still sound today. Ray Bradbury hit some pretty deep truths there.
I always wondered where they shot most of the Martian landscape scenes, though I know this one was near a beach, you can hear someone pack up their picnic brewski bottles in the background!
I believe this scene was shot on Gozo, off Malta. Other locations include Lanzarote and Meteor Crater, AZ.
the martian chronicles theme written by stanley myers, is otherworldly, sublime. same for much of this series.
I was going to say, it ain't that forgotten. I loved this when I was a kid. I have all the episodes and it hasn't aged well but it's a great story. The book is so much better!!
Babylon 5 has been the best SciFi TV series so far, although The Expanse isn't far off!
Bless you for giving us history to share rather than it being forgotten in this by Bradbury. Brought back fond memories
ray bradbury was an amazing writer, ive always loved martian chronicles , the martians fascinated me and the ending when rock hudson talked with the martian was a very interesting conversation and a great scene!
I watched this the first time around, a long time ago and I have never forgotten it.
I remember when this was filmed on Malta in the late 1970's.
The Martian Chronicles is a great adaptation for 1980's television by the late Milton Subotsky (Dr. Who and the Daleks, At the Earth's Core) and Chuck Fries (The Amazing Spider-Man). It's EPIC in its scope, taking its time with numerous smaller stories linked together to create a larger narrative. The practical effects were fine for smaller sets at the time, but they frequently look fake on modern televisions in high definition.
Ray Bradbury disavowed the series (calling it "Boring") based on ONE CHANGE that he did not approve. Chuck Fries altered one storyline, where the sole remaining man of one colony starts calling random phone numbers, looking for another human. In the book, he hears the voice of a sexy-sounding woman, but when he finds her, she is ugly. Chuck Fries changed the storyline, making her beautiful, but so totally vain that he fled from her after a short time.
Ray's criticism is unfair, but similar to Harlan Ellison's criticism of his Star Trek story "City on the Edge of Forever," when the production staff changed key elements of his story (Harlan had drug-dealing on the Enterprise).
The adaptation of the writing is good, and good science fiction is RARE in today's world. Most of what we get is flashy special effects and shallow storylines. This is the exact opposite. I highly recommend it.
As a kid myself when it first came out I thought it was great, a bit weird but great! Watching it again now I find it a bit amateurish with loads of holes in it. Still, was good tv back then.
Better technology does not always bring with it what made the original great.
This was a good adaptation.
Me & my wife watched this religiously, was on TV on a Friday night, this was February 1983, my wife was heavily pregnant at the time, we switched the TV on for the final episode, 10 minutes in she went into labour, my daughter was born the following evening, never got to see the final episode & I've never seen it TV since😮
I remember watching this when it was new on tv. All my kids and their families were staying in town celebrating my wife and my 40th wedding anniversary.
mini-series. It's an awesome series. I will never understand why the colonists had to return home to die on a atomic war.
Cause they hadn't lived on Mars long enough (less than 5 years) to consider it home and they still had friends and family back on Earth. Was it logical? No.....but consider the same ones that returned to Earth were of the same race that started WW3 in the first place... Like moths to a flame or a dog to its own vomit
I remember that series, it was pretty good, Rock Hudson, Kolshack the night stalker, Barry Morse, pretty cool series.👍
Always remembered this mini series,was on BBC TV in 80/81,then was repeated in 82/83,starred so many well known actors,From a long time before,the last 20 years in which several Martian,Mars films were made.
I have this classic on DVD. Brilliant movie.
I made my parents sit through three days of watching this, which I'm sure they hated, but I had anticipated watching. It had been shown on television again a decade later, but parts were cut out and i was saddened. Then, to my surprise, it was released on VHS, which I purchased. Ten years later, it was on DVD, which i purchased. No one really talks about this show too much, which is sad because it was a really good show, not exactly true to the book, but very enjoyable. This deserves a reboot and i would be proud to participate in its resurrection.
