TV miniseries
In 1979 NBC commissioned a miniseries adaptation in partnership with the BBC, The Martian Chronicles. The adaptation was written by Richard Matheson and was directed by Michael Anderson. The series star was Rock Hudson as 'Wilder', with Darren McGavin as 'Parkhill', Bernadette Peters as 'Genevieve Selsor', Bernie Casey as 'Jeff Spender', Roddy McDowall as 'Father Stone', and Barry Morse as 'Hathaway', and Fritz Weaver. Bradbury found the miniseries "just boring."[5]
The mini-series, first shown in 1980, is divided into three episodes with a total running time of just over four hours (nearly five hours on the DVD version). The first starts with two failed expeditions, where Martians kill the human spacemen. A third expedition follows where Spender goes insane and is killed by Colonel Wilder.
Wilder then becomes director of the colonization effort of Mars. By this time, all the Martians have been killed off by a strain of chickenpox; only Martian ghosts and the "Old Ones" non-corporeal Martians from millions of years ago, remain. The series ends after World War III occurs on Earth, and Mars is evacuated shortly before. Only a few scattered humans remain on Mars with the Martians appearing as either illusions, now long dead. Whether the Martians are ghosts or shadows of the past is not made clear.
In the final scene, Wilder, now alone with his family, meets a Martian ghost from thousands of years before. He then takes his family into the ruins of a Martian city, saying they will live there and learn the Martian way. He then points into a pool of water at the family's reflection and states, "Those are the Martians", indicating that the humans will be the new citizens of Mars.
The television series employs the concept of suspension of disbelief in that, apart from the obvious science fiction aspects of living Martians, the series was filmed in an Earth desert and has very noticeable blue sky with white clouds. Mars is also said to have a "thin atmosphere" which humans can breathe and there are canals of water and desert type vegetation.
