#Peter Goodchild

[denimbex1986]

'LONG before Cillian Murphy there was Sam Waterston, and long before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer there was Peter Goodchild’s Oppenheimer (BBC4, Friday), which is being reshown for the first time in decades.

Goodchild, who was interviewed by Variety last month to coincide with the film’s release, started his BBC producing career in radio drama and later moved to television with the science documentary series Horizon.

When Horizon diversified into science docudramas in the 1970s, Goodchild, who holds a chemistry degree, got to combine his two interests in a successful series about Marie Curie.

It was his idea to make a seven-part miniseries about J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, played by Waterston. First shown on BBC2 in 1980, Oppenheimer was a big hit with viewers and critics, winning three Bafta awards. It also garnered Emmy and Golden Globe nominations after it was shown on PBS in the United States.

The budget of £1.5m (about €7.5m today) – 90pc of it coming from the BBC, the rest from WGBH Boston – might seem like a grain of New Mexico sand compared with the £100m price tag of Nolan’s Imax epic.

Back then, however, it was a huge spend for a British drama.

A huge physical production, too, with scrupulous attention to detail. For maximum authenticity, Goodchild, now 83, told Variety, the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory was recreated on a purpose-built set in Colorado Springs, complete with water tower and replica bomb.

The supporting cast was made up almost entirely of American actors based in Britain.

Two notable exceptions were future Poirot star David Suchet as the excitable, voluble Hungarian physicist Edward Teller and Edward Hardwicke (Dr Watson to Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes) as his Italian colleague Enrico Fermi.

Viewers who have grown used to watching even modestly budgeted dramas shot on HD video that mimics celluloid film may find the switch from Oppenheimer’s interior scenes, which were mostly shot on videotape in a studio in the UK, to the ones shot on film in America a little jarring at first.

But the story is so engrossing you cease to be aware of the contrast after a while.

What’s remarkable is how well Oppenheimer, which was written by Peter Prince and directed by Barry Davis, holds up 43 years later.

There’s none of the slowness or staginess you sometimes see in dramas from the period. Friday’s opening two episodes positively zipped by.

They spanned the years 1938, when Oppenheimer was at the University of Berkley, to 1942, when Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (Manning Redwood), ignoring warnings about Oppenheimer’s long associations with active communists and championing of left-wing causes, put him in charge of the Manhattan Project, which was to be housed in a high-security facility in Los Alamos.

Waterston, just four years ahead of his best actor Oscar nomination for playing Siydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields, is fantastic as Oppenheimer.

You can see why the BBC was prepared to pay him well above the normal rate for appearing in one of its dramas and to put him up in a luxury hotel during filming.

He conveys Oppenheimer’s charisma, intelligence, brilliance and charm, especially to women.

But we also see his ruthlessness and arrogance.

When we meet him, he’s romantically involved with psychiatrist and communist Jean Tatlock (Kate Harper), who suffered from clinical depression (she died by suicide in 1944), yet thinks nothing of casting her aside when he sets eyes on his future wife Kitty Puening (Jana Shelden), who at that time is married to someone else.

They tumble into an affair. In one particularly cruel moment, he humiliates Jean by turning up at a dinner party at her home with Kitty on his arm.

Even at this stage, the seeds of Oppenheimer’s downfall are being sown. Naively unconcerned about the dangers of having communist friends, he doesn’t realise he’s already under FBI surveillance.

A terrific drama from a far more creative age of TV.'

[a30nflux]

[galtchild]

I am obsessed with Trevor Goodchild, but the name Goodchild is taken on every website and John Galt is almost as stupid and ridiculous, hence my name. I thought the double joke was funny until I realized I may be mistaken for an Objectivist. I thought that we had all read Watchmen/played bioshock and knew that that shit doesn't work.

Tldr: For all character judgement in perpetuity, Ayn Rand is a monster and Peter Chung is a genius.

[dev1rus]

To my matrix followers!

If you like the matrix and want something similar to a strange aesthetic and you watched the animatrix I highly advise you check out the 90s MTV series "Æon Flux" as Peter Chung created it and has done an animatrix episode.

