Hey Steve, get that camera out of my face… I’m trying to watch American Idol….
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN:Â OK. We are now somewhere between Madagascar and India, somewhat closer to Madagascar.
Because of the fear of pirates, the ship turned south out of Mombasa and backtracked all the way down to Madagascar before turning east and heading to India, our ultimate point of landfall, some 7 days away. Meanwhile, it is nothing but trackless ocean all around.
The ship has an internal TV system and shows lots of old movies and stuff over and over.
One of the channels shows nothing but National Geographic shows.
Old ones.
Some really old ones.
These are from before the days when there was a National Geographic Channel, and from before the days when there was cable TV.
In those days (for those too young to know), there were only 3 networks and a handful of local broadcast channels. The National Geographic Society had a magazine (yes, on paper!), and from time to time commissioned and produced some extremely well-done films which then aired on NBC, I think, as specials.
The best known of these were the Jacques Cousteau series (“on the fourth day of Calypso, we discovered that, indeed we were not in the Amazon River at all, but on the St. Lawrence Seaway”).
I remember watching these when I was a kid.
Until I found myself on the ship, and rather limited in my TV fare, I had not realized just how well-done those old National Geographic Films were done.
It is not just the cinematography,which is good, but you can see great shooting in lots of places. What struck me more than anything else was just how intelligent the writing and the content was.
Instead of dumbing down the writing and the content, the National Geographic shows elevate both.
As we are heading to India, the ship is showing lots of Nat Geo shows about India, some of them probably 30 years old or more. They hold up.
Yesterday, I watched one that devoted perhaps 15 minutes to an extremely in-depth, yet extremely interesting explanation of Sanskrit and its relationship to other Indo-European languages.
Fascinating.
Let us now compare the intellectual content here to, say, American Idol or ABC’s Extreme Make-over.
uh…. yeah….
I am old enough to remember when the networks also did very serious, very intelligent programming, from CBS Reports to NBC White Paper. Ah.. those were the days.
Some years ago, I was in northern Kenya, on the Kenya/Somalia border with the Rendille Tribe – a really primitive nomadic tribe. I was there because we were producing World’s Apart for The National Geographic Channel. (We is that my soon to be ex wife was the EP).
The landscape was stunning, the Rendille, fascinating. The show? Take a fat stupid family from New Jersey and have them live with the Rendille for a week. OK. Bad enough, but what came back was still powerful and interesting. Not good enough for Nat Geo TV apparently. When the pilot went to series they decided that they wanted to bring in two families and make it a competition. A bit of Survivoritis, no doubt.
Well, we are an idiot nation, but apparently we were not always so.
So the question naturally arises: did television turn us into an idiot nation or did television simply respond to and reflect the dumbing down of American society?
Hard to say.
But as though to reinforce the point, the ship’s internal system also carries Glen Beck.
9 Comments
christina February 25, 2010
It’s some combination of:
When education goes away, marketers rule the world; no one to challenge assumptions, ask questions, or — putting it simply — think. Tv is now ruled by marketers. Education is running amok and getting worse everyday. Our solution to education is throw money at it — sounds like “marketing” thinking but it’s not effective (i’ve got validated sources on that one).
Entertainment is the opiate of the masses (no wonder it’s become or at least replaced religion in so many places) — and like the abuse of any opiates, what little self will and individual intelligence we had is sucked out of us in the pursuit of a better, longer lasting “high”….
Rosenblum February 24, 2010
There is no turning back the clock, but in the UK, there are still only 5 broadcast channels and cable and satellite penetration have not really impacted all that strongly on the major channels, largely because two of them BBC 1 and 2 are non-commercial. I, for one, would be a great supporter of a BBC type network in the US. That is, a network of the highest quality supported by non commercial and dependable funding that is not tied to a corporation.
Vanessa February 24, 2010
Thanks for the response. I guess you are right, there is no turning back…still, the good thing is there are still good things BBC 1 & 2 that are out there. Thanks for sharing….who knows, maybe someone will read this and create a BBC type network in the US and be a great big success! One can only hope!
Vanessa February 23, 2010
your puzzling question is similar to the chicken and the egg or the egg and the chicken – which came first? Who knows! So I have a question for you – would you rather go back to the days of only 3 stations? (yes, I remember those days) or would you rather have the infinite option with the chance of seeing CRAP, or worse – Glenn Beck? I am curious – which would you prefer?
Michael Rosenblum February 22, 2010
McCurry. You are right. And all credit to him.
fosca February 22, 2010
of course i am not entire sure but entirely. i am so about the colleagues name which is mccurry as in donalds. i am sure he´d also love to be credited. it was the cover of STERN-magazine too even if that is better known for the hitler diaries, hihi.
Rosenblum February 22, 2010
I think that Steve Curry’s photo of an Afghan girl has become so iconographic for National Geographic that it is probably today better known than the ubiquitous yellow box, which is why I went with it.
fosca February 22, 2010
considering that you took one of his
http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php
pictures of an afghan girl as an eyecatcher for your recent postI am not entire sure which answer would be appropriate.
Yaroslav February 22, 2010
thinking hurts sometimes, people tend to like mindless visceral entertainment.