Satisfaction Guaranteed (short story)
"Satisfaction Guaranteed" | |||
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Short story by Isaac Asimov | |||
Country | United States | ||
Language | English | ||
Genre(s) | Science fiction short story | ||
Publication | |||
Published in | Amazing Stories | ||
Publication type | Periodical | ||
Publisher | Ziff Davis | ||
Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) | ||
Publication date | April 1951 | ||
Chronology | |||
Series | Robot series | ||
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"Satisfaction Guaranteed" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, originally published in the April 1951 issue of Amazing Stories, and included in the collections Earth Is Room Enough (1957), The Rest of the Robots (1964), and The Complete Robot (1982).
Plot summary
Robot TN-3 (also known as Tony) is designed as a humanoid household robot, an attempt by US Robots to get robots accepted in the home. He is placed with Claire Belmont, whose husband works for the company, as an experiment, but she is reluctant to accept him. Tony realizes that Claire has very low self-esteem, and tries to help her by redecorating her house and giving her a make-over. Finally, he pretends to be her lover, and deliberately lets the neighbors see him kissing Claire, thus increasing her self-esteem. In the end, though, Claire falls in love with Tony, and becomes depressed when he is taken back to the lab. The TN-3 robot models are rebuilt, since US Robots think that they should not produce a model that a woman will fall in love with.
Adaptations
The story was adapted as an episode of the BBC television series Out of the Unknown with Wendy Craig as Claire.[1]