The Twilight Zone (TV Series) I Sing the Body Electric (1962) User Reviews

A solid and touching episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 10 July 2018]

Recently widowed George Rogers (a fine performance by David White) buys a robot grandmother (sweetly played by Josephine Hutchinson) to help take care of his children. However, his daughter Anne (an excellent portrayal by Veronica Cartwright) takes an instant disliking to her.

Directors James Sheldon and William F. Claxton relate the charming and absorbing story at a steady pace as well as ably craft a gentle and sentimental tone. Ray Bardbury's thoughtful script not only makes moving points about a child's need for love and guidance, but also handles the anger Anne feels over her mother's death in a tasteful and affecting manner. Although Cartwright cops the top acting honors here, she nonetheless receives sturdy support from Charles Herbert and Denise Dillaway as her two siblings. A lovely show.

Children....still the most complicated beings in the world.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 4 September 2019]

A longtime Warner Brothers contract actress in the 1930's, Josephine Hutchinson didn't have the career of Bette Davis, but in checking out her credits, she certainly made her share of classics. Whether or not this episode of "The Twilight Zone" is a classic is in the eyes of the viewer, But for me, it certainly is, sentimental and nostalgic, a reminder of real grandmothers, surrogate mothers and grandmothers who showed love even without blood relation, and their memory remains decades later.

"You're just old junk" young Veronica Cartwright screams, unable to accept the love of a mechanical grandmother. She's angry at her late mother for leaving her, but when Nanny Doris Packer leaves, father David White realizes that they need the loving care of someone who truly cares, and that comes in the form of a computerized grandmother, played by Hutchinson. Fable? Certainly! Untrue? Not if you're lucky enough like me to have known some terrific older women who gave love unconditionally because they wanted to, not because they had to. This is a sentimental episode with humor and joy, a great reminder of simpler days.

Ray Bradbury

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 29 October 2014]

Famed author Ray Bradbury wrote his sole contribution to the series in this tale, which sees a widower trying his best to provide guidance and support to his three children, and decides to take up a suggestion and visit a robotics company with the slogan 'I Sing The Body Electric". He acquires the services of an android nanny that comes in the form of a grandmother figure, who is most patient, wise, and understanding, and will become crucial in guiding the children into the transition of adulthood and a happy life, but must inevitably one day say goodbye when her job is finished.... Most straight-forward plot is pleasant enough though uneventful, and remains unpopular with most fans who expected more given the author, but this still remains a sweet story.

A Classic, sentimental and precious

[cagordon22 · 10/10 · 1 January 2010]

This was such a beautiful, special episode that it stayed with me for years. And it was such lovely story that years later it was made into a special one-hour movie starring Maureen Stapleton, called "The Electric Grandmother".

Very touching, I can't believe all these other comments about how it was flat and not very well acted, I think this episode was just marvelous.

Not a scary episode, like some of the other old TZ episodes (like the one where the old lady in the wheelchair was getting crank calls on stormy nights, or where the kid could wish you into a cornfield, or where Talky Tina the doll would come kill the evil stepfather), although I did appreciate those other episodes for their uniqueness, as well.

Safe to watch with your kids, it won't scare them, and I have to recommend it, as someone who deals with the griefstricken in my work, as a great show to help people start addressing their grief, which usually includes - and usually starts with - anger.

"Won't you come in please, we've been expecting you".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 15 June 2010]

I wonder sometimes if reviewers of Twilight Zone episodes have really paid attention to the story. I'm thinking of a line in Simon and Garfunkel's hit song Sounds of Silence - 'People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening'. The message of this story is expressed in Grandma's (Josephine Hutchinson) attempt to help Mr. Rogers (David White) understand that it will take some time to reach young Annie (Veronica Cartwright) - "It's the heart I have to enter, a child's heart. It is a deep place difficult to reach".

I realize that Rod Serling had a challenge to distill his stories down to a mere twenty five minutes without much room for character development. It might seem like he did this one on the fly and fairly simplistically, and in some respects he did. But he tackled a lot here - the death of a wife, the deep resentment a child feels for the unexplainable loss of a mother, and the attempt by a father to do the right thing for his children at a crucial point in their lives.

So was a robot the best choice to help save the day? I don't know, other writers would have handled it differently, but this was an outside the box sort of episode. What I found particularly intriguing was that the father wasn't present at the finale as the adult children were getting ready to head off to college. Was he just not around, or had he died? It's an interesting question posed for the viewer to decide. Did Grandma finish the job of raising the kids in a loving environment so they could move on with their lives? There's a subtlety to the ending that offers more questions than answers, and I wonder if Serling might have given his audience more to think about than he originally intended.

