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I was mesmerized by this strange film back in 1972, and it lingered in my memories for years until I was finally able to view it a few months ago. The parts that I recall held up beautifully, especially Bob & Ray's work (which was largely ad-libbed). Some of the Vonnegut stories work, some don't: the "Handicapper General" piece is quite scary and all too real, as is the section about ethical suicide parlors. But in the end it's Elliot and Goulding (and Hickey) who save the day.

I still can't think about "ex-astronaut Bud Williams, Jr." telling his story about Tang without smiling. Wish they would release this on DVD (and another early NET special - America, Inc. with Jean Shepherd).

NASA decides to launch the first "ordinary" man into space, based on writing a winning jingle. Our astronaut gets more than he bargained for with a bizarre trip through space and time. For myself the most memorable parts include: 1) Bob and Ray's ongoing commentary and their attempts to remember Armstrong's "one great step..." line and 2) a future in which the government tries to make everybody equal by reducing them to the lowest common denominator of abilities. It's a real trip watching a ballet performed in which the dancers have to wear weights to make themselves clumsy.

When I went to college in the early 1970s the leading contemporary American novelists who were popular were Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan. Brautigan's TROUT FISHING IN America was very popular, but his subsequent writings failed to maintain his popularity. Not so Vonnegut, whose string of successes lasted far longer. I read SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER, CAT'S CRADLE, THE SIRENS OF TITAN, MOTHER NIGHT, and the other books. So this particular television show really interested me.

It was like a selection of episodes from the various novels and short stories of Vonnegut, hosted (as news reporters) by Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding. Goulding is reprising the role of "Walter Gesundheit" he played in a movie a few years earlier. Eliott is playing an astronaut (like Wally Schirra, who frequently appeared with Walter Cronkite at space shots). They get bogged down trying to recall Neil Armstrong's first words upon the Moon surface. William Hickey played Stony Stevenson, the best friend of the hero in THE SIRENS OF TITAN. He is chosen to be the world's first time traveler, and we see him going from one place to another.

Hickey meets Dr. Hoenikker/Hurd Hatfield (creator of "Ice 9" - and an example of the short sightedness of government sponsored science), and Bokonon/Kevin McCarthy (the ultimately powerless religious leader) from CAT'S CRADLE. He meets Wanda June from Vonnegut's play. He sees the threat of puritanical-ism mixed with inane political correctness in the future when he crosses the path of one woman vigilante Diane Moon Gompers.

The show as an introduction to Vonnegut was very good. Parts of it were shot in Flushing Meadow Park, not far from my home. So I thoroughly enjoyed the program.

When I was 14, I saw Between And Timbuktu for the first time. I even tape recorded it on my old portable Panasonic cassette player (the one with the blue and white piano-like keys) and used to listen to it over and over again. It made a lasting impression on me that persists to this day. Other than being very entertaining and quite funny, it, (1) introduced me to the works of Kurt Vonnegut, (2) introduced me to Bob & Ray (3) introduced me to a number of diverse actors who I will always first and foremost associate with their roles here including William Hickey, Kevin McCarthy and Susan Sullivan. And even though I have long since lost that tape, and Kurt apparently continues to block any efforts to make this film available (while allowing Slapstick to stink up the ether), it will always have a warm place in my heart.

Between Time and Timbuktu was an effort at doing an introductory "best-of-Kurt-Vonnegut" for national TV. Although some Vonnegut fans think it's a diluted mess (see the book reviews), it serves well as a quirky intro to some of his themes and characters. William Hickey is wonderful as the bewildered "astronaut", and Bob and Ray are at their peak, with some hysterically funny dialogue. Why isn't it available on video?

The Broadcast Museum (Museum of Broadcast Communications in New York) was given the ONLY copy of this WGHB produced movie, which is available for viewing on site, according to the WGHB letter decades ago.

Rick Doughty did have a copy on 1/2 inch, reel-to-reel video tape while at Pratt Institute in 1973 but it is unlikely to have survived.

