Media

Cutting Edge Television

25 Comments

I can’t seem to get away from rodents this week …

When television was brand new people didn’t really know what to do with it. Some the early attempts were merely radio with pictures, but eventually we figured out how to do things like Downton Abbey, House of Cards and The Sopranos.

But that was just practice for discovering the highest and best purpose of the medium, which is apparently to share the experience of dissecting colossal squid.

Yes, the televised taking-apart of a colossal squid drew a global audience that probably has Ed Sullivan forehead-slapping in his grave. “Why did I waste my time with plate spinners, the Beatles and Topo Gigio when I could have done THIS for a lot less?”

But of course the Colossal Squid is a shy and elusive creature who lives at the bottom of the sea and is not as accessible as a puppet you keep in the props closet, which may explain why there’s so much interest in seeing what’s inside one of them.

Still, you have to wonder – would dissecting Topo Gigio have drawn the same audience?

What’s the best TV special you’ve ever seen?

25 thoughts on “Cutting Edge Television”

  1. Good morning. I am not good at remembering shows I have seen including TV specials. I did a little searching on the internet. If you think of documentaries as TV specials, the best one I could find was No Direction Home. I think that show about Bob Dylan was very well done and I am a big Bob fan. I even remember watching it and thinking it was one of the best films of this kind that I had ever seen. I suppose No Direction Home is far behind the one on cutting up a squid on the list of popular specials. I didn’t watch the one about cutting up that sea creature.

    Like

    Reply

  2. My network tv viewing has dropped to nearly nothing. Do they still make “specials”? I mostly remember those as being holiday oriented-and mostly Christmas.

    Documentary-wise I’d have to list Ken Burns’ Civil War. It is good in itself, and I believe it opened the door for the rest of the similar history programming on PBS.

    Going way back, I remember the “mini-series” of Alex Hailey’s Roots being pretty amazing- should perhaps get that from the library and see how it holds up. My memory is that it was news to us in small town white Iowa that Americans with African origins had traceable family histories back to the “old country”. Lots of rethinking needed to be done after that one.

    Like

    Reply

  3. Ken burns stuff
    The Roosevelt’s was wonderful I have watched each episode twice so far
    I look forward to the next offerings from him
    I hear he is working on 3 or 4 more Z we speak
    I used to love the Andy Williams Christmas and Bings stuff but the current celebrity showcase doesn’t work quite the same for me.
    Beyonce at halftime doesn’t call out

    Like

    Reply

    1. At first glance, I thought the first item on your list, tim, was name-verb-object. So when I read that Ken burns stuff, I wondered what kind of stuff he burned. Those grey cells aren’t doing their job today.

      Like

      Reply

  4. I noticed that this month I’d the 50 year anniversary of many shows we all came to know and love.
    Bewitched , and one other I will rembrr later the 50 anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
    Barbara Walters 50 years on tv
    Time flies

    Like

    Reply

    1. I’m just old enough to vaguely remember the 50-year anniversaries. In about five more years I’ll be in the “50 years?!! You’re kidding!” age group.

      Like

      Reply

  6. Morning all. I can’t think of a single thing. Of course, I’m a “comfort tv watcher” – I’ll almost always watch something I’ve seen before rather than something new – tv is often a background noise for me while I’m doing something else. It took Steve 2 full years to get me to watch a Downton Abbey episode.

    I was thinking that the title “Cutting Edge” was going to take us someplace else. There is currently an ad campaign running for an animated show starting up soon (or just started) that is referring to itself as “cutting edge”. I would have thought “truly offensive” would be a better lead in for this particular show.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Rise and Get Square Eyes Baboons!

    Carol Burnett in “Once Upon a Mattress.” Indeed this was a long time ago, but I never, never forgot seeing this as a child. I also remember her special(s) with Julie Andrews quite vividly!

    tim’s list of Ken Burns work is a close second.

    Like

    Reply

  8. As my ex used to say, I keep a million hours of Tivo in my brain. Wow…so much entertainment and information (and “infotainment”) to try to select from.

    “Specials.” Thus, implying not “regular series.” Hm. I remember being hooked on the Shogun mini-series even as a kid. The 2-part adaptation of Brotherhood of the Rose is still one of my favorites. The airing of the 1990 Knebworth concert stays with me, especially Pink Floyd’s fantastic performance of ‘Sorrow.’ The Phil Collins hosted documentary of “A Hard Day’s Night” was quite good.

    I’ll tell you what was NOT good: The Star Wars Holiday Special. Epically bad.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I don’t recall that one. According to Wikipedia, it preempted Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk. I leave it to you to decide what would have been the most valuable use of the airwaves that evening.

      Like

      Reply

  9. Some of the best have already been named. How do you top Ken Burns’ civil war series? I was a young man when Edward Murrow aired “Harvest of Shame,” which was for me a shattering experience. A TV special that reduced me to tears (for complicated reasons) was the Christmas special in which John Denver joined the Muppets.

    But I’ll tell you, one special has stayed in my mind for decades and made me grin thousands of times. The most memorable special I ever saw was that two-hour show hosted by Geraldo Rivera who presided over the on-air opening of Al Capone’s secret vault. Geraldo had a coroner in the studio in case old corpses were discovered. Instead they unearthed some old empty bottles, which Geraldo guessed could have held moonshine. And I got to see it all live as it was happening!

    Like

    Reply

    1. I honestly don’t know that I ever saw the John Denver special with the Muppets, but I do have that sound track completely memorized.

      For various and complicated reasons of my own, John Denver makes me pensive.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Back in my stagehand days I stood next to a guy that John Denver patted on the back as he (John) walked off stage…

        I also opened the door for Wayne Newton and his entourage once.
        🙂

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  10. Somewhat OT, but dissecting Topo Gigio brings to mind a ritiual from my Sