http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/12870883.htm

Quote :

" It's not exactly Dylan going electric, but Ira Glass' venture into television has galled some public-radio purists. "There's a certain part of [that] audience that doesn't like TV," says Glass, 46, producer and host of the lauded public-radio documentary series This American Life. "I'll meet people at speaking engagements who don't own a TV, as a point of pride. Some say nothing good can come of it." Showtime is hoping something can. After turning down network offers for years, Glass recently shot a "high-priority" pilot based on American Life, coproduced by Christine Vachon (Boys Don't Cry). If the premium network picks it up - there's no timetable, Showtime says - Glass will produce 10 hour-long episodes. As for his American Life radio show, not to worry. Glass says he would continue with his Peabody Award-winning weekly series. It's heard in Philadelphia on WHYY-FM (90.9) at noon Sundays and repeated at 10 p.m. Wednesdays."

I dunno what I think about this, except that they better not ruin the radio show by wasting time on the tv show. I think this could be a good tv show, but it could never beat the radio version.


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/05-04-2005/0003542431&EDATE=

press release

11/7/2005 9:12:52 AM

mmm.... interesting. i can't really imagine what format that would take, nor could i imagine sitting down to watch that show for an hour or two at a time. The nice thing about TAL is you can listen in your car or while you in the yard or doing housework. I don't know that I'd actively watch something similar on TV.
Of course, I don't get showtime, so i wouldn't watch it anyways. Probably just download it on BT to see what it's like.

That article seems a bit weird though - for two paragraphs it talks about Glass' TV viewing habits, then all of a sudden it switched into online-personals mode:

Quote :

"He's also a fan of Howard Stern, poker and magic tricks."

Not to mention this paragraph is intentionally misleading, idicating that moving to showtime could boost his fame considerably (which, it could, of course, but not necessarily)

Quote :

"Launched out of Chicago's WBEZ in 1995, American Life is heard on 500-plus radio stations by more than 1.7 million listeners. (As a point of comparison, Showtime reaches an estimated 40 million homes.)"

Yeah, Showtime might reach 40 million homes, but guess what: NPR reaches probably 200 million homes, and apparently <1% of them listen to TAM.

11/7/2005 9:24:09 AM

This American Life is one of the staples in my weekly media diet and even I can't wholeheartedly support a TAL tv show. But if it is anything like the radio program then it will be stellar.

11/7/2005 12:16:12 PM

Holy crap! He's 46? He doesn't sound like he's older than 30.

11/7/2005 12:52:05 PM

yeah, of course he also sounds gay, but apparently he's married.

he's actually made references to his girlfriend on the show before, but i was still iffy

11/7/2005 1:47:58 PM

i don't know about this. it could boost the radio show's popularity, and hopefully NPR's, but the beauty of radio is its lack of visual imagery.

making the jump to not only to tv, but to showtime seems like a bit of a cop out. but as stated above, i don't get nor do i want showtime, so as long as the radio show doesn't suffer any ill effects i say more power to ya, ira.

11/7/2005 1:52:04 PM

Sarah Vowell's got a face for radio.

11/7/2005 6:40:53 PM

I have no doubt this will be good.

If you can produce some of the best entertainment/drama that I've ever experienced using only audio, then doing it over TV should be a cinch.

11/7/2005 6:46:47 PM

Wow. I totally didn't see that he was 46. That just blows my mind. I too couldn't have figured him for more than 30.

11/8/2005 8:02:16 AM

ira is good until he starts getting political. then it just gets completely absurd. he takes partisan hack to a whole new dimension

11/8/2005 8:26:28 AM

hah, I hope david sedaris is on this alot

and yeah... sarah vowell isn't exactly tv friendly, but she sure is cool as hell

11/8/2005 8:48:51 AM

ttt

2/18/2007 6:12:54 PM

They have the first episode online: http://www.sho.com/site/thisamericanlife/video.do


So far, they have done a good job of translating it to TV. Now Showtime has a purpose.


[Edited on April 1, 2007 at 4:20 PM. Reason : df]

4/1/2007 4:12:33 PM

New episode was at 10:30. Pretty badass

4/5/2007 11:03:26 PM

Quote :

"Now bittorrent Showtime has a purpose. "

4/5/2007 11:27:55 PM

Also, it's fucked up that the Mormons won't let the atheist see her sister get married in the Mormon church. Even the real fake Jesus is apparently more welcoming than the Mormon fake Jesus.

4/5/2007 11:32:11 PM

The first episode was good, the second was much better, and the third was "meh".

I hate that Ira Glass's voice though, and I also didn't think he was any where near 46 (that kind of explains his Parkinson-like movements as he talks though).

4/6/2007 1:54:47 AM

The concept of putting the desk somewhere random is awful; they did it on Python for god's sake.

Still, one of my friends was in the pilot, so I can't complain too much.

4/6/2007 2:24:39 AM

One of the best shows on TV

4/13/2007 11:43:02 PM

I like the desk-in-random-places look. I thought it was CG though...

4/14/2007 12:19:42 AM

^ I'm hoping that he'll acknowledge it one week when they have a pair of long segments, and the only desk bit between them is, "And now for something completely different." I'm not sure that works with the TAL idea of theme shows, but whatever.

4/14/2007 1:28:04 AM

What a dysfunctional family

4/21/2007 6:52:59 PM

It's a great show.

4/21/2007 7:15:24 PM

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/60836?utm_source=slate_rss_1

4/21/2007 7:31:56 PM

I have never heard the radio show. My girlfriend has been watching the TV shows and now has started listening to the archived radio shows. The TV show is okay.

4/22/2007 8:43:13 PM

wtf season was over at ep 6. next season is 2008 and that seems to be only 6 episodes. weak sauce

5/6/2007 11:45:49 PM

holy god, that kinda sucks that the season is so short, but I'm glad it's coming back.

at least now I know why I can't find ep 7 anywhere

5/7/2007 12:21:11 AM

It's too bad that Ira Glass decide to hitch his wagon to a wonderful network like Showtime

5/7/2007 12:23:27 AM

This lets him get some TV exposure while not neglecting the radio show. It's a good plan.

5/7/2007 1:19:52 AM