The series follows a female agent engaged in a war against a nation controlled by Trevor Goodchild who she has a very strange enemy lovers relationship with. Some episodes are extremely strange but it's HEAVILY ahead of its time when it comes to writing, philosophy and sexuality

[tenaciouspostfun]



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ELF

Buddy Returns in A Raucous Musical.



By Robert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).Published about 13 hours ago • 3 min read



Robert M. Massimi.

"Elf" at the Marquis Theatre is the best show on Broadway this season! Although the plot has varied a little from the movie, the laughs and thrills remain the same. What makes this show so great is the blend between the music, songs and the pace of the musical. "Elf" is never slow and the songs only enhance this raucous comedy. The musical entertains the adults and the children alike; it never favors one age group or the other.

Grey Henson as Buddy the elf has such a great presence on stage, his delivery and energy is very much a main attraction onstage; in fact, all of the characters in this two hour show are fantastic. This falls squarely on superb direction by Philip WM. McKinley and brilliant choreography by Liam Steel. The combination of the two keep the audience locked in tight throughout the evening, and makes the entire production fun to watch!

"Elf" is what a big musical should look like. With its massive staging (Tim Goodchild- he also did the costumes), great glam lighting by Patrick Woodroffe, resonating and booming sound by Gareth Owen/ Peter Fitzgerald and wonderful orchestration by Doug Besterman. Bob Martin for the most part did an excellent job with the book; Matthew Sklar's music and lyrics by Chad Beguelin complemented this behemoth musical.

The only problem with "Elf" was the projection at times. In the many backdrops of the production, the projection was out of focus leaving us to try to focus in on the different parts of the north pole as well as various parts of New York City. The story too had some different spins from the movie, sometimes the changes were engrossing, and sometimes they didn't work so well. Even with these mild flaws, "Elf" is a must see for children of all ages.

As Buddy goes through his blissful life like Will Ferrell did in the movie, Henson too spreads his goodwill on his fellow man. Realizing he is not an elf, but a human, he seeks out for his natural father (his mother died after he was born). His innocence makes even the hardest of New Yorker's soften their tone around him. From the comical store manager (Kalen Allen) to the no non-sense Mr. Greenway (Sean Astin), who owns Greenway publications, (Astin also plays Santa) they are all either put-off by Buddy at first sight, or they think he is mentally unfit. His father, Walter Hobbs (Michael Hayden) wants him out of his families life.

Whereas the movie focused more on Buddy and his half brother, the musical brought the many great actors here to the forefront. To me, this was brilliant because it opened the show up for more comedy options... the store manager, the hot dog vendor and the policemen. Henson had a great blend with all the characters, but I thought that he was at his best with Santa, his new found love, Tiara, the store manager, the saleswoman and the fake Santa.

Like "Music Man", "Back to The Future", "Elf" is a pleasant show, one that the audience can sit back and escape too. With the shows pleasant music, easy to watch dance moves and the great direction that went behind this show, it too will be one that you will remember for a very long time!

"Elf", Broadway, Tony Awards, Hollywood, Will Ferrell, Sean Astin, Grey Henson, Marquis Theatre, Alladin, Harry Potter, Hamilton, Hadestown, Wicked, The Great White Way, The Lion King, Once Upon A Mattress, A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To The Forum, Left On Tenth, The Roommate, Patti Lupone, The Oscars, James Caan.

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About the Creator



Robert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).

I have been writing on theater since 1982. A graduate from Manhattan College B.S. A member of Alpha Sigma Lambda, which recognizes excellence in both English and Science. I have produced 14 shows on and off Broadway. I've seen over700 shows

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Left on Tenth

During the show, "Left on Tenth" at the Jones Theatre, Delia (Julianna Margulies) tells the 4th wall audience that in her life "she takes two steps forward and one step back". Indeed her life seems this way. As a high strung, comical figure, Delia is a writer; her mother and father were writers too. Based on sister Ephron's memoir, "Left" is autobiographical. From the writers of "You've Got Mail" comes this warm, charming and heart- ripping new play that has many great things going for it!

RMM(BB

ByRobert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).24 days ago in Art



Legendary

"Alright my brothers listen closely Tonight, we make the Trojans pay Ten years of war they killed us slowly But now we’ll be the ones who slaaay!

