It depends on the mushroom, but yeah, most of the culinary ones do A-okay in sunlight. They prefer shade because there's more moisture which is key. In direct sunlight they can dry out way too much and die.
Someone needs to write that one! Fathers start suspecting their little children of helping aliens prepare Earth for invasion...but it's all in their heads. That could be amazing
Definitely. It reminded me a lot of a much better version of that plot in the Twilight Zone's The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. If done better, this story could really lean into the Red Scare paranoia and even the Generation Gap with the kids just having vastly different interests from the adults that they don't understand. Heck, the kid *literally* becomes a basement-dweller. Set it a few decades later, and you've got everything from growing pot to playing D&D to parallel it to.
Fun fact: Ray Bradbury mentioned having the idea for the story while eating steak and mushrooms with a group of editors, and not being taken seriously by them (I wonder why). Also, the original story starts with a neighbor talking about flying saucers (so the aliens theory didn't come that much out of the left field) and ends with Hugh entering the dark cellar right after Tom's "Light's bad for the mushrooms" line (so we never get to see Hugh being mind-controlled into eating a mushroom).
Mushroom sandwich sounds disgusting? Not if you coat the sliced mushrooms in garlic-infused oil and roast them in the oven (alternaticely, pan-fry them, that works, too!) and put some cream cheese on the bread (I'd recommend rye over white bread, but both work), maybe some lettuce. I've also made hamburgers from mushrooms I hacked up in the food processor and pan-fried with some chopped onions before mixing them with some chickpea flour and old bread soaked in soy milk to form the patties. Bit elaborate, but tasty!
I feel like that twist that the guys wife had been a robot the whole time would have been an amazing twist if they had just made the sound a little more subtle. Also, your humor amazing this episode
yeah, I suppose in the 1950s they imagined most technology as strictly mechanical in nature, but something more evoking an artificial lung/assisted breathing or something like that may have worked as something that the characters wouldn't have noticed at first.
I used to love this series. My sister and I decided that whenever Hitchcock claimed things ended differently than how it appeared at the end of the episode, it was because of the code and we could ignore it. 😅
So he bought this robot so he didn't have to deal with his wife, and then tries to destroy the robot when he finds that the robot is actually doing his job.
Bradbury was and is 1 of my favorite authors. They never got any screen version right on shows. Movies are arguable, but the tv scripts got butchered. This is a better read than it was a watch. Great channel.
I had the pleasure of hearing a lecture by Bradbury when I was in college (yup, I'm old) and he was a delight. I agree with you that his words were rarely translated properly to the screen...they lost much of the lyricism that was part of his language. Just like you, I think his stories are better read. But I enjoyed this episode.....I didn't remember the episodes being that bad but I was not very critical when I saw them a generation or two ago.
@@johnfulmer740 those might be the closest to the writings but they always mix up stories. 1st mixed with the 2nd, bits of the 3rd in there. Its better but not quite there.
Ok, the robot falling in love was predictable, sure, but I *LOVED* the plot twist with the husband wanting to swap places with a robot to run away from his marriage only to find out his wife and him were more alike than he thought. LOL That would stil work as a reversal today.
When I was growing up television hadn't started yet, I grew up listening to the radio (Yes, I'm old). We listened to shows like "Father Dear Father, Men From The Ministry" and The Hitchcock Half-Hour. I have to tell you, these radio shows were waaay more scarier than the movies we'd go watch at the Bioscope. Our imaginations were much better at conjuring up scares than any movie maker! It was the Theatre of the Mind. I miss it.
I highly recommend you watch the Frasier episode 'Ham Radio'. It's one of their funniest, and the plot revolves around Frasier setting up and broadcasting an episode of one of those thriller/mystery radio shows.
I have listened to nearly all 480 radio episodes of gunsmoke but never watched the TV show. I listened to Suspense shows as a child. I'm in my 40s, they were reruns on Radio Canada in the 80s and 90s. I adore them and they reveal so much about the social mores at the time of recording.
Bradbury could pick the oddest things to make scary versions of... In 'The October Country' there is a short story about how the winds of the world are out for murderous revenge and it'll do your head in, but I can't imagine trying to convey that on screen to the same impact.
I read the mushroom short story when I was younger and it was kind of a spooky mood piece, and maybe about your children growing up and having interests you don't get and becoming people you don't recognise, which in theory makes sense for a Hitchcock Presents suspense/thriller story but in practice is a bit open-ended to really land
Watyugunna... dooo? I think the whole mushroom delivery mail business was a mean to an end, not the end itself. Like, just part of the invasion plan. They just didn't have time to go over all that.
Oh wow, Norman Lloyd! (1914 - 2021) Actor, director, producer, dancer, tennis player (avidly played tennis up until a fall in 2015). I feel you could do an entire episode on that legendary actor. As always thank you so very much for the videos. Also I appreciated Hitchcocks "nods" to the sponsors. (Or should I say "jibes".) (The reason he had to film multiple openings/closing for the series - some sponsors didn't like the jokes.)