My favourite sections are the blue globes with Fritz Weaver and Roddy McDowell, the last 2 people on Mars with Bernadette Peters and Christopher Connoly, and the family with Barry Morse.
Thank you! I had this vague memory of this series that I'd seen as a kid, I could never remember what it was called, until now of course 🙂
Wow this is a blast from the past! I remember watching this with my family as a 14 year old, but that's all. I didn't remember anything of what happened or who was in it but this has brought it all back. It was quite scary at times and pretty weird!
It was TV! Not a huge budget. But they did a damn fine job of it. It follows the book chapter by chapter. ( I just re-watched this again the other night)
I remember it seemed very audacious at the time (1980) compared to other TV of the era. Just look at this list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_of_1980%E2%80%9381
I was 14 when I first saw it in 1980 and loved it and have watched it a few times since, recently last year. I love it and the book and I would love to get on of the Martian masks to hang in my man cave but there aren’t any that I could find.
I remember watching this as a kid, I think it was broadcast on BBC 1
I loved The Martian chronicles as a kid, watched it again last year through LD. 😍
I thought that the martians are a reflection of earthlings, but more wiser and educated.
Loved the book and loved this made for TV mini series .
One of my favourite tv shows of all time , and yes I’ve read the book of the short stories , I’m a massive ray bradbury fan
I was 12 years old when this was on TV . Never thought I would see it again. Thanks .
So, you’re 53 or 54 now? I was 10 when I saw it. I had forgotten about it and some of my memories of it were mixed up with “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone.
@@NoahSpurrier yes 54 . I remember the ships flying back to Earth only to see the earth turn orange from nuclear war. They had us terrified of nukes back then.
Not forgotten by me I loved this series.
I loved this show, even though it scared me silly when I was a kid. Like most kids in the 1980s I was terrified of nuclear war, so seeing this on the BBC on Saturday night, made my whole weekend go straight to hell.
Protect and survive!....THIS IS THE SOUND OF A AIR ATTACK WARNING...still sends chills ...
@John Weedon all that fear....was nothing compared with c19!
There’s a lot to like in this mini series, & I find myself returning to it again and again. The aliens are suitably mysterious, there’s a strong cast & the sets & locations all work well. Despite being made in 1980, it still feels like a very 70s production, not that that’s a bad thing. Rock Hudson is a bit stiff at times as Wilder, but he really is the key character to the whole storyline. Thanks for posting.👍
It was made in the 70s.
i loved this when it first showed on tv way way way back. was ace always remembered it. sadly its now outdated. but still worth a watch. anything with roddy mcdowall in it has to be worth a watch. :)
Why does this Mars have an Earth-like atmosphere? I can't suspend disbelief on this.
Why does Mars have water filled canals?
The book was written before people really understood that Mars barely had an atmosphere, but especially not like the earth. The TV show just tried to tell the story from the book, albeit in a cheesy TV sort of way.
The book was written in the 50s, a time when everyone believed there were canals running all over Mars. The show was made 30 years later and even though the canals were almost fully disproven there was still some doubt (or hope). Plus, it made for better tv to have water there!!
Fascinated, I started getting into this show, but then my mom made me go to bed. And I wasn't even sleepy!
I enjoyed it as a kid. And it led to reading the book, so that's something. ☺️
I read it in high school....and *The Martian Chronicles* deserves better than some hokey, cheap-ass 1970s movie-for-television!
I remember even as a small kid who was hardly old enough to understand it, I thought this was badly made. What made it worse, and I didn't read the book until much later in my life than the child I was, is that I saw the wasted potential -- as a small child!
Ray Bradbury, like the other Sci-fi writers of his time, wrote such classics as this. Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein. This was a good try on such a great story. 👍
This made a big impact on me in 1980. It taught me a lot about the true nature of humanity
I am obsessed with this series. I never really understood it when it aired, but i cant go a year without rewatching it at least once. I dont like the critism it gets comparing it to the book. They are different but i love a story that i can physically see and thats why its so special to me
I have the series in dvd. Recall it very well from watching as a child as I found it disturbing. It was originally on in the UK on Saturday nights I think before the Horror double bill, which I was allowed to stay up for as well, but always fell asleep during the second movie!