AM

ByAlexander McEvoy6 days ago in Art



CRYPTO RECOVERY—HOW TO RECOVER LOST CRYPTOCURRENCY → CONTACT HACKATHON TECH SOLUTION

Hackathon Tech Solutions is a reputable company known for their expertise in recovering lost or stolen cryptocurrency

LG

ByLisa Gabriela6 days ago in Art



Dear Peggy

Dear Peggy, I would’ve titled this story “Dear Mama” but I know Peggy annoys you more. From me to you I guess you’ll remember the season of Thanksgiving as one of the main events when I come by your house and eat up all your food, especially banana pudding, but as shocking as it may be, Thanksgiving is also the time when I reflect on how thankful I am to have you as a mother.

JP

ByJoe Patterson4 days ago in Confessions

Written by Robert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).

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[within-its-cave]

Hi, I had to redo these last two reblogs because I noticed something with that needed to be fixed...

Anyway, the sources I transcribed yesterday, encase someone wants more books to look for with this topic:

Conant, Jennet. 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Gallagher, Thomas. Assault in Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 1975.

Haynes, John Earl, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Holoway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: the Soviet Union and the Atomic Energy, 1939-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.

Jungk, Robert. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1965.

Lamont, Lansing. Day of Trinity. New Yorl: Atheneum, 1965.

Laurence, William. Dawn Over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947.

Los Alamos National Laboratory Public Affairs Office. Los Alamos 1943-1945: The Beginning of an Era. Los Alamos, NM, 1986.

Mears, Ray. The Real Heros of Telemark. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2003.

Persico, Joseph E. Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. New York: Random House, 2001.

Powers, Thomas. Heisenberg’s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1993.

Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

Serber, Robert. The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How th Build an Atomic Bomb. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992.

Shirer, William, L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.

Toland, John. The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japenese Empire, 1936- 1945. New York: The Modern Library, 2003.

Zoellner, Tom. Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock that Shaped the World. New York: Viking, 2009.

Character Sources

Albright, Joseph, and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy. New York: Times Book, 1997.

Bird, Kai and Martin Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Vantage Books, 2005.

Cook, Haruko Taya and Theodore F. Cook. Japan at War: An Oral History. New York: The New Press, 1992.

Cole, K.C. Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

Davis, Nuel Pharr. Lawrence and Oppenheimer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968.

Dawidoff, Nicholas. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. New York: Pantheon Book, 1994.

Goodchild, Peter. J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds. New York: Fromm International Pub. Corp., 1985.

Hall, Joan. Interview on PBS Program “Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies.” Broadcast Feb. 5, 2002.

Herken, Gregg. Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

Hornblum, Allen M. The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

Larsen, Rebecca. Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb. New York: Franklin Watts, 1998.

McCullough, David. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Moon, Thomas and Carl F. Eifler. The Deadliest Colonel. New York: Vantage Press, 1975.

Moss, Norman. Klaus Fuchs: The Man Who Stole the Atom Bomb. London: Grafton Books, 1987.

Norris, Robert S. Racing for the Bomb. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 2002.

Pais, Abraham. J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Roberts, Sam. The Brother: The Untold Story of Atomic Spy David Greenglass and How He Sent His Sister, Ethal Rosenberg, the the Electric Chair. New York: Random House, 2001.

Royal, Denise. The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 1969.

Steeper, Nancy Cook. Gatekeeper to Los Alamos: Dorothy Scarritt McKibben. Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos Historical Society, 2003.

Sykes, Christopher. No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.

Williams, Robert Chadwell. Klaus Fuchs: Atom Spy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Primary Sources

Alvarez, Luis. Interview conducted by Charles Weiner and Barry Richman, February 15, 1967. Recording house at Niels Bohr Library and Archives, College Park, MD.

Anderson, Herbert L. “Fermi, Szilard, and Trinity.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Oct. 1974, pgs. 40-47.

Badash, Lawrence, Joseph Hirschfelder, Herbert Broida, editors. Reminiscences of Los Alamos, 1943-1945. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1980.