"What are you gonna do?" "...when Hulkamania runs wild on YOU, brother?!" 😄 Also, the Jewel reference confirms what many of us already knew, that Roses is Chicago AF. Well, Chicago as it gets without having an Elwood Blues accent and talking about Da Bears, anyhow.
I'm not even a Chicagoan. I haven't ever even been to the Windy City, and you still primed me to read Da Bears in the most stereotypical Chicagoan accent I could.
Oh boy, Ray Bradbury... Yes, the man was a very good sci-fi writer, with a certain sensitivity and unusual viewpoints that made his writings a bit of an acquired taste. His stories are more like dreams. It's pretty tough to translate that into a good script and movie or tv episode. You're right that these episodes were just goofy without much substance. Quite a pity.
I have a very deep core memory of being nine or ten years old and watching an episode of this show where a woman murders her husband by hitting him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb, then serves the thawed and cooked murder weapon to the police who show up to investigate the death. I have no idea if it was a good or bad episode, but as a kid, I thought it was amazing. :P
I watched these episodes before watching this video and I’m sorrryyyy but the little kid saying “Yessss” (shown at 10:08) is incredibly creepy and gave me goosebumps!! I love Ray Bradbury and a lot of his literary work does NOT translate well to film (but the books are amazing and I highly recommend)!
Ray Bradbury is one of my favourite SF writers. I have read both stories that these episodes are based upon. His SciFi-stories are often quite melancholic.
Wow that 50s version of The Last of Us was weird… Loved your look at these odd stories Roses, they do feel like stories that didn’t make the twilight zone, so got used here instead. Definitely would like to see more.
I can’t wait for you to review more of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Lamb to the Slaughter” was one of my favorites and the first one I saw when I was in high school after my English teacher showed it to our class.
I guess it makes sense that it was written by Ray Bradbury. "Special Delivery" was remade as "Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!" for Ray Bradbury Theatre in 1989. I had no idea there was an earlier incarnation of it until now. It stood out enough that, aside from The Veldt, it's the only thing I remember about that show. Actually, looking at airdates, the Veldt aired one week before Raise Giant Mushrooms, so maybe I only watched the show for a few weeks.
I used to freak myself out watching the show when I was a wee lad at home some while my parents were gone. Even the theme song classical piece would get my heart pounding.
This is awesome. I loved this show as a kid but I haven't seen it in years. That mushroom story was incredible, I haven't laughed that hard in a while. The creepy kid laugh, "If they can't grow arms and legs, how do they run a mail order business?" Perfection. Also if you buy a robot to give the bare minimum of affection to your wife that you can't, you kinda have to accept that she's gonna rather be with the robot than you. Couldn't even be bothered to kiss her hand, why does he even care that the robot is taking over? You'd think he'd be happy.
That first one, when I saw it as a kid, I thought he was going to turn out to be gay. Even as a kid that hadn't yet reached puberty, I think I was like 8 or 9, I couldn't understand why he didn't like his wife. His friend also had a huge problem liking his wife's affection, was it just seen to be bad to like your wives or something back then? Also, she looked like she was half his age, guess he needed a trophy wife to keep up with the Joneses.
I don't understand why they changed Tom's discovery that Lydia is a marionette from the ending of the original short-story to the middle of the episode. The revelation at the end was chilling because from what happened to Charles we knew that marionettes could kill and replace their users, but by moving the scene to that early is a lot less impactful because it just means that Tom's wife leaved him
Norman Lloyd was one of Hitchcock’s best friends. I think he did several episodes. Also, I remember buying quite a few paperback books that were Hitchcock anthologies. I was a little taken aback at the Peter Lorre episode about the man who would bet that he could keep his fingers on his hand in exchange for a “new Cadillac”.
5:50 Oh boy! Once Charles manages to escape, this should be an interesting exploration to see if Lydia will choose her robot husband or her actu... wha? The episode is over without a resolution? We're just to assume he dies in the box and is replaced? But that seems doubtful considering his friend knows the game...? I guess they ran out of time to write, or something. 6:03 "Shoutouts to Simpleflips" may be in order, he certainly knows a lot about escaping from some evil mushrooms. Wow, what terrible plots, and both lacking in conclusions, so bizarre.
I’ve heard of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, and it seems like something I would enjoy, but I’ve never actually seen any episodes. I’ll have to change that.
Oh wow, haven't thought of this show in forever. Used to watch this, Ray Bradbury Theater, and the Hitchhiker with my Grandma. It helped they all came on one after the other on the USA channel. Grandma got drunk while my sister found amusement in me being terrified by almost everything. I forgot how great my Grandma was.
I loved this show as a kid watch it with my dad and the fact it could give me a person born years after this show ended chills is a testament to Hitchcock talent of film making
My dad and i would watch Alfred Hitchcock presents while making cookies together! So many fantastic memories and occasionally poorly acted episodes. The dry humor brought us together and formed my taste in comedy today (it helped he would mostly only show me the highest rated eps on imdb)
I have been binge watching your channel for the past week. Your insight to Murder She Wrote, and other programs from have been keeping me laughing during times of insomnia 😅
Upvoted for the Dagger of Amon Ra music. Note: Hitchcock did direct a few episodes. The mushroom episode was goofy, yet the children appearing exhausted, and reluctant but compelled, was genuinely creepy.