Aha! I was a kid watching this, and it freak me out.
i remember watching this on tv, then on VHS they omitted the final part altogether...
They probably thought we wouldn't understand what was happening at the end so chop it! The dvd set has it all.
How did it end?
@@winternow2242 I think it ended with Rock Hudson character telling the kids (that you see in the boat in this clip) that they will soon meet the Martians on their trip. At the end of the day, he takes the kids to the waters edge and has them stare at their reflection and says something along the lines "We are the Martians now."
@@marcusdamberger that's how the TV version ended. But the other comments hinted at a different version where they didn't have that scene.
I watch this show, back in the eigthies with my grand father back in the 1983 summer, and watch this again bring me many good memories. Yet, i do still preffer the book.
Not forgotten by me. I was re-watching it just last week.
I was a sophomore in high school when this aired on TV, but I never saw it, and don't even remember hearing of it. But I did watch another video on UA-cam that showed the entire final scene of Rock Hudson's character meeting the Martian from the past or future. That scene was brilliant. I will probably eventually get the DVD set.
I remember watching this as a kid, and thinking it was frightening, sad, and tragic with an intriguing ending, I think this is long overdue for a remake
I wish I had seen this when it first aired. Just discovered it today, and it tracks well with Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles," which I did read. A hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy, with a lot of metaphor thrown in.
I remember watching this as a kid om TV, I thin it was on at 8pm on a Saturday, prime time TV.
How things have changed...
'I'm the last Martian'...😁
Good old Spender...😉👍!
I read the book and knew pretty much how the show would go.
Always loved the sound from that wasp/bee gun
The book is one of my favorites.
This has aged fairly well, but it has always had a melancholy feel. I do love it though.
i have this movie set - still brilliant in a wierd way
I loved this book! Wish they could do a mini series of it! His commentary on McCarthy isum was subtle be good. The 70's version was kinda low budget. You really apply the story to today's world! Someone please do a remake!
Cancel culture in 2021 would make McCarthy blush. Also it turns out he was completely correct about Hollywood. They hate everything about America except the money. They can't get enough of that...oh and children too.
No please don't. It'll be a complete woke fest.
Ironically, NBC spent a ton of money on the budget for this TV Miniseries. The story (and idea to adapt Bradbury's book) got kicked around for years before NBC picked it up and got what was considered a lot of money at the time, to produce this series.
Sadly Brabury hated, hated this adaption. He said so during a comic convention. The thing is, it was a tv movie in the 1980s. Back when networks were taking chances and doing mini-series. It would inspire kids to actually read Bradbury's books. Sure it was flawed but we'll never see network tv do anything this risky ever again. Except for the disco track, the music soundtrack is exceptional.
The music soundtrack takes it to the next level. Imagine if the budget met with that .I'm sure they had bigger ideas but budget restraints.I'm so glad CGI wasn't used.
In 1980, disco lives forever!
Exactly right treatment of the Bradbury stories. Great screenplay and characteristic solid acting from some great Hollywood names some lesser known as the main star of the show Rock Hudson who is superb. The narrator adds his own touch of class to a pretty above average tv mini series from the 1980s. I like the special effects.
"Hey, a complete human town with our relatives on mars...yeah, that sounds plausible. Let's eat whatever they give us"....Darwin awards, all around. 😂
Wow, I was just a boy first time round, fantastic show, I've always been Mars bonkers
I'd like to get and watch this again as well. Thanks for making it look enticing again! I'm surprised Bradbury says on Fahrenheit 451 that THAT was the only Science Fiction book he really ever wrote. I guess the Martian Chronicles could be perceived as simple 'democracy vs. communism' in it's barest form. But seems to have much more to it than that.
