Upcoming PBS doc

franna · V Deep

Upcoming PBS doc

Cazzy · Tonight

wots pbs

franna · V Deep

It's American

motema2004 · Tonight

PBS is an American television network that provides mainly educational, family/non-vulgar entertainment, documentaries, non-violent cartoons, etc. The letters stand for Public Broadcasting System. The government pays for some of it and some of it is by donations by the audience and another large part is funded by philanthropic foundations or corporations. They show BBC news for a half hour several times a day, for one thing...very helpful! They have a few news talk shows too, and sometimes show independent films, a little liberal. For entertainment they have some opera, symphonies, club showcases...just had a women's group called "Celtic Woman" in concert last night, for example.

franna · V Deep

Oh, well - Cazzy, if you REALLY want to know what PBS is:

http://www.pbs.org/

http://www.cpb.org/

http://www.apts.org/

It's a "public" "noncommericial" broadcast system. It's companion is NPR - National Public Radio.

In general, broadcast in the US is funded and structured VERY differently than in the UK. PBS is not "normal" here, it's an alternative. Discussing it in full would be a book, not a post.

kidneybean · House on Fire

Isn't Sesame Street shown on PBS?

motema2004 · Tonight

Kidneybean, you can't get much more "alternative" than Sesame Street!!!! Non-violent, I'm afraid, has become alternative on American TV sad to say. I think that's what Franna meant by alternative.

franna · V Deep

Yes, Sesame Street is shown on PBS, although I'm told that may change. Sesame Street may launch their own network.

What I meant by "alternative" was that PBS is primarily noncommercial (the PBS network's income is not dependent on selling advertising time), while pretty much all other US television DOES depend on advertising.

My comments had nothing whatsoever to do with violence or nonviolence. There are enough war documentaries on PBS to disqualify it as being a violence-free zone, nor do I think media SHOULD refuse to explore issues which involve violence.

motema2004 · Tonight

I love PBS! I mentioned Sesame Street as non-violent, not PBS itself. It's just that one of the features of PBS which the fundraisers always mention is the fact that one can allow their children to watch the network without fear of them seeing violence, or the parents can feel safe to leave the children alone watching TV without worrying, and they specifically mention Sesame Street. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Tango · In the Long Grass

what a boring channel.give me uktv gold any day.or even the bbc for that matter

franna · V Deep

Tango - Have you ever even watched PBS? My gut tells me you haven't.

meekus · Tonight

I used to watch it a lot when I was younger, but it appears to have a lot of good documentaries, including many local ones.

Tango · In the Long Grass

i havent as i dont have it but my point was you were making it out to be extreeeeemely dull

_johanna_ · Drag Me Down

YES! it's on tv here next tuesday I think it was....great

now, if they only air Geldof in Africa too, I'll be as happy as growing grapes..

Tango · In the Long Grass

will they do a geldof in africa dvd dya think?

franna · V Deep

Tango wrote:

my point was you were making it out to be extreeeeemely dull

And how exactly does noncommercial mean extreeeeeeemely dull? To put it another way, what is it about commercial television that you prefer?

-- Edited by franna at 04:22, 2005-09-01

Tango · In the Long Grass

i have nothing against non-commercial tv but sesame street, documentaries and non-violent cartoons.hardly thrilling

franna · V Deep

And yet you inqure about a Geldof in Africa DVD. Was that not a documentary?

I bet you still have all your Elmo toys.

Tango · In the Long Grass

although i was a sesame street fan i never had any elmo toys

only the ernie ones my neighbours young son often hurls over the fence.as for documentaries, geldof in africa was different.he sad what he thought not just the facts.it wasnt monotenous, there was sadness and anger there too.

_johanna_ · Drag Me Down

so, boys and girls, did you watch? I've only caught one episode so far, but it was a good one, thought it was really interesting..

what do you think of it?

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Tango wrote:

will they do a geldof in africa dvd dya think?

I emailed the BBC who gave me an address (Commissioning Editor or something) to write to. I did so back in July and not heard a word.

PBS sounds interesting, I don't think we can get it over here (UK).

-- Edited by Jules at 10:29, 2005-09-21

franna · V Deep

_johanna_ wrote:

so, boys and girls, did you watch? I've only caught one episode so far, but it was a good one, thought it was really interesting.. what do you think of it?

It's not yet Sept. 28th.

_johanna_ · Drag Me Down

oh ****, sorry....guess I couldn't imagine us over here actually seing something before the rest of the world....

Tango · In the Long Grass

doesnt that always happen

franna · V Deep

_johanna_ wrote:

oh ****, sorry....guess I couldn't imagine us over here actually seing something before the rest of the world....

What program are you referring to anyway? The one referred to in the title of this thread, which airs in the USA soon, or "Geldof in Africa" which, as far as I know is not scheduled to air in the USA at all, or something else entirely?

_johanna_ · Drag Me Down

franna wrote:

What program are you referring to anyway? The one referred to in the title of this thread, which airs in the USA soon, or "Geldof in Africa" which, as far as I know is not scheduled to air in the USA at all, or something else entirely?

ha...sorry, was I confusing again? I refuse to belive it... yeah, I was refering to "Get up, stand up"..

geldof in africa..doesn't seem very likely to be aired in America, or here in Sweden for that matter, so can't really say anything about that one..

franna · V Deep

Finally saw "Get Up, Stand Up" this past week. It was very interesting, but not a great piece of documentary film. I found a lot of the juxtapositions very confusing - ie - Springsteen doing a cover of Edwin Starr's "War" in a spot that would make you think Bruce was a popular performer during the antiwar period in the late 60s and early 70s, when he didn't become famous for another few years. Plus, it wasn't made clear that it wasn't Bruce's song. (Mr. Starr did make an apearance later on in the doc. See, very confusing!) There were a bunch of things like that which really annoyed me, but still, it covered a lot of ground I didn't know much about - like stuff that happened in the 40s and 50s, Joe Hill, etc. (You mean Joe Hill was an actual person, not just a name in a Joan Baez song? Apparently. That must be why they call it educational TV).

BG did some color commentary bits, looks like it was shot around the time of the S/A/D tour. He seems to have aged since then, and he's wearing the blue pinstripe. (Bob, do you own only ONE suit? Hmmm...there's an off-white one too, isn't there....) His hair looks well-groomed (for BG, anyway). I remember some yapping about how wonderful Dylan was, the usual stuff about Live Aid/Band Aid etc....the shocker for me was BG singing the praises of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I miss that video...wonder if I have it on tape anywhere. Best rock video ever, as far as I'm concerned.....glad BG thought it was brilliant as well.

Summary: BG didn't figure too prominently, but his Teen Spirit commentary made me happy. To which all I can say is: "Here we are, now entertain us."

meekus · Tonight

I stayed up an hour past my bed time to watch it.

It would be even funnier if I was joking.

Tango · In the Long Grass

hahahaha :laughing