Despite all the rave reviews and my own personal adoration for This American Life, I did not subscribe to Showtime so I could see the televised version of the PBS radio program. But Showtime is crafty. The network has posted this week's premiere episode of This American Life online (for free!) and now I am in love with it. I never thought that This American Life needed pictures to go with its stories, but the story of Chance the bull seems like it would be lost without video.Take a look at the premiere and tell me what you think. I like it, but I still think I'm too cheap to get Showtime. I keep hoping they'll all be available on iTunes.
(By the way, if you are a fan of This American Life, you'll probably get a kick out of this parody by San Francisco sketch comedy group, Kasper Hauser. Their Ira Glass impression is dead-on.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-23-2007 @ 2:42PM
David said...
It's not that good of a show, weird cloning thing was hust odd and the "prank" guys I didn't care about.
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3-23-2007 @ 3:02PM
rick cokely said...
First NPR is actually who creates/distributes This American Life, not PBS. Second, listening to several interviews that Ira did about this first episode, he felt that there were several key moments in the story that were great "radio material" but just didn't work on film. For instance one of the witnesses to the attack that was interviewed gave a great retelling of the story, very emotional and very interesting, but he said that her physical appearance was jarring and didn't make for a good television moment that would have otherwise made a great radio moment.
Anyway, I'm excited about this show none-the-less, I love NPR and have always love This American Life.
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3-23-2007 @ 3:04PM
viper5dn said...
I am going to have to disagree with David. As a long time fan of TAL's radio program, having a visual version of the show is very cool. I love that they kept the same format to the show, having an intro piece and then going to acts. The stories they chose for the first episode were moving, and is it me? or is the whole "bull featured at the Republican Nat. Convention get cloned" a bit ironic...
Great job TVS for reporting on the show, and great job Ira Glass for successfully introducing a new format for TAL. That said, please continue focusing on the radio show, as good as a TV version can be... sometimes there is no replacement for the mind's eye.
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3-26-2007 @ 8:09AM
const said...
NPR radio show? snoooze.
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3-23-2007 @ 5:45PM
Paul said...
"NPR is actually who creates/distributes This American Life"
Actually it is distributed by Public Radio International, which is a distinct seperate entity than National Public Radio. It starts to get confusing, however, because a lot of the PRI programs are played on local NPR stations across the country.
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3-23-2007 @ 4:49PM
Tim said...
Actually, to be super pedantic, neither PBS nor NPR produces the This American Life radio show. It's done by PRI, Public Radio International. Ira Glass says that at the beginning of each show.
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3-24-2007 @ 2:38AM
Ernie said...
I love This American Life. The particular show mentioned is good. Ira Glass said that the show really hits its stride around half way into the season. The radio crew and the TV crew gelled by then and things ran pretty smoothly.
Also take a look at:
http://www.slate.com/id/2162192
It's an act from one of their future episodes.
@David: I wish there was some way to just make your comments disappear. Like some sort of mute or auto-skip when going through the database.
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