Moore’s Law, Iran and The Internet
Long before Al Gore… the Internet was actually invented here…. In 760 BC, the Great Shah of Iran had two passions: warfare and games. Thus it was that his Vizir invented something for him that combined both. He called...
Read moreOut of Focus
Can you have them shake hands instead? Since its inception, making television has been like reading tea leaves. You knew there was an audience out there, but you didn’t really know what they wanted. So you guessed, or dealt...
Read moreNothing Succeeds Like Failure
God’s number one programmer…. One of the reasons television has been so terrible until now is that no one could fail. Failure was too expensive. So we lived in fear. If you are writer, you fail all the time....
Read moreCan VJs Deliver Quality?
Why can’t CBS Evening News look like this? There has been an enormous amount of discussion about whether VJs can deliver a ‘quality product’. As ‘google’ has become a verb, ‘Youtube’ has become an adjective meaning shaky, blue and...
Read moreThe 85 Year Old VJs
John Erickson…. Ted Turner of the retirement set. About three years ago, I gave a speech at the Cable Conference in Chicago. A few days later, I got a call from someone who had seen me speak. He said...
Read moreHow To Make A Living With A Video Camera – Pt1
…”we’re waiting for the cameras before we can evac you…” In 1994, my now ex-wife (who shall mercifully remain nameless) and I wandered into the waiting room of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) with a small,...
Read moreThe Power of an Image
Do you ‘feel’ the power…… In the world of painting we have Picasso, Rembrandt or Jackson Pollack. In music we have Beethoven, Mozart or Bono. In literature, Shakespeare, Dickens or Melville. But in TV, whom do we have? Katie...
Read moreThe Ayatollah and Me
Thanks AK! The release of the British hostages from Iran brought back warm memories of how my TV career started. As it is Good Friday, I thought I would share them with you. I did not start off looking...
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