Not Everything Has To Be Extreme!

[terencedove · 10/10 · 27 April 2021]

TZ seemed (and still seems) to be largely categorized by many viewers as necessary to give jolts to senses that were and are dulled by life's overstimulation (a categorization obviously also assigned to Alfred Hitchcock). This could be a main reason why episodes like I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC might be panned (in this case, along with its original author, Ray Bradbury) when many actually find it as fine a TZ episode as MR. BEVIS, CAVENDER IS COMING, NIGHT OF THE MEEK, A GAME OF POOL, THE TRADE-INS, or even I AM THE NIGHT: COLOR ME BLACK. Such plainly human episodes as these (along with several more) were able to make their point without having to go to unsettling superhuman or subhuman bodily extremes to do so. Rod Serling made it a point of telling - and showing - more than one kind of tale, fully appreciating the fact that he had (and still has) more than one kind of audience...

"I Sing the Body Electric" falls a bit flat

[chuck-reilly · 6/10 · 15 July 2009]

The title of this entry, "I Sing the Body Electric," was taken from a Walt Whitman poem written nearly 100 years earlier. Back in those days, the term "electric" was relatively new and mostly unused. It's quite a unique poem, but this episode of the Twilight Zone falls a bit flat in its execution and in what it's trying to say. The futuristic but simple plot evolves around a widower and his three children. Afraid that his kids will feel deserted by the loss of their mother, the man (David White of "Larry Tate" fame from "Bewitched") acquires a robotic "grandmother" for them. Played by old-time actress Josephine Hutchinson, this mechanical lady is nothing short of miraculous in what she can do and possesses practically infinite knowledge. That isn't enough for one of the children (Veronica Cartwright) who is repelled by the "machine" and becomes even more withdrawn. Not until "grandma" has a near fatal accident and bounces up with nary a scratch does the child realize the benefits of having a substitute parent that can weather any storm or situation. They all live happily ever after until the parts start to wear out on old granny. But by then, the kids have all grown up as well-adjusted adults and they cheerfully see her off to the junk-pile.

Not much here except a lesser known story by legendary sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury. The performances are mostly routine although Ms. Hutchinson does her best with a limited role. She adds a nice touch of humanity to her robot even if it's a bit forced. A very young Veronica Cartwright also has some fine moments as the child who initially hates her mother's replacement. Viewers will note that Ms. Cartwright had a lot more trouble with another robot (Ian Holm's "Ash") in the original "Alien" movie (1979).

Timeless

[WoodLyn · 8/10 · 1 March 2020]

If watching this episode, and others, you find it old fashioned, remember that you are comparing it to today's standards. We should strive to judge it based on the standards of the 60's. Twilight Zone was a spark that lit the flames of science fiction on television and opened the genre to many who had not considered sci-fi a serious means to exaim the norms of their day. It should be celebrated, not demeaned.

A Bradbury Fixation

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 10 December 2008]

I remember the story in a Ray Bradbury anthology. He had a thing for robots. This is a pretty lightweight effort. Not that it's a bad story; it's just that there are so many unanswered questions. Why did the cruel aunt not return at some point? How much does this cost? It's just taken for granted. That's why Ray Bradbury is a fantasist and less of a science fiction writer. The story is much more about the little girl coming to grips with the loss of her mother than the science. Robots have this thing about sacrifice and this comes through. Anyway, it all works out but we are left to guess the humanity of the robot. It's a feel good episode, but it isn't as gut wrenching as the reality of the little girl.

'I can win any game of marbles with those!'.....?

[darrenpearce111 · 5/10 · 13 January 2014]

The line above is spoken by a little boy to his robot grandma regarding her eyes. I'm glad she didn't pull them out to play marbles with. On the rare occasions when TZ went in deep for sentimentality (like 'Night Of The Meek') it tended to fail, even though there are many wonderful moving moments in the series. This robo-grandma-knows-best tale is a mess (two directors). I wish I could say otherwise as it was written by the normally indescribably brilliant Ray Bradbury, and this was his one contribution to the Zone. The story is a little silly, as a father (David White) takes his three children to a showroom of Facsimiles Limited to pick out the components that will make up their robot grandma. The children opt for parts that make up a gentle character played by Josephine Hutchinson. The dissenter, Anne (Veronica Cartwright- always has been a very good actress) needs a lot more convincing of Grandma's worth and is still angry from her mother's death. A strong theme but is a robot the answer?

Please don't judge 'The Twilight Zone' or Ray Bradbury's writing by this anomalous effort.

