Synopsis
The first color television broadcast goes haywire, transmitting content that wasn’t written. The writer and the advertiser threaten to sue.
History
First publication: Astounding September 1939
Review
This is touted as Sturgeon’s first published story, but he actually wrote quite a few stories in the year before this was published, just not in the SF magazines. But his SF and Astounding debut is a very funny and very imaginative story, solidly in the new “Campbell” style of SF. It is only a short story, so modern readers, used to having everything spelled out for them, may not like how the story ends and leaves a lot of questions. But it leaves a lot of room for your own imagination to carry on with the idea into all of its implications. The story was well-loved when it was published, has been reprinted a lot, and is definitely a part of the classics of SF. Top Tale!
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
The Great SF Stories 1 (1939), edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, paperback, DAW Books, 1979-03-00
The Ultimate Egoist, hardcover, North Atlantic Books, 1995-02-00
First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time, edited by Damon Knight, paperback, Lancer Books, 1963-08-00
All of the stories in the Ether Breather series:
Butyl and the Breather
1 Ether Breather
