 overdrawn at the memory bank is a 1983 made-for-television movie. it was produced by canada's rsl productions in toronto. financing was provided by wnet and new jersey public television (njptv), which had hoped to create an entire science fiction series adapting famous works, but due to lack of funding this was the last of three productions, the first two being the lathe of heavenscience-fiction on pbs: "the lathe of heaven" and between time and timbuktu.science-fiction on pbs: "overdrawn at the memory bank" the script was based on a 1976 john varley short story. the production was not a critical success and was satirized by mystery science theater 3000 (mst3k) in 1997, complete with a spoof of a public television pledge drive. overdrawn at the memory bank was not shot on film, but rather was videotaped, with extensive use of chroma key and blue screen special effects. pixelation artifacts are clearly visible in many of the effects. ==plot== in a future dystopia, aram fingal (raÃºl juliÃ¡) is a lowly programmer working for novicorp. arts are prohibited and he is caught watching the classic film casablanca ("scrolling up cinemas") on his workstation. to rehabilitate him, the company transfers his mind ("doppels" him) into a wild baboon (a process which has become routine, with people buying "doppeling vacations"). for a few minutes, julia narrates over footage of wild animals (actually taken from the documentary animals are beautiful people). eventually, fingal begins to enjoy his baboon existence until he finds his peaceful perch in a tree threatened by an elephant shaking it for fruit. he then activates an escape clause that is supposed to return his mind to his original body. unknown to fingal, however, his body has been accidentally tagged for transfer to 
1983_films 1983_television_films Dystopian_films English-language_films Films_based_on_short_fiction Films_featured_in_Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_episodes Science_fiction_television_films