This is a tearfully poignant story that's bound to grab you by your heartstrings in a way no other Bradbury episode could have. It features Tyne Daly as a lonely farm housewife who can't read or write, and is consistently left dejected by her neighbor's (Helen Moulder) daily walk to the mailbox to pick up her connections to the outside world. Mrs. Brabbam lords it over Cora Gibbs (Daly), but her secret remains short lived when Cora's nephew Benjy (David Orth) arrives and asks if he can stay for the summer. Cora is impressed with the high school graduate for his education and the places he's visited, and asks him to write letters on her behalf so that she can get some in return. Sadly, she doesn't know anyone to write to, so they scan one of Benjy's magazines and start sending off letters to companies offering free products. The first day that the postman arrives reveals a sadly recognized fact when he mentions that he hadn't traveled down her country road in a long time to deliver mail. With Mrs. Brabbam's deception revealed, she stops going to her own mailbox, in which she planted phony correspondence in order to make Cora jealous. As the summer ends and Benjy must be on his way, Cora realizes how selfish she might have been for giving her neighbor a taste of her own medicine. The closing scene has both women retrieving mail from the postman, as Benjy's parting gift was honoring his aunt's wish to write Mrs. Brabbam so she could experience a real contact from the wide world out there. I have to admit, this story touched me in a way I couldn't foresee, and its memory will last far longer than any of the other Bradbury stories presented in the series.
The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV Series)
Great Wide World Over There (1992)
User Reviews
Review this title4 Reviews
It Cuts to the Heart
Hitchcoc8 April 2015
This is one of the better short stories turned video. An illiterate farm woman, played by Tyne Dailey, lives a very secluded life at the end of a country road. The lady next door frequently goes to her mailbox and points out that she has mail. Dailey doesn't even have a mailbox. One day her nephew, a young high school graduate who has traveled some, shows up and asks to stay the summer. She asks him a favor. If he will write letters for her, he can have room and board. She begs her husband to build a mailbox. They write away for free things from a magazine and now she begins to get mail almost every day. She is one upping her neighbor. The sad thing is that the lady never got any real mail. She would go out at night and put stuff in the mailbox and pretend to receive it the next day. The conclusion to this is so quiet and so moving.
Soppy, dull and absurd.
fedor820 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The female lead is a boring nepotist, the premise is silly, and the shtick is soppy. A woman learns how to read and write from her nephew? And her neighbour had been faking letters for decades? What the hell...?
What is the damn point of all of this?
Naturally, this rubbish got the 3rd-highest average of the entire series. What else could I expect though? If they say South I'll know it's North.
What is the damn point of all of this?
Naturally, this rubbish got the 3rd-highest average of the entire series. What else could I expect though? If they say South I'll know it's North.
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