Bernstein, Jeremy. Hitler’s Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall. New York: Copernicus Books, 2001.

Blum, John Morton, editor. The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973.

Churchill, Winston. The Hinge of Fate. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.

Feklisov, Alexander, and Sergei Kostin. The Man Behind the Rosenbergs: Memoirs of the KGB Spymaster. New York: Enigma Books, 2004.

Fermi, Laura. Atoms in the Family. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Ferrell, Robert H., editor. Harry S. Truman and the Bomb: A Documentary History. Worland, WY: High Plains, 1996.

Feynman, Richard P. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.

Feynman, Richard P. What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character. New York: Bantam Books, 1989.

Frisch: What Little I Remember, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Fuchs, Klaus. Statement made at British War Office, January 27, 1950. Available online at www.mi5.gov.uk

Goudsmit, Samuel Abraham. Alsos. New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1947.

Groves, Leslie. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962

Hachiya, Michihiko, MD. Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6—September 30, 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955.

Haukelid, Knut. Skis Against the Atom. Minor, ND: North American Heritage Press, 1989 (Originally published by William Kimber, 1954).

In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personal Security Board and Texts of Principal Documents and Letters. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1954.

Kelley, Cynthia C., editor. The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians. New York: Black Dog & Levanthal Publishers, 2007.

Lamphere, Rabert, and Tom Shachtman. The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agnet’s Story. New York: Random House, 1986.

Libby, Leona Marshall. The Uranium People. New York: Crane, Russak & Company, 1979.

Oppenheimer, Robert. “Oppenheimer Replies.” Bulletins of the Atomic Scientists, May 1954, pgs. 177-191

Osada, Arata, editor. Children of Hiroshima. Tokyo: Publishing Committee for Children of Hiroshima, 1980.

Bash, Boris. The Alsos Mission. New York: Award House, 1969.

Pearl Harbor Remembered: Survivors Remembrances, oral history collected by Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Upland, CA.

Roosevelt, Franklin, D. “Day of Infamy” Speech, December 8, 1941. Original at National Archives, Washington, D.C., and viewable online at www.archives.gov

Scope of Soviety Activity in the United States: Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956-57

Serber, Robert. Peace and War: Reminiscences of a Life on the Frontiers of Science. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.

Smith, Alice Kimball and Charles Weiner, editors. Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980.

Stimson, Henry. “Memorandum of Conference with the President” August 8, 1945, 10:45 AM. From the Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries, reel 9. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT.

Szilard, Leo. His Vision of the Facts: Selected Recollections and Correspondence. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978.

Teller, Edward. Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001.

Tibbers, Paul W., with Clair Stebbings and Harry Franken. The Tibbets Story. New York: Stein and Day, 1978.

Truman, Harry. “Statement by the President of the United States.” Aug. 6, 1945. At Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independace, MO. Available online at www.trumanlibrary.org

Truman, Harry S. Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Volume 1: Year of Decisions. Garden City, NY: 1955.

Truman, Margaret, editor. Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman. New York: Warner Books, 1989.

Ulam, Stanislaw. Adventures of a Mathematician. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991.

Wattenburg, Albert. “December 2, 1942: The Event and the People.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Dec. 1982, pgs. 22-32.

Werner, Ruth. Sonya’s Report. London: Chatto & Windus, 1991.

Wigner, Eugene. The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner as Told to Andrew Szanton. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1992. Wilson, Jane. “All in Our Time: Reminiscences of Nuclear Pioneers.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 1974, pgs. 10-18.

While our library didn’t have exactly what I was looking for, it does have Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

Here are pictures from the first few pages. One of Opje is captioned “Robert Oppenheimer poses at the front of his classroom at Princeton University, December 17, 1947”

[curatorofthisdigitalmorass]

Aeon Flux and Trevor Goodchild - Art by Peter Chung

[loo-nuh-tik]

AEON FLUX

[denimbex1986]

'Decades before Christopher Nolan set his sights on a movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer, a science-obsessed BBC executive ventured to America in 1979 to make a $1.5 million TV show about the father of the atom bomb.