Yes pls more Hitchcock. I was also up too late watching Nick At Nite (don't tell my parents) and couldn't get enough of this show. Man From The South is my fav and I hope you get a chance to see it.
First of all, greetings from a fellow all-nighter! Second, god, this show had some real stinkers. But the episodes with my man Robert Horton were some of my favorites. Crack of Doom especially. No creeps or murder, but pride and pure tension wrapped up in a game of poker.
as a german "nachteule" i return your greetings, back in the 90ties i used to stay way up to late to see "tales from the crypt" episodes on sunday nights, fell in love with "monty pthons flying circus" and later discovered vox' "lange nacht der anime" where i fell in love with "neon genesis evangelion" and "bubble gum crisis" which if my memory serves right where shown sub'd, atleast nge was that way =P
Well, I liked Design for Loving a lot. It was a total curveball genre wise during my binge of the show and I thought it was very prescient on people's willingness to treat partners as disposable in favor of their AI replacement, sound familiar? I never once felt like we were supposed to like any of these characters apart from the robots when they take on sentience. 7/10 honestly, there are way more forgettable episodes. I also like it more than whatever Sing the Body Electric was. Still completely bowled over you're talking about AHP. Adore the show, deserves more attention no matter what attention it is. 😄
Yes! More "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", please. You cover all the best stuff, PUR. And, you know "Funeral March of a Marionette" is in the public domain. It was written in 1872. You may not be able to use the recording from the show, but there are free to use versions. Or you could just whistle or hum it.,
Sadly, something actually being in the public domain doesn't always help with youtube's weird content ID system. You could get copyright strikes because something else used a public domain recording and then that becomes the 'copyright owner' according to the algorithm. For smaller youtubers these strikes can be disastruous and it's not easy to get in touch with a human for the appeals process.
I would love to see more of these. I saw a few episodes when they first aired. Some were loony but many were more scary than Twilight Zone. The one I remember that scared the crap out of me (I was really young) was where a kid got magic powers somehow and started doing things like killing dogs, burning down neighbors home, and terrorizing his parents.
Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Basement! (retitled Great Bayou for AHP) was actually supposed to be a Twilight Zone episode. They were supposed to do a bunch of Bradbury, but only wound up doing one. So the scripts went over to AHP. Good call on that, since you didn't know.
I remember reading the mushroom story (they were giant mushrooms) and being perplexed, if amused by how dated the kid's angry turns of phrase sounded. My only vague takeaway was that becoming the household's primary source of income put him out of touch with the free joys of childhood. But that might have just been me trying to make sense of it in hindsight.
The mushroom story sounds like Bradbury heard about cordyceps fungus and wrote a half-baked script based on the concept without really understanding it.
Ah, brings back fond memories from my childhood. Looking back on it, I was a weird kid who loved old movies and tv shows. Still do to this day. Thanks. 💜
You have to do "The Landlady", it is my favourite thing to inflect on unsuspecting people (you lure them in with eye candy and then right at the end get Alfred Hitchcock casually explaining the most horrifying thing you've ever heard)
"By the pricking of my thumbs" was, in fact, a double-reference, since Bradbury had already published the novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes". So he wasn't referencing Shakespeare, but rather, referencing himself referencing Shakespeare.
Two slices of white bread, chopped up mushrooms, some slices of ham and mayonnaise. There, a yummy ham and mushroom sandwich. We do that in Venice. It's called "tramezzino prosciutto e funghi".
"Kiss my hand and I'll go wherever you want." "I gave her a chance." Who wrote this? Who approved this? Who agreed to act this out? It's the easiest rewrite in the world, give her an actual negative trait. Make her demand to be carried like she was on their honeymoon even though the guy is older or even injured. Make her spend thousands of dollars that they don't have and drive them into debt. You could even make her super extroverted and wanting to host huge parties that the guy hates. Anything else would work, because anything else is more believable than "I can't stand the thought of kissing my wife's hand."
The two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes I remember are "The Cheney Vase" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." The former has Darren McGavin, and the latter has one of my favorite Hitchcock puns at the end.
I would always try to stay up to watch this on nick at nite, but my parents were usually too alert for me to successfully do so. The one episode I remember seeing is The Man from the South with Peter Lorre.
I loved this show as a kid. I hope you also check out Ray Bradbury theater. It was another short story show similar to this. I miss these shows so much!
Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Nick at Nite was a huge part of my childhood. I always looked forward to it because there would always be something weird... whether or not it was good. Thanks for posting this, I haven't thought about this show in a long time. You've probably also seen Night Gallery since it has some similar fare but just in case you haven't I want to mention it.
Hey I stumbled across your channel a month or so ago and I just wanted to say I absolutely love all of your content. I am not really into video games and after I finished all the murder she wrote, goosebumps and other tv/movie videos you made I watched the video game ones and i just love the way you talk about everything and just wanted to say how happy I was to find your channel
Funeral March of a Marionette is public domain. You do get renditions that are wrongfully attributed as the copyright holder, but you can find public domain performances of it floating around on the internet
