I couldn't help feeling this story by Bradbury was just a little bit self referential. All the old toys and knick-knacks in Leo Auffman's (Elliott Gould) garage bore a striking resemblance to the 'magic shop' seen in the opening montage of 'Ray Bradbury Theater'. It was kind of easy to see where this story was headed as Leo was obsessed to the point of ignoring his family, while wife Lena (Mimi Kuzyk) kept trying to bring him back into the family fold so he could pay attention to her and their four kids. At times I thought she was being a little too harsh about it, but that only made the resolution that more satisfying when Leo finally got the message that his home was the real happiness machine he was striving to build. The positive message came through rather successfully, without the abrupt kind of ending so many of the Bradbury episodes had.
Review of The Happiness Machine