The scenes described in the other review are powerful. When a ballerina has drooping sand bags to handicap her, so as to be no better than the worse dancer, the result is awkwardness.

The final scene of a gathering, or parade, appearing and disappearing, with music, needs some refreshing after 40 years. This is unlikely to occur and since the production was a combination of 5 (?) stories, there is no hard copy basis to draw from.

I saw this film one time and one time only, in a Sci-Fi Lit class in my senior year of high school in 1980. This made a big impression on me to this day. There were moments of joyful silliness (Walter Gesundheit is actually a double pun, if you are studying German, which I also was taking that year), and scenes of incredibly pure beauty. I found large parts of this movie promoted a philosophy of hope, which was very important to a (then) suicidal teenager. This film kept me out of the knife-room for MONTHS.

I don't know where the teacher obtained the print, and if I could get a copy these days, I would without hesitation, even if I had to pay a lot. Quick, someone tell Mr. Vonnegut so it will be released.

This strange TV movie shows the kinds of out-there stuff that was commissioned for television back in the day. Its about the winner of a fizzy drinks contest who gets the chance to go into outer space. He winds up being duplicated into infinite copies, each of whom finds himself in bizarre situations on different worlds. The scenarios were taken from the stories of Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote classic novels like Slaughterhouse Five. Pretty ambitious stuff, although I didn't entirely connect with it. For fans of strange sci-fi, it is worth a look.

I saw this on Public Television When I was 17 and really enjoyed it. Although the special effects were a bit hokey, the screenplay was well written and the production was wonderfully cast. I would love to have a copy of this in my video collection but short of that would at least like to see it again. If anyone out there has the rights to this they would do us a great service by re-releasing it.

I am a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut's novels. And, like Mr. Vonnegut, I am also a huge fan of Bob and Ray. This teleplay has been on my wish list for decades, but it is incredibly elusive. I finally found a copy of it on DVD online. It Does Exist!

In short, all of the elements of a great Vonnegut novel are there. It has some great ideas and incredible insights.

There are some elaborate visual effects which must have been state-of-the-art in 1972, but seem to be a bit dated. The effects seem to be a bit overdone by today's standards, but serve the important purpose of showing the viewer where Stony becomes "unstuck in time" to use a Slaughterhouse-5 expression.

Above all it was great to see Bob and Ray doing what they do best: Witty, yet understated humor.

My biggest fear was of being disappointed in the production. I was afraid that I had built my hopes up too much. But in the end, I must quote the film itself:

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

If this movie was out on DVD, I would buy it today. My brother and I used to watch it every time it was on public television. I wish I could remember more of the plot. I remember it was funny, and poignant, and socially relevant. Please, somebody, release this movie for us fans!

There was one "chapter" where the protagonist finds himself in a society where everyone is handicapped to the lowest level of ability, so no one will feel bad about not being good enough. Dancers wore big bags of sand, so they couldn't be more coordinated than their audience. The hero gets in trouble for insisting on letting people be who they really are. Maybe that's what I liked most about the movie, Vonnegut's insistence on the individual right to creatively express whatever they did best, at their best level of performance. It's not about perfectionism, but about expressing the gifts we are given.

I saw this when it came out, and wanted to see it again ever since. I did finally find a DVD bootleg, but it is a copy of a lousy videotape. It really should be available without the crummy copy! It is a great movie, thoughtful and funny. It was fun to spot several places I know in it, like the shores of the Wachusett Reservoir, the Lindemann Center building in Boston where my dad had an office, the Quincy Market cold storage facility in Watertown. Bob and Ray's reference to the red driveway reminds me of Lincoln, where roads only get patched, and they have Martian pavement after over 50 years. This movie is far too good to keep under wraps. I only just thought to look here because I saw an article about Glamping, figuring it must be what Diana Moon Glampers does, but it is some other silly thing altogether.

I saw this movie only once in the mid-70s at the Student Union in college. I must have been the exact right target demographic. I've never had an easier time to "suspend disbelief" because this movie doesn't try to justify its content, it's just fun to watch. Maybe it was because at the time I had recently read all (most?) of the books that this movie borrowed from, and I felt it resonated with my mind's eye version of the written stories.