Peter Goodchild began his career at the BBC in radio drama, but eventually migrated to the storied “Horizon” science unit to put his chemistry degree to some use. The division began experimenting with factual dramas in the 1970s, and after delivering a hit series on French-Polish physicist Marie Curie, Goodchild set his sights on the New York-born Oppenheimer.

“I’d seen a play on J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Hampstead Theatre Club way back in 1966,” the 83-year-old tells Variety from his home in Exeter, southwest England, where his Zoom background reveals a room teeming with books on heaving shelves.

“It was an amazing story, and I’d always wanted to do it,” Goodchild continues. “Someone suddenly presented me with a book about Oppenheimer and his relationship with one of his other scientific colleagues, which was an excellent story. I said, ‘I’d love to take it further.’ And we did.”

Goodchild’s seven-part 1980 BBC series “Oppenheimer” — with the physicist played by 40-year-old Sam Waterston, just years away from his Oscar-nominated performance for “The Killing Fields” — received seven BAFTA nominations and took home three golden masks, including best drama series. The show, which was co-produced with WGBH Boston (which contributed just $100,000), also picked up a Golden Globe nod for Waterston along with two Primetime Emmy nominations.

Viewed through a contemporary lens, “Oppenheimer” is astonishing. A BBC-produced series telling an American story, featuring a predominantly American cast? It simply would never happen now. The broadcaster’s ongoing fight to justify its license fee-based funding model — in which every BBC-watching household in the U.K. pays £159 ($204) a year to fund its content — means that most original dramas on the Beeb have a distinctly British flavor.

But back then, “the sheer volume of drama that was happening was extraordinary,” explains Ruth Caleb, then a plucky line producer on “Oppenheimer.” “It went beyond the insular; it was much more outward-looking.” BBC drama still is, in some ways, she hastens to add. “But for different reasons that are often commercial reasons. Back then, they were creative reasons.”

“When Peter put up ‘Oppenheimer’ as an idea, it was clearly an important subject matter, because it’s not just about the country we live in, but about the world that we live in,” says Caleb, who is still producing films and scripted series under her own banner. “I think they trusted that Peter would come up with something pretty special.”

“Oppenheimer” introduces the nuclear physicist during his time with the University of Berkeley physics department — a halcyon period for the listless scientist, who surrounded himself with card-carrying Communists (though never fully subscribed himself) and carried on with the troubled Jean Tatlock while falling for Kitty Puening, a married woman.

The bulk of its seven hours focused on the formation of the Manhattan Project and the Los Alamos settlement in New Mexico, with special attention paid to Oppenheimer’s tumultuous relationship with General Leslie Groves and other scientists such as Edward Teller (played by “Poirot” star David Suchet). A masterful depiction of the Trinity test in Episode 5 used archival material to convey the actual blast, but also relied on a huge, arid Colorado Springs set. The final two episodes focused on Oppenheimer’s post-war troubles, and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission hearing that stripped him of his security clearance, effectively severing his ties to U.S. government.

While much had been written by the late 1970s about Oppenheimer, who died of throat cancer in 1967, Goodchild and screenwriter Peter Prince spent a month in America researching the scientist. In addition to meeting a number of his academic peers — “They were happy to talk and talk!” says Goodchild — the duo also located Oppenheimer’s son Peter, his brother Frank and sister-in-law. (Kitty had died a few years prior, in 1972, while his daughter Toni died by suicide in 1977.)

“We got very, very strong images from his brother,” says Goodchild. “And then we went one Sunday morning to meet Peter. But when we arrived, he wasn’t there. Someone said he’s gone, but that he has these moods and may feel differently in an hour.”

So, Goodchild and Prince “hung out and wandered about” until he returned. “And he turned up,” the producer exclaims. “He wouldn’t let us in the house. He talked in a very—” Goodchild falters. “It was obvious life has not been straightforward for him.”

When the team began casting, they hired U.K.-based American actors, which helped to save money. A lead, however, proved elusive. All sorts of ideas were thrown at the wall — at one point, even “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins was in the mix — until Caleb suggested Waterston, who would need to be flown in from the U.S. where he’d been shooting a movie in Wisconsin.

“He was a dreamboat,” says Caleb. “Just the loveliest guy.”

