The above placed quote, damn near poetry by 1950s dialogue standards, takes place between two middle aged men: main character Bill and his neighbor Roger. That statement rides outside of the confines of this episode as well, but the manner in which the story is constructed is simply remarkable. I can’t heap enough praise on Bradbury’s writing. Dust collects, and one day, you know something. You start working with wood, you don’t notice the shavings. Bill and Roger know the truth is out there. But as we will shortly explore, “Special Delivery” stands up on its own two feet, yet also bares a striking resemblance to certain subject matter in another immensely famous horror film of great consequence.īut I’ll get to all that. Is it possible that Bradbury could have drawn inspiration from Jack Finney’s serialized novel The Body Snatchers? Sure it is. I know this might sound like familiar territory ( Invasion of the Body Snatchers, anyone?), but the way in which the subject matter is handled throughout the episode feels fresh at all times. Why not? Every other little boy in the neighborhood did! Problem is, the mushrooms turn out to be sentient life forms from outer space, utilizing human bodies through the process of consumption. Written by literary powerhouse Ray Bradbury, the story concerns itself with a young boy named Tom who sends away for mushroom spores after seeing an ad for them in the back pages of Mechanical Inventions magazine. “Special Delivery” aired on November 29th, 1959, and was the tenth episode in the fifth season. But for now, I’ve picked one to focus out attention on. There’s a lot to unpack, and over the course of several articles on various episodes, I’d very much like to do so. The director’s chair for the series was graced by such greats as Hitchcock himself, Robert Altman, Stuart Rosenberg, and even a very young William Friedkin, long before he made a little film called The Exorcist.īut we’re not here to discuss the finer points of the series, despite the fact that said finer points should be discussed. Famous authors the likes of Robert Bloch, Charles Beaumont, and (potentially most interestingly) famed children’s author Roald Dahl contributed to the writing team. ![]() Many took repeated tours of duty! Big names, from Bette Davis to William Shatner, Vincent Price, Robert Redford, even Peter Lorre, starred in various episodes over the decade’s long run. Between ’62 and ’65, episodes were stretched into hour-long presentations and the series was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Boasting an impressive number of episodes (361 in total), some of the finest actors and writers of the era spent time lingering around the series. The series, which premiered in 1955 and lasted for ten seasons until 1965, is nothing to sneeze at. Let’s take a quick look at the series as a whole, shall we? Original title card for the series featuring Alfred’s signature outline One can hardly think of that era of television without conjuring images of Twilight Zoneepisodes, or perhaps The Outer Limits. However, with the focus on those two, primarily Twilight Zone, gems like Alfred Hitchcock Presents sadly get left in the dust bin. The 1950s can be considered the golden age of television anthology series, particularly for the science fiction, horror, and mystery genres. We’re going to look at Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and more specifically, the Ray Bradbury-penned episode, “Special Delivery.”
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