Information about Between Time And Timbuktu

Between Time and Timbuktu
Directed by	Fred Barzyk
Written by	David Odell Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Release date(s)	March 13, 1972 (1972--)
Running time	90 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Between Time and Timbuktu, billed as "a space fantasy based on materials by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.," is a television play adapted from several Vonnegut novels and stories. Produced by National Educational Television and WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, it was telecast March 13, 1972 as a NET Playhouse special.

The television script was published later that year, illustrated with photographs by Jill Krementz and stills from the television production. The book's preface includes a summary of the contributors to the production:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was commissioned to be an advisor and contributor to the script in 1971... Many good people created funny stuff as the filming progressed, most notably Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, and Fred Barzyk, the director. The first draft of the script, most of which survived, was by David O'Dell. Boyd Estus was the director of photography.

Cast

The televised production of the play starred William Hickey as Stony Stevenson. The rest of the cast included:

Bruce Morrow as Contest Announcer

Dortha Duckworth as Mrs. Stevenson (Stony's mother)

Ray Goulding as Walter Gesundheit

Bob Elliott as Bud Williams, Jr. (the ex-astronaut)

Franklin Cover as Col. Donald "Tex" Pirandello

Russell Morash as Sandy Abernethy

John Devlin as Dr. Bobby Denton

Kevin McCarthy as Bokonon

Edie Lynch as Island Girl

Jerry Gershman as Soldier

James Sloyan as Dr. Paul Proteus

George Serries as Prosecutor

Ashley Westcott as Deaf Juror

John Peters as Drunk

Helen Stenborg as Miss Martin

Hurd Hatfield as Dr. Hoenikker

Dolph Sweet as General

Hariet Hamilton as Lead Caroler

Sam Amato as Policeman

Benay Venuta as Diana Moon Glampers

Carlton Power as First Stagehand

Jean Sanocki as Larry

Jack Shipley as News Announcer

Alexis Hoff as Ballerina

Avind Haerum as Harrison Bergeron

Frank Dolan as Short Order Cook

Susan Sullivan as Nancy

Charles White as Lionel J. Howard

Phillip Bruns as Announcer

Ariane Munker as Wanda June

Page Johnson as Hitler

MacIntyre Dixon as Cemetery Gardener

Plot summary

It starts off with a contest announcer, saying that poet Stony Stevenson has won a contest, and as a result, he will travel into outer space on the Prometheus-5. He will be sent through a time warp, called a Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum.

Bud Williams, Jr. and Walter Gesundheit (played by Bob and Ray) help guide Stony's connection with Earth. Six months after blast off, Stony reaches the time warp, and his connection with Earth gets lost.

A second Stony appears and the two talk before Stony gets sent to the island of San Lorenzo. Stony meets Bokonon and speaks with him for a while, but then the government attempts to kill Bokonon, just like in Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle.

Stony then gets sent to the trail of Dr. Paul Proteus, a character in Vonnegut's Player Piano. Stony is confused over the strange future, and then gets sent back to Earth. He meets a drunk man, who gives him money. Stony calls Williams and Gesundheit, who tell him to get off of the planet.

Stony gets sent to the place where Dr. Hoenikker worked at in Cat's Cradle. Doctor Hoenikker speaks with Stony about ice-nine, and Stony realizes how dangerous it is. Dr. Hoenikker also knows how dangerous it and confirms Stony's conclusion that its use could spell the end of the world.

Stony then gets sent to the world of "Harrison Bergeron", a short story in Welcome to the Monkey House, which is a place where Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, makes sure everyone is equal. Some people meet Stony and give him handicaps so he isn't better than anyone else (he is forced to wear weights, a fake nose, and a radio that plays loud noises so he can't concentrate and use his superior intellect to fool others).

Stony recedes into the shadows and removes his handicaps, and watches ballerinas dance. Harrison Bergeron, an escaped convict who refuses to wear his handicaps, comes in and convinces one of the ballerinas to do the same and be free. As they dance together, Diana Moon Glampers shoots the two of them dead.

Stony then gets sent to the short story "Welcome to the Monkey House," where the world is incredibly overpopulated, and there are ethical suicide parlors everywhere. Everyone is also forced to take pills that prevent them from feeling anything below the waist. Stony speaks with Lionel J. Howard, a man who is about to use the suicide parlor. The last thing he says is a question, "What are people for?"

We then hear a story written by Bokonon which answers this question. Stony is then sent to heaven.

In heaven, everyone is happy, but then Adolf Hitler shows up, proclaiming that he is death. Hitler makes everyone disappear except himself and Stony. Stony figures out how to beat Hitler by using his imagination, and he escapes from death.

Stony's travels end then, and he is sent back to earth. He gets out of a casket, and sees a tombstone for him. He asks a person working a cemetery about it. The man says that Stony's spaceship came back to earth with no one in it: just a note saying "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." Stony thinks of Bokonon's words and walks off singing.

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