Adds Goodchild: “I think we were paying him £1,200 a program. He liked the scripts, and said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it’ … We put him up in a house in Chelsea, which was around £1,200 a month, which seemed astronomical to us.” (Calculating for inflation, that’s roughly £6,500 per month.)

Waterston was worth the eye-watering Chelsea rent. His casting was considered to be a masterstroke due to his complex, unsentimental portrayal of Oppenheimer. One Manhattan Project scientist even remarked at the time that Waterston was “more Oppenheimer than Oppenheimer ever was.”

“My abiding memory of the production is how nice Sam Waterston was to work with,” screenwriter Peter Prince tells Variety over an email. “I re-watched a couple of episodes to refresh my memory and was reminded again how good Sam was as the actor: he was the complex Oppenheimer — charming, conflicted and driven.”

The show filmed between a studio in the U.K. for interior shots, and in Colorado Springs, where the Los Alamos project was constructed along with the vast tower that housed the atom bomb (pictured). “Everyone [tried] to be as authentic and near the actuality as possible,” says Caleb, who always had one eye on the $1.5 million budget — the equivalent of around $5.5 million today.

“When we were setting up Trinity, we hired this guy to make the bomb. And I knew that when we film, what you see in it is not the detail. But he did that bomb, which was hugely expensive, and every single detail of it was accurate — not that you ever saw it,” says Caleb. “I wasn’t pleased, yet he was so delighted that he managed to make this bomb exactly as it was. And all he got from me was a rather sour face saying ‘Yes, but you’ve gone over your budget!’”

Trinity was shot in three parts, with the American shoot completed over four weeks, followed by the studio work — which encompassed several control room scenes — and then other extraneous shots. Goodchild and Caleb detail a “pretty smooth” production that was primarily the work of the show’s gifted late director, Barry Davis, whom they describe as “fearsome” but someone who “knew what he wanted.” They also credit their editor Tariq Anwar, “who was brilliant,” adds Caleb.

Despite the show’s heavy subject matter, the team managed to eke out some fun on set. Toward the end of the shoot, when Suchet wrapped his final scenes as Teller and stepped out of the studio, “they delivered a cream pie into his face,” laughs Caleb. “I can’t remember whether it was Sam or someone else. But that demonstrates the good nature on the production. It was a happy production.”

Yet as one of Hollywood’s most visionary directors returns the A-bomb’s formidable creator to the cultural consciousness, the BBC’s “Oppenheimer” has become a largely forgotten production.

Goodchild — who used his research to write a book on Oppenheimer that published alongside the series in 1980 — had some interaction with Kai Bird, co-author of the 2005 Oppenheimer biography “American Prometheus” that Nolan’s film is based on. However, neither he nor Caleb were contacted by the “Tenet” director or Universal Studios as the new film came together. In fact, the pair are full of questions about how the movie turned out, and how it compares to the series. “I wonder what attracted [Nolan] to Oppenheimer,” Caleb says.

Goodchild, meanwhile, is shocked to hear the film will open on the same day as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Wow,” he mutters. “I’m going to be very interested to see how well it goes down.”

Though there are 43 years between the TV show and the movie, the similarities in approach to scenes between Oppenheimer and the main players in his orbit are striking, particularly certain conversations between the scientist and Groves and Teller. The BBC series may be of its time — devoid of Ludwig Göransson’s feverish score, Nolan’s propulsive direction and a massive IMAX canvas — and made for around 5% of the movie’s budget in real terms, but in many ways, its narrative structure and use of sub-plots that delve deeper into Oppenheimer’s inner circle make it a more holistic portrait of an unpredictable character.

Caleb at one point asks whether the BBC will bring “Oppenheimer” out of the archives to air alongside the movie hitting cinemas. With an estimated opening of $50 million this weekend and clear public interest, it’s a good question.

But for all its critical success, “Oppenheimer” appears to have been all but lost in the annals of TV history. In the U.K., it’s not even on the BBC’s streaming service iPlayer; instead, it’s available for purchase on Prime Video for around £10. BBC Studios owns the rights to the series, but Variety understands a “complicated” rights situation means the show may not be rerun anytime soon.

