Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:45AM4 comments ›
Mon Feb 11, 2008 — by Shira Gregory
On This Day: The First Science-Fiction Television Program
Before 'The Matrix' you had... 'R.U.R.'
Today in 1938, the Brits did television a mitzvah when the BBC created the first sci-fi TV show, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play "R.U.R.", which coined the term "robot."
For those of you who thought "The Matrix" was revolutionary, it was Capek who introduced androids that rebel against their human creators. We're also pretty sure she wasn't the first to think that one up either (the first probably being the golem stories from the Talmud).
Anyway, the piece was translated from Czech to English, which explains the etymology of the word, "Robot." In its original Slo, "robota" means "work."
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Comments (4)
mike weber (3:46 PM on Mon Feb 11, 2008)
...and, of course, the title "RUR" stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots"
Sandy Bratzel (1:18 PM on Mon Feb 11, 2008)
post
Marilee J. Layman (5:37 PM on Mon Feb 11, 2008)
Shira, Karel Capek was a man. The term "sci-fi" was firsr used in 1949.
Derek Johnston (8:12 AM on Tue Feb 12, 2008)
Actually, the BBC production was an adaptation of the whole of the narrative of "R.U.R.", just compressed into half an hour in Jan Bussell's script. It included a superimposition effect to multiply the number of robots on screen, which was commented on in the review of the piece in "The Times". And it was preceded the week before by a five-minute trailer which was, like the play, performed live from the television studio twice in one day.
The second full science fiction production on the BBC was ten years later in 1948. It was produced and adapted by Jan Bussell, ran over an hour, and was a version of "R.U.R."! This one featured a certain Patrick Troughton as the lead robot ...