Series: New Television Workshop
Program: Between Time and Timbuktu
Date: 1971-01-01
Subject: Drama; Interstellar travel; Science fiction
Copyright Holder: Educational Broadcasting Corporation

Clip Description
This work is based on materials by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Stony Stevenson wins first prize in a space poetry competition and trains to become an astronaut. Newscasters track his progress as he travels through space and time in the Prometheus Five space ship. Mission control loses track of his movements, and he finds himself wandering from one bizarre situation to another. Elements of various Kurt Vonnegut stories are incorporated, and Stony finds himself on the island of San Lorenzo with the outlawed spiritual leader Bokonon, in a bizarre totalitarian courtroom, in a laboratory where the "Ice Nine" formula is being created, in a society where everyone's talents are equalized by government-imposed "handicaps," and in a suicide assistance "parlor." Finally, Stony meets a young girl on a fire engine, and she tells him he is in heaven. The parade that ensues is interrupted by the appearance of an Adolf Hitler figure who is supposed to represent death. He and Stony face off in a match that Stony pegs as "death against imagination" with Stony as the victor. In the final scene of the work, Stony finds himself back at his own grave on earth, where he is told that his space ship arrived at its destination, but his body was never found. Vonnegut's works were adapted for television by Fred Barzyk, David Loxton, and David Odell. David Atwood provided special effects, some of which appear to have used the Paik-Abe videosynthesizer.

This was broadcast on an episode of the NET series "Playhouse." It is unclear whether or not the Workshop sponsored Fred Barzyk's and Olivia Tappan's time on this project or not.

Program Description
This work is based on materials by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Stony Stevenson wins first prize in a space poetry competition and trains to become an astronaut. Newscasters track his progress as he travels through space and time in the Prometheus Five space ship. Mission control loses track of his movements, and he finds himself wandering from one bizarre situation to another. Elements of various Kurt Vonnegut stories are incorporated, and Stony finds himself on the island of San Lorenzo with the outlawed spiritual leader Bokonon, in a bizarre totalitarian courtroom, in a laboratory where the "Ice Nine" formula is being created, in a society where everyone's talents are equalized by government-imposed "handicaps," and in a suicide assistance "parlor." Finally, Stony meets a young girl on a fire engine, and she tells him he is in heaven. The parade that ensues is interrupted by the appearance of an Adolf Hitler figure who is supposed to represent death. He and Stony face off in a match that Stony pegs as "death against imagination" with Stony as the victor. In the final scene of the work, Stony finds himself back at his own grave on earth, where he is told that his space ship arrived at its destination, but his body was never found. Vonnegut's works were adapted for television by Fred Barzyk, David Loxton, and David Odell. David Atwood provided special effects, some of which appear to have used the Paik-Abe videosynthesizer.

This was broadcast on an episode of the NET series "Playhouse." It is unclear whether or not the Workshop sponsored Fred Barzyk's and Olivia Tappan's time on this project or not.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Between180.HTML