Once upon a Prime Time
1966 · 16m · Canada
Directed by Bernard Devlin
Genres: comedy, fantasy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
A housewife whose family is absorbed by television finds her home invaded by characters from the screen, then must decide whether joining life on TV appeals more than reclaiming her household.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone wants to make fun of TV consumption now, but Devlin did it in 1966 when the stakes actually felt surreal—he treats the invasion not as preachy satire but as genuine ontological vertigo, which is refreshingly weird for something this formally mannered.
A formally assured satire that positions itself squarely in the lineage of Méliès and mid-century avant-garde television criticism; the way Devlin orchestrates the boundary collapse between domestic space and broadcast image shows a director deeply conversant in the grammar of both mediums.
The decision to let the TV characters physically occupy the same frame as the housewife—that bleed between screen and room—is achieved through what feels like deliberate in-camera staging rather than obvious technique, and it's that restraint that makes the absurdity actually land.