Everyone Needs A Little Bit Of Something

[dovenote-87128 · 10/10 · 24 February 2022]

Quite a few people will be quick to say that THE TWILIGHT ZONE needs to be held to one and only one standard, thinking that they individually or collectively knew what best was going on in Rod Sterling's mind. If that truly were the case, and most self-appointed critics in general were allowed to interpret Serling as they thought best for them, stories such as I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC, I AM THE NIGHT - COLOR ME BLACK, CAVENDER IS COMING, MR. BEVIS, THE NIGHT OF THE MEEK, A TOWN CALLED WILLOUGHBY, or THE BIG TALL WISH wouldn't be allowed to exist, because the general level of acceptance would be based solely on a level of improbable supernatural science fiction, as sought by much of his audience past and present. Serling was wise to appreciate that EVERYONE'S feelings needed representation and consideration. So what if he introduced schmaltz or sentimentality every once in a while? His wisdom in doing so allowed others who normally wouldn't care for THE TWILIGHT ZONE to enjoy an episode or two on occasion and find elements they personally could identify with. As for Ray Bradbury, his short story bring turned into the episode I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC was still accepted for broadcast, whether or not it was the only one of his accepted. To malign either Bradbury's overall approach to his ideals of science fiction or Serling's treatment of Bradbury's story only serves as chest-beating moments for those who insist that they understood and understand what these two men meant. But do they - really? And what about those who want to appreciate the two on a level that they can understand and accept?

Little Girl Lost.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 1 January 2010]

A man's wife dies, leaving him alone with his three children, for whom he has little time. He hires a nanny but the grumpy old lady can't fit in and she splits. Dad gets an idea from a magazine ad. Hire a robot to act as a governess, a kind of substitute for the departed Mom except older, a surrogate Grandma.

This doesn't sit well with the innocent preadolescent daughter, Annie, played by Veronica Cartwright, who was later -- in "The Witches of Eastwicke" -- to play a woman slightly past maturity who gets to deliver the line, "I have nothing against a good f***." Anne is worried that this piece of electronic junk will leave her, just as mother did.

She doesn't, though.

It's Anne's story, and it's about coming to grips with the death of someone we loved. And now, more than in the early 60s, it has a resonance beyond that. The divorce rate has soared since then and children have step parents more than they used to, sometimes seriatim.

It's a provocative episode, if it's thought about at all. Because, after all, what does it matter what's inside our bodies? Organic or gizmos, the only important question has to do with the roles we play -- and we DO play roles, whether our programs are electrical circuits or neurobiological assemblies. It's easy to think of a number of people we'd rather have replaced by effective robots -- cops, parents, politicians, IRS auditors.

"I Sing the Body Electric" is the title of Walt Whitman's poem, which includes the line, "The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them." It's a particularly appropriate notion now, as it was when Whitman wrote it around the time of the American Civil War. Whitman, of course, was gay and served as a nurse during the war. His is an easily ridiculed stereotype, but imagine if all men had been gay nurses. No war.

An unusually weak entry

[Qanqor · 4/10 · 10 March 2010]

The real problem with this story is that there's not much story to the story. There's hardly any plot to speak of. Widower buys an electric grandma for his kids. One kid resists electric grandma. Then finally accepts her. Then the kids grow up and grandma leaves. Really, very little happens. It's much more of a premise than a story.

Moreover, strip it of it's schmaltz, and you have a story that had already done before, and better: The Lonely. Same basic idea: person initially can't accept the love of a robot, because it's just-a-machine, then eventually yields and comes to love the robot. The biggest difference is that The Lonely is much more powerful, as both the protagonist and we, the audience, are shocked abruptly back to reality and forced to remember that in the end the robot really is just a mechanism.

I also find the story highly flawed in that the electric grandmother is just *too* perfect. She's not only "human", she's *super-human*. She's *wiser* than a real person, she has no traces of mechanicalness to her at all, and she makes marbles appear out of thin air. It frankly really chafes at credulity to think that she's a machine.

Mary in the Morning

[darbski · 10/10 · 10 August 2017]

**SPOILERS** DON'T go any farther, if you haven't seen this episode; I'm gonna tell some stuff. At first glance, the wonderfully matronly grandma robot is a joy; she gave purpose and meaning to the kids' lives, as well as love and a real family...she protected the kids, especially Anne who was bothered by her mother's death. sad and happy story that ends well.

Not quite. see, several years after this story, another one comes in that follows up on how this could go. It was the Outer Limits' "Mary 25". This takes the story to a little more advanced state. Mary is another almost human automaton tasked with taking care of the kids in a family; only this time, the "father" is a real dirtbag. Through a series of events, Mary (who isn't matronly in appearance at all), protects the kids by offing dirtbag, setting the stage for the rest of the story; namely that the guy who winds up marrying the kids mom is actually set up for it by the NEW robot who takes the place of the kids' real mom whom he had a relationship with years before. You MUST see it for yourself.

