Story Archives of 'Television'

Think back to the pre-cable days when three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC ruled the air warves. NBC is the oldest – founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, back when television was a mere twinkle in Philo Farnsworth’s eye.

Since then NBC has been home to hits like The Cosby Show, Friends, The Olympics, and the first Academy Awards Show. The network invited viewers to “Come Home to NBC,” where everybody knows your name. The peacock’s feathers have faded in the ratings in recent years, and audience share plummeted when Jay Leno moved to the 10pm slot this Fall.

Now media giant Comcast plans to swoop in and buy NBC universal, a move that could signal the beginning of the end for network TV. Joining us with more is Mark Harris, who wrote about the beleaguered network for New York magazine.

New York Magazine: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?

The Associated Press: Broadcast Pioneer NBC Prepares for Cable Takeover

Backstage: Is Broadcast TV Too Big to Fail?

(Photo by Jezlyn26 via Flickr/Creative Commons)

When I was a kid, TV was for adults. I remember the variety shows like Laugh-In! and watching Dean Martin with a martini glass in hand. Even if I didn’t get the jokes, I ached to stay up late with my big brothers and sisters just to gather round the tube. Kids TV offered little. Uncle Gus seemed mildly bored, Captain Kangeroo was kinda creepy, and tromping around in circles on romper room never grabbed me. Then came Sesame Street.

Sesame Street opened up a universe apart from my home in Concord, NH. Here was a gritty city landscape with stoops and garbage cans. Because of Sesame Street, we grew up with people and creatures who didn’t look like us. Susan and Bob, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Kermit the Frog. Black people! People who spoke Spanish! Over the past decade, other countries have picked up on this appreciation for diversity and planted Sesame Streets on their own soil.

Sesame Street is a place of animation and color and fantasy and play where you could be anything, as long as you learned the value of co-op-er-a-tion and shared your toys. Learning is fun. Reading is an achievement. My mother only allowed us to watch one half-hour of TV after school. Then Sesame Street came along and we got an hour-long pass. I grew up in a world of great achievement and great fear. A world reeling from political assassinations. My mother fearing that my brothers would be drafted to Vietnam. Sesame Sesame Street was a refuge in the afternoon from the evening news, Watergate, and urban riots.

I bowed out when Snuffalupagus was still a secret and Elmo hadn't yet appeared. Now Cookie Monster eats fruit I am told. The set looks more Park Slope than Lower East Side, both places I ended up living as an adult. I hear the songs and remember it all. So do our listeners. Eric Palson raised his kids on Sesame Street. He wrote in to say what a positive effect it had on his family:

“It was always something we could share and discuss with our kids because we both enjoyed it. It was clever and accessible for our young guys without talking down to any of us. Sesame Street was also an avenue to introduce new topics that might not have come up. I remember Bert and Ernie. Bert was the quintessential nerd and Ernie the free-spirit. They were perfect reflections of our two sons, who naturally took up their respective sides in the situation at hand. This was often the framework for our earliest ethics debates.”

Sesame Street isn't just for kids. Famous big-kids like Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, and this week, Michelle Obama stopped by that iconic brownstone on 123 Sesame Street.

There are shows brought to you by the letter N. Interviews brought to you by the number 9, and friends and neighbors on every corner. Sesame Sesame Street is a place to hang out and explore the world, without leaving the living room.

If you watched any network news channel this month, you no doubt saw clips of James O’Keefe and his partner Hannah Giles walking into the Baltimore and Washington, DC offices of the non-profit ACORN organization. O’Keefe and Giles posed as a pimp and a prostitute looking for advice on how to evade taxes and funnel the money into O’Keefe’s fake congressional campaign.

The video quickly jumped from the blogosphere to run in heavy rotation on conservative media. Mainstream news networks soon followed in lock-step. Stories about Sonia Sotomayor, the birther movement, and town-hall disruptions followed a similar path and have trickled up throughout the Obama era.

So where are these stories coming from? Citizen journalists, activists, or covert partisan operatives? Mark Bowden is a longtime journalist and author, most recently, of The Best Game Ever. He wrote about how these clips become news for The Atlantic.

The Atlantic: The Story Behind the Story

(Photo by Antonio Martínez via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Most teachers have to deal with occasional outbursts from students. For the staff at the Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, England, a typical day can sound like the endless screaming of children.

Mulberry Bush is often the last stop for children who’ve survived extreme trauma to be cared for and educated. Explosive eruptions from the children are common. They punch, kick, spit, and swear at the forbearing staff, who respond with consolation and loving restraint.

The esteemed filmmaker Kim Longinotto spent a year at the Mulberry School, filming its 40 children and 108 staff. She brings her unflinching eye to the rage and tenderness of the school to life in Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go which airs this week on P.O.V. on most PBS stations. Director Kim Longinotto joins us from her home in London.

Read more about Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go

(Photo courtesy of PBS)

This summer, Afghanistan holds its second presidential election. But the country is experiencing democracy in a very western style with their popular television show Afghan Star. It’s the Afghan version of American Idol, where young singers compete against each other and viewers text in their votes.

The show is more than a pop culture phenomenon. It’s causing a political stir in a country torn between traditional Islam and liberal western ideas. British filmmaker and documentarian Havana Marking chronicled the competition in her new film Afghan Star and she joined us to talk about it.

The film will screen later this month at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York.

Afghanistan isn’t the only place seeing a challenge to traditional muslim culture. There’s a rapidly growing movement in America called “progressive Islam.” Its adherents are young American Muslims. Many describe themselves as “culturally Muslim,” and oppose what they see as rigid, conservative practices which they claim aren't Islamic at all, and give Islam a bad name. KALW’s Hana Baba has the story. You can hear it at the Public Radio Exchange.