Gah, I had nightmares about that piece when I first saw it.
I did too. Left a mark. That’s a good thing, though. I don’t know that anything like that could be made today, and even if it could, would many people bother to watch it? I remember watching The Ascent of Man in 1973. Everyone watched it. The zeitgeist was so different then. Scientists were often on television (Sagan was on about every 5 minutes), and people not only watched, they paid attention, and enjoyed learning, and were proud to be knowledgeable.
I’m lucky enough to own the series on DVD. The BBC filled that time-slot with some absolutely remarkable series over that decade. Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent Of Man, James Burke’s Connections, and David Attenborough’s Life On Earth. Arguably, along with Thames Television’s The World At War, they created the benchmark for factual-content television. I’d certainly argue that modern documentaries, with their emphasis on “dramatic” presentation and silly sequences where the presenter dresses up as a Tudor courtier or wastes ten minutes of an hour-long show “learning” glass-blowing “just like Galileo did” or some such inanity, are nowhere near as good or as information-dense.
Gah, I had nightmares about that piece when I first saw it.
He’s so right, though. Those are such important truths. I wonder if a TV series like that is even possible nowadays. Probably not.
Marcus:
I did too. Left a mark. That’s a good thing, though. I don’t know that anything like that could be made today, and even if it could, would many people bother to watch it? I remember watching The Ascent of Man in 1973. Everyone watched it. The zeitgeist was so different then. Scientists were often on television (Sagan was on about every 5 minutes), and people not only watched, they paid attention, and enjoyed learning, and were proud to be knowledgeable.
43 years later…
I’m lucky enough to own the series on DVD. The BBC filled that time-slot with some absolutely remarkable series over that decade. Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent Of Man, James Burke’s Connections, and David Attenborough’s Life On Earth. Arguably, along with Thames Television’s The World At War, they created the benchmark for factual-content television. I’d certainly argue that modern documentaries, with their emphasis on “dramatic” presentation and silly sequences where the presenter dresses up as a Tudor courtier or wastes ten minutes of an hour-long show “learning” glass-blowing “just like Galileo did” or some such inanity, are nowhere near as good or as information-dense.
This was a good one, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_in_Question
Jonathan Miller
I loved Body in Question too, it came on right after Connections and was like dessert after a meal.