I agree with many of the other writers that Mr. Vonnegut should remove his objections to the redistribution of this highly enjoyable film.

I have a very small DVD collection, mainly because there are so few movies I care to see more than once, but I'd buy this one.

As a Vonnegut fan, I loved the film. It was thrilling to see his character's come to life. I have issues about which of his stories were dramatized, but I will not nitpick about the film's interpretation, continuity, depth of character, etc.

I am equally forgiving about "Slaughterhouse-Five", which did a good job in telling the jumbled story of Billy Pilgrim.

I also enjoyed Bob and Ray's deadpan repetition of the phrase "Chrono-synclastic Infundibulum." It was another phrase which I happily memorized for the sheer joy of knowing it -- similar to "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Fred Barzyk; Produced by David R. Loxton for WBGH for PBS broadcast. Screenplay by Barzyk, Loxton and David Odell, from the writings of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Photography by Boyd Estus; Edited by Dick Bartlett; Special Video Effects by David Atwood; Animation by Ron Finley and Gail Gutradt. Starring: William Hickey, Kevin McCarthy, Bob & Ray, Hurd Hatfield, Bruce Morrow, Dortha Duckworth, Charles White, John Peters, Jay Gainer, Jerry Gershman, John Devlin and Frank Comer.

Wackily inspired, blackly comic science fiction satire -not all the gags work but many are classic, for example, a poet/schlump astronaut winding up in Schenectady; a radical minister ticking off the ten commandments intercut with a space launch countdown; and a nifty suicide commercial.

I saw this when I was 13 years old and I thought it was amazing. It was funny and crazy and sometimes profound, and it stuck in my head as something especially special.

Decades later, I went to the Museum of Television and watched it again. I kept my expectations down - what I liked at 13 is not the same as what I like as an adult - but you know what, I still thought it was brilliant.

I just watched it again. I was a little more aware of how dated it's early-seventies vibe is, partly because I was watching it with my girlfriend, who was pointing it out, and I noticed that it flags in parts, but overall I still enjoyed it, as did my girlfriend.

This is based in large part on Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, which I didn't read until after the second time I'd seen the TV movie. I think it's great how the creators of this took the best of Vonnegut's random ideas and distilled them into something remarkable.

Saw this in a revival theatre. I was mentally (you know) ready for a sci-fi film and totally enjoyed it.

I don't know if I would "buy" the premise of the story today, but the time travel venues were thought provoking. Food for thought for a (then)-seeking youth.

I remembered hardly anything from this movie, which I saw on TV during it's original airing when I was a big Vonnegut fan. It must have made a strong impression on me, though, because my first thought whenever I see William Hickey, even before I recall the actor's name, is, "Hey, it's Stony Stevenson." Maybe it's just that the name is so catchy.

Reading these comments gave me a strong desire to see it again -- hey, while I'm writing this, I just remembered, in the phone booth scene referenced in an earlier post, didn't Stony explain to someone that he was in Schenectady? Would sure like to see this one again, or even read it but it can't be read, can it, since it's a compilation of many different Vonnegut stories. I do remember the Chrono Synclastic Infidibulum from The Sirens of Titan. Did Billy Pilgrim go through that as well?

"I've said a lot of things in this vale of tears. One of them might have been cy-- cyanide." How wonderfully intricate, how absolutely unsalable for its time, how typifying of the occasional gallant attempt of 'Seventies television, especially 'Seventies public television, to experiment audaciously.

Yes, it wasn't the most faithful nor expert adaptation of Vonnegut's, or anybody's, work that the world has ever seen.

But God, when Diana Moon Glampers came on the air, I knew I was in for some amazing entertainment.

I saw it chiefly as a college video offering at my school, over closed circuit. It, like many of the entertainments we rented and "broadcast", garnered only small interest. Some of those entertainments included "The Prisoner" and "The Producers", which tells you something of the tastes of middle-Georgia student audiences in the late 1970s.