This points up the one thing about artificial intelligence that is so scary. Just WHEN is it that they gain enough control over our lives that WE become obsolete? A great little movie called "Fail-Safe" posits that all it takes is the wrong thing to go wrong at the worst time for these fears to become reality; that was 1964. Now, it's worse; we've abdicated a lot of our decision making and planning to technology. Systems that we don't even know of have profiled us individually for shopping, control of our households, the electrical grids (thereby the water supply), national security.... Do we think that we're the only ones doing it?

Mary, by the way was played by Sofia Shinas. Total fox. If you're gonna have a robot, well, hell....

A Fable of Love

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 2 August 2023]

The widower George Rogers has a discussion with his sister-in-law Nedra, who believes his three children are needy of love after the death of their mother. When his son Tom shows the advertisement of a cybernetic company, George decides to order a robot to raise them. Tom and his sister Karen select the components to build the robot, including the name Grandma, but Anne rejects her since she misses her mother too much. Until something happens... "I Sing the Body Electric" is an episode of "The Twilight Zone" where the greatest attraction is the name of Ray Bradbury as one of the writers. The plot is very simple, and is indeed a fable of love, as described by Rod Serling. Another great attraction is the child Veronica Cartwright in the role of Anne Rogers. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vovó Melhor que a Encomenda" ("Grandmother Better than Ordered")

Nanny dearest

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 20 June 2021]

A cute story but kind of out of place in the twilight zone. Not many effects and a meandering storyline.

Totally average (at best) and a tad 'schmatzy'

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 29 January 2008]

A widower needs a woman's influence in raising his kids, so he brings home a grandmotherly type woman to be a housekeeper and nanny. The only problem is, she's a robot and one of the kids is freaked out about having a robotic caretaker. Frankly, when I thought about it, I agreed with the kid and was amazed at how quickly the other siblings accepted her! Regardless of my feelings, when the robotic nanny receives hatred and distrust from the child, she cannot handle the rejection--leading to a "heart-warming" and very, very schmaltzy conclusion. 'Schmaltzy', if you don't know, is a word that means overly sentimental and saccharine--and that is a good description of this rather forgettable show. Now I am not saying it is bad, per se, as it did have a few interesting elements but overall it's at best an average episode and one you shouldn't rush to see.

Sappy

[mszouave · 2/10 · 3 October 2021]

This has to be my least favorite episode of TZ.

It is hard to believe that Ray Bradbury wrote this schmaltzy, sappy episode. I guess if anyone but Bradbury wrote this it never would have been made.

I like just about every episode of TZ, even the ones that are not highly rated, but this one was a stinker.

The kids from Fame did it better.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 6 April 2022]

Widower George Rogers (David White) is struggling to find enough time to devote to his three children and so he visits Facsimile Limited, a company that builds lifelike robot guardians to order.

I Sing The Body Electric is so saccharine sweet that it almost made me want to vomit. It sent my Schmaltzometer off the scale. The robot nanny that is sent to look after the three children makes Mary Poppins look like a harsh battleaxe by comparison.

Celebrated sci-fi author Ray Bradbury wrote this particular episode, the man clearly having an off day; he apparently sent several scripts to The Twilight Zone, and this was the only one produced. I dread to think how bad the others must have been.

Where's Mary Poppins when you need her?

[Coventry · 4/10 · 15 May 2021]

At first, upon noticing the episode was written by Ray Bradbury, I had very high hopes. Bradbury is the author behind terrifically sinister stories like "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes", and I honestly find it bizarre that he wasn't more involved in Serling's famous Sci-Fi/cult series. Unfortunately, though, "I Sing the Body Electric" turned out to be one of the weakest entries of the third season. Whenever I write that, it's usually because the episode is far too sentimental and melodramatic, rather than grim and unsettling. And that's exactly the problem here, too. "I Sing the Body Electric" easily could have been a great prototype for later and similarly themed classics like "The Stepford Wives", "Westworld" or "Demon Seed", but instead became a mushy tale about an artificial grandmother and how she must conquer the hearts of the children she's programmed to bring up. Okay, the robot-granny going on a killing spree would have been too extreme, but was a little bit of suspense or dystopian undertones too much to ask for?

404.

[bombersflyup · 1/10 · 11 November 2019]

I sing the Body Electric is one of the worst, with cheesy horrible dialogue, bad acting and a stupid plot. Yep!