Those who do uncover the series, of course, don’t tend to regret it. When Goodchild’s neighbors visited New Mexico several years back, he suggested they visit the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

“Not only did they do that, but they bought a DVD [of ‘Oppenheimer’] and took it home and watched it,” says Goodchild. “They came back and quite seriously said, ‘That was wonderful.’ After 42 years, it wasn’t something that got thrown at you very often.”'

[remembersaturday]

Series Review-Æon Flux (1991-1995) Summary: Æon Flux is a mysterious and amoral secret agent from the country of Monica. Her motives or background are left unexplained, as are those of her antagonist/love, Trevor Goodchild. On her missions, she deals swift, bloody "justice" to all that oppose her. The second season episodes of this series were unique in that Aeon died at the end of every single episode. Genre: Adventure, Avant-garde, Science Fiction Created by: Peter Chung Composer: Drew Neumann Country of origin: United States No. of seasons: 3 No. of episodes: 21 (list of episodes) Executive producers: Japhet Asher, Abby Terkuhle Producer: Catherine Winder Production companies: Colossal Pictures, MTV Animation Distributor: MTV Networks Original network: MTV Picture format: NTSC Audio format: Stereo Original Release: November 30, 1991 – October 10, 1995 Voice cast: (list of cast members) Æon Flux ; at this point, for me, just exists as a piece of nostalgia. It's a piece of art that I didn't know I wanted until I had it and couldn't really appreciate until it was out of the MTV line-up. At the time when it first aired, it was unlike anything I had ever seen but because I was only about 9 or 10, I wasn't allowed to watch it. The episodes I was able to sneak and watch left me wanting more. I didn't really understand the show, it wasn't for my age group. The writing and the themes were too "grown up" and each episode seemed like it's own universe unto itself; but there was something special about it, something intriguing. The art style was weird and the characters had exaggerated features. It doesn't seem to be one continuous story but a bunch of stories centered around the main character; Æon Flux , and her arch-enemy/lover...Trevor Goodchild. They remain pretty much the same between episodes but the supporting cast and the overall scenario changes. I think that's why today it still sticks out in my memory. It was ahead of it's time. Nobody was really doing anything similar and even today there really aren't many shows I could even compare it to. Our first introduction to Æon Flux was part of the Liquid Television program on MTV. It was an animation showcase where you might have seen another classic...Bevis & Butthead. The first few episodes were extremely short and contained little or no dialogue during it's run time. Peter Chung was able to convey all the emotion, character motivation and information the viewers needed to stay on the channel with a silent protagonist, which impressive. The way the show is setup, it would have you believe that because Æon is the focal point of the show and Trevor Goodchild is presented as her counter-balance that she is the hero, she's the "good guy" and that he's the "bad guy", but it's not always that cut and dry in every scenario. Some times you will fight with what you're actually rooting for, you'll wonder if you've had their alignments backwards the whole time. They have kind of a Batman/Joker dynamic. They need each other. His totalitarian empire needs terrorism to justify his methods and she needs that empire to rebel against for her own selfish needs. The setting of this show is a dystopian society and some scenes are hard to watch even as an adult. Peter Chung seemingly didn't just want to you to see a dystopia and take you on a tour of a world unlike your own, he wanted you to feel it. He perfectly captures the pain and brutality of of such an environment which is often translated through ever changing supporting cast. For example; in episode 3, a woman named Sybil and her lover, Onan seek to cross the border from Bregna into Monica. Sybil makes an attempt but she is shot in the back by a turret completely destroying one of her vertebrae. She can now only stand up right by way of Goodchild's technology. Sybil discovers how Æon has been crossing the border but Goodchild warns her that Æon has been allowed to do this. Sybil doesn't listen and she makes a second attempt, she dodges the turrets but has her legs amputated by robots she helped manufacture. It's a heartbreaking view of what life is like for some people under Trevor’s tyranny. THE GOOD

The aesthetic of the show is maybe it’s most intriguing asset. I had never seen anything like it, I had never felt anything like this show. There was an ambiance too it. It wasn’t just an atypical art style, there was a whole atmosphere built around these stories. I didn’t just watch Æon Flux , I experienced it. It’s almost hard to put into words what watching this show is like.

