The of Documentary Broadcasting

[tealin]

Today's discovery: There's a Smithsonian Channel.

It was on the TV in the common area, which I walked past twice today – once it was showing something about the Enola Gay with possible shots of Area 51*, and the second was a program about Kamikaze. Both of them had plain archived or recreated footage intercut with old men talking in a well-lit simple studio, not a splashy graphic or stylized video montage between them. What is this madness?

Please, Smithsonian Channel, don't tread the same path as The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel (which now, like the KFC urban legend, goes by its initials because it no longer contains actual Learning), which even PBS is tiptoeing down in an attempt to make programs it can sell on to the lowest-common-denominator cable channels. Remain a sanctuary for those refugees of the dumbing-down! You have a lofty name to live up to, don't betray it!


*It was in my professional interest for a while to know as much as I could about what the area around Area 51 looked like. I am not at liberty to discuss this.

Comments

[iseepurplehair.livejournal.com]

This warrants investigation. I miss the highly intellectual days of PBS where I learned about the stratosphere from Bill Nye.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Bill Nye was awesome. And that was just the kids' programming! Remember the glory days of Nova?

[uberklutz.livejournal.com]

Oh, the glory days of Nova! *nostalgic sigh*
Bill Nye's show was so great and clever--too bad the man was a jerk. (I met him in person back in Junior High, crushed my dreams!) ... (of owning something with his signature.)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Such is celebrity, alas. Love the art, not the artist!

[(Anonymous)]

Enjoyed the KFC link, which reminded me of the old Bill Cosby "Chicken Heart" routine - delivered not by Cosby, but by one of my fellow eight graders at art lessons. I think he had memorized the whole record (yes children, we had those odd thinks in my youth).

Wow - you almost make me wish i had cable!

[mizlobelia.livejournal.com]

Oh that comment about the friend at art lessons and the chicken heart was mine. i forgot to log in. One of these ays i will get the hand of this. Sorry :(

[septentrio.livejournal.com]

You know what's even better than the Smithsonian channel?

The Smithsonian channel in HD.

I LOVE IT. It's one of my favorite channels, although it's one of those where I couldn't tell you a single thing I've watched on there. I just know I've watched it a lot.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

The broadcast on the TV I saw said HD, and it was on a great big plasma screen, but I walked up close and the logo was all pixellated, so I just don't know what the truth is anymore.

[septentrio.livejournal.com]

If it was really HD and you don't have HD you'd probably be able to tell. I can still tell and we've had HD for a while, but my boyfriend's had it even longer than me and sometimes he can't tell anymore. I think that's kinda weird, I mean, you'd think you'd notice even more if it looks bad. But I guess he just takes it for granted.

But anyway, it could be the HD feed but the TV might not be 1080p or even 1080i or it could be one of those but not have an HDMI cable, etc. There are a lot of factors. But if it's hooked up like it should be, on a good TV, and the show is HD, you'd probably just stop and drool for a while. That's what I do. ;D

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

There is? Well, isn't that something.

Personally, I think 'TLC' is a very easily misinterpreted acronym.

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

NOVA! The only episode I remember is the one where they tried to figure out how the ancient Egyptians erected the Obelisk. But I remember exactly how they did it! Just looking at the NOVA archive now boggles the mind. How can there be that much to learn?

As long as I have access to Masterpiece Theatre, I'm alright with television, deplorability and all.

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

I'm in campus housing, so I can only watch what they give us, unfortunately.

I don't watch Discovery as much as I used to--generally I just turn over there to watch Mythbusters now. Lately I've mostly been watching the History Channel (although sometimes I think they should change the name to the Hitler Channel), and the Travel Channel, which if it keeps going the way it's going will eventually become the Eating Weird Stuff Channel. Fridays I switch over to TruTV (formerly CourtTV) to watch their forensics shows.

For the longest time I didn't know what TLC stood for--and when I finally found out I had a moment of, "Wait, what?" and then "What does 'What Not to Wear' have to do with learning? Learning how not to fuglify yourself? What the hell?"

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, TLC used to be the repository for all the old nonfiction PBS and BBC shows from the 70s and 80s that were too dowdy or esoteric for Discovery to run. There was a show called 'Archaeology' hosted by Jonathan Rhys-Davies, a miniseries tracking the Celts across Europe, a British show called 'The Secret Life of Machines' which introduced me to the tune 'Take Five' and on which they made a sound recording on a length of sticky tape covered in iron filings to demonstrate how cassette tapes worked. Just ... generally ... cool stuff. And definitely Learning. All pre-CGI and the music video-inspired editing revolution that's led to everything being quick-cut and/or shaky-cam. :P

Shoot, I just heard something where someone was calling The History Channel 'The Hitler Channel,' and talking about how it's all shows covering previously unknown aspects of Hitler's life ... what was it? That's going to bug me now ...

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that previously unknown aspects of Hitler's life aren't fascinating but, you know, there are other events that have taken place in history that they could talk about, aside from World War II.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

AHA! It was HERE! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fjdxt/Great_Unanswered_Questions_Episode_2/) right at the beginning, too. Enjoy!