Speaking of radio, as I was, one of the other great shows of all time is Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life. It’s funny and touching, often at the same time. A few weeks ago, the TV version of the program debuted on Showtime, thus providing one of the best reasons to subscribe to a premium service since The Sopranos (final season starts Sunday!).
The TV version of TAL is great. This clip demonstrates that they’ve found a visual version of the rhythm they do on the radio. But I’m not really here to tell you to watch the TV show (even though I’ve seen four episodes on a promo DVD and they were all magnificent). I’m here to discuss the tension between TV and public radio listeners.
Recently, the radio TAL aired an episode entitled “What I Learned from TV.” Host Ira Glass talks in the intro about going on tour and mentioning that they were going on television and he says the room got “chilly.” At one stop, a man yelled “Judas,” as if it was Dylan going electric. Glass introduces Act One, in which regular contributor David Rakoff, who swore off TV in college, is assigned to watch the same amount of television as the average American — 29 hours in one week. As he announced that statistic, the audience collectively gasps and rumbles, leading Glass to say, “Do you not live in the United States of America?”
In the press kit for the TV show, Glass says:
There has been some nervousness from some fans. A surprising number of public radio listeners are suspicious of anything on TV. They see radio as an inherently superior medium, which I don’t agree with. Great stuff is possible in any medium.
In Act Three of the radio program about television, Glass talks about how people inquire about the new TV show and ask him which medium he prefers, as if there was a war and one had to choose sides. As he points out, there was such a war and radio lost.
What the hell? What is this paranoia about television? I’ve been watching TV and listening to radio for most of my life. They’re both great media forms. In the Eighties, I probably listened to more public radio (KCRW & KPFK in L.A.) than I watched television. But we are in a Golden Era of TV today. There’s a lot of great stuff on. And to reject that in favor of some elitist attitude towards what are the classy artforms and which are the trashy ones strikes me as sticking your head in the sand.