The unorthodox approach storytelling is a hard sell, especially in an animated series and in the 90′s at that but in the general sense, it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s not linear, I don’t know where every episode is going. The writer doesn’t hold my hand or insult my intelligence. He doesn’t explain everything and he doesn’t need to. That’s part of what makes this show great, breaking it down and processing what i’m seeing for myself and drawing my own conclusions as to what everything means.

Because of the narrative structure of the show, characters have to be more expressive and more information has to be provided through facial expressions and subtle details. Some of the shorts don’t have any dialogue so the fact that people were so interested in those shorts that it became an actual series, says a lot about what Peter Chung is capable of. 

THE BAD

The approach to storytelling isn’t for everyone. They don’t really build this ongoing story about Æon. It’s kind of hard to follow. You have to see every episode too because if you miss one then you missed a scenario completely, they won’t revisit it in another episode. 

I give Æon Flux an 8.9 out of 10 CULT CLASSIC

[ironmaidenhead]

Aeon Flux 3.02 “Isthmus Crypticus” (Original air date August 15, 1995)

[eflaw]

aeon flux “gravity” original air date (september 22, 1992)

[dariiy]

Aeon Flux and Trevor Goodchild sketchy ❤

commission info | tip-jar|redbubble

[artofthetitle]

New this week! Skate the edge and learn the story behind MTV’s avant-garde animated series AEON FLUX (1991) with creator Peter Chung and composer Drew Neumann! Read more on Art of the Title: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/aeon-flux/

[lovingsylvia]

Today marks the 59th anniversary of Sylvia Plath’s death! RIP! 27 October 1932 Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, USA - 11 February 1963, Primrose Hill, London, England, United Kingdom ***

“I can't deceive myself out of the bare stark realization that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how sure that character is fate, nothing is real, past or future, when you are alone in your room with the clock ticking loudly into the false cheerful brilliance of the electric light. And if you have no past or future which, after all, is all that the present is made of, why then you may as well dispose of the empty shell of present and commit suicide. But the cold reasoning mass of gray entrail in my cranium which parrots "I think, therefore I am," whispers that there is always the turning, the upgrade, the new slant. And so I wait.”

-–The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, diary entry no. 36, 1950

...

59 years ago today:

Sylvia Plath commited suicide on Monday, 11 February 1963 at approximately 4:30 a.m. in her appartment at 23 Fitzroy Road, near Primrose Hill, London, where she moved in with her two children in December 1962 after separating from Ted Hughes; a house William Butler Yeats used to live in from 1867 till 1873.

She was 30 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and 1 day old. Her death certificate states that the cause of her death was “Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (domestic gas) whilst suffering from depression. Did kill herself”.

She left some bread and milk in her children’s (Frieda, almost 3 and Nicholas, 1 year old) room, opened their window and sealed their door off with tape to prevent the gas from entering. She also sealed the kitchen door with wet towels.Sylvia Plath’s dead body was discovered less than five hours later. Her children were unharmed.

Jillian Becker wrote in her memoir Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath that “According to Mr. Goodchild, a police officer attached to the coroner’s office … [Plath] had thrust her head far into the gas oven… [and] had really meant to die.”Sylvia Plath is buried in Heptonstall’s parish churchyard of St Thomas the Apostle, the new St Thomas á Becket’s churchyard; near Ted Hughes’ birthplace Mytholmroyd in  West Yorkshire, England.

...

Photo info: Studio portrait of Sylvia Plath holding with a glass ball, 1945-55

Photo source: Peter K. Steiberg’s Twitter @sylviaplathinfo

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

60s/70s hammer aeon flux cast:

aeon flux - caroline munro

trevor goodchild - peter cushing

vindictive male hero/aeon's love interest that she ditches by the end - ralph bates

lady in a troubled relationship with ralph bates - pippa steel

trevor's assistant who deserts after realizing bregna is shitty/guy aeon helps escape bc he's being forced to work for trevor - shane briant

trevor's other numbered assistants - christopher neame, oliver reed, stephanie beacham (they r like team rocket 2 me)

older man who is plot relevant, probably a scientist or politician of some kind - andre morell