7:17
This just in: Perseverance rover finds ancient Martian city!
Speaking of "Forgotten Sci/Fi, what about covering the short-lived series, "The Starlost"? It's got quite the back story!
Some shows are forgotten for a good reason, and this is one of them. I remember it was heavily criticised at the time.
I saw it as a young child. I remember being very confused by it but persevered as it reminded me of the planet of the apes. It was wonderfully weird.
Ha! I remember it from when I was a kid. It was great
ahead of its time.
the intro music by stanley myers is hauntingly beautiful and sad.
The clue as to who was whom was the conversation between Rock and the "Martian", and their time references. The Martian quoted the year as a very large number... SEC... I gather that the SEC was "Since Earth Colonization".
Kind of demonstrating non-linear time. The past, present, and future all together. Rock sees the past ruins, perceives himself as present. The Martian sees the future city, and perceives himself as present. The "martians" are descendants of the first human colonists, in one big cycle of time. Humans colonize, evolve, go to extinction, leaving ruins, and the cycle begins again.
The book was a great collection of short stories.
Igor Schmidlapp, That's an interesting proposition. Is it contained in one of Bradbury's original stories? I must say, though, that it's belied by a number of other things we see in the movie.
Clearly, there wasn't any temporal disconnect in three other encounters that were depicted. First, Mr. K wouldn't have been able to kill York and the British astronaut if they weren't existing in a congruent reality. Also, Captain Black (and his crewmates) physically interacted with the Martians who were manipulating them, in direct opposition to what we see in this sequence. The same holds true for the Martian who disguised himself as Lustig, Jesus, and a few other of the rustics among the settlers. Similarly, if their calendar had the meaning you ascribe to it, why didn't any of those characters have some cognition of that fact? The individual here, doesn't even recognize Earth as the name of the planet that was the neighbor of his own. Hence, why in the world would his race reference their way of tracking time around a world totally unknown to them?
Finally, while both bipeds, it's clear that the two species had distinct differences in their physiological make-up. How could the human population, if even able to sustain itself with such a seemingly small number of people left, possibly have evolved into the physical form of the Martians (save some extraneous source playing into the equation, such as extraterrestrial visitors coming to the planet and breeding with them, which I know isn't in Bradbury's work).
Perhaps, you're simply being sarcastic, in a very convincing way. I'm certainly prone to not as effectively wielding my credulity as many other folks do. But the manner in which you made the statement, doesn't argue for such an interpretation.
Bloody brilliant!
I saw this as a child, and though I love chocolate pudding, I still get a little twinge in the back of my mind once in a while....wondering if it is drugged, lol.
I've always been fascinated by this series. I saw it when it first aired on television as a child. It left me confused. I had always hoped that maybe the book would enlighten me with the questions this adaptation left me with, but I never perused reading the book at all. I just assumed it was more confusion waiting for me to read. I don't understand how the Martians can be both alive and dead. The end scene is most confusing of all with Rock Hudson in conversation with a living Martian, both perceive the other as a ghost... with one of them actually being dead and long gone. It still confuses me to this day.
I was about 12 when this came on tv. I can still remember when the they killed off my favorite Spider Man actor!! I was devastated! I still am...... Damn Martians! 👽
I remember Star Wars coming out 3 years before this. 2 years later Ridley Scott dropped Alien on us.. Given the pace of this story and the special effects, it's no surprise I'd forgotten it.
Fuck.
I'm old.
I remember seeing the mini series in 1979.
They actually landed the rocket the right way.
Maybe this is the show that inspired Elon? He would have been 10 or so years old when this came out, a very impressionable age!
Ray Bradbury did some remakes of this in his series "the ray bradbury theatre". I thinks its about time the book had a full 21st century reboot keeping true to the book.
I seen this when it came out, it wasn't a great show. But in the end it embraced the spirit of the story.
This movie was bizzar I remember it from the lat 70s.