6.2.1 Have any of Isaac Asimov's books or stories been made into atelevision series?
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This article is from the Isaac Asimov FAQ, by Edward J. Seiler ejseiler@earthlink.net and John H. Jenkins jenkins@mac.com with numerous contributions by others.
6.2.1 Have any of Isaac Asimov's books or stories been made into atelevision series?
The Android Affair:
This is a made-for-cable movie first broadcast by the USA cable channel
in April 1995, and advertised as being "based on a story by Isaac
Asimov". In fact, Asimov's involvement was slight -- the actual
screenplay was based on a shorter film, and Asimov was given co-credit for
the story of the shorter work. In particular, the plot is not based on
any of Asimov's published work and involves some very non-Asimovian
androids, who are not positronic and gleefully lack the First Law.
Probe:
Asimov was credited as adviser and co-creator of this television series,
which lasted for a 2-hour pilot and six 1-hour episodes on ABC in 1988
before a writer's strike came along and ended the series. It starred
Parker Stevenson as brilliant young scientist Austin James, who owned his
own high-tech think tank consulting firm, and used his scientific
expertise to solve baffling crimes as a sort of modern day Sherlock
Holmes.
Salvage 1:
A science fiction television series starring Andy Griffith which aired
on ABC in 1979, for which Asimov served as a science adviser. Griffith
played Harry Broderick, a scrap and salvage man who undertook such
adventures as building a rocket that took him to the moon to collect
abandoned space hardware, moving an iceberg from the North Pole to provide
water for a drought-stricken island, and pumping oil from dried-out wells.
Out of the Unknown:
Six of Asimov's stories were used for episodes of this British TV
anthology series, which ran on the BBC in the U.K. for 25 episodes from
1965 to 1966, and for a third season of 13 episodes in 1969. "The Dead
Past" and "Sucker Bait" appeared in the first season in 1965;
"Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Reason" (retitled "The Prophet") in the
second season (1966); and both "Liar!" and "The Naked Sun" ran during the
third season in 1969.
Many of these episodes no longer exist in the BBC's film archives. The
only complete episodes remaining are "The Dead Past" and "Sucker Bait". A
few clips from "Liar!" and "Satisfaction Guaranteed" have also survived,
and turn up from time to time in documentaries about Asimovs work.
Asimov presented an episode titled "Robot", about developments in
robotics, in December 1967 as part of the BBC documentary series "Towards
Tomorrow". This is thought to be the original source of surviving clips
from the Out of the Unknown teleplay "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and the BBC
teleplay of "Caves of Steel".
In the UK, a BBC documentary series hosted by Gillian Anderson titled
"Future Fantastic" was broadcast in 1997. One particular edition was
titled "I, Robot", and focused a great deal on Asimov's work. It also
contained some of the rare clips from "Liar!" and "The Caves of Steel".
The Caves of Steel
BBC 2 did a production of The Caves of Steel that was broadcast as
part of "Story Parade" on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964.
The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks
in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It
also starred John Carson and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the
program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned
up in various documentaries about Asimov's work.
Little Lost Robot
The story "Little Lost Robot" was made as an episode of the British
anthology series "Out of This World", produced by ABC television in 1962.
This series is commonly confused with the later BBC series "Out of the
Unknown". "Out of This World" ran for thirteen episodes, and like the
later BBC series, it presented adaptations of famous SF works as well as
original teleplays. (It was script-edited by Irene Shubik, who also
script-edited the 1964 BBC version of "The Caves of Steel", and both
produced and script-edited "Out of the Unknown"). The adaptation of
"Little Lost Robot" is the only known surviving example of the Out of This
World series, the other episodes having been erased by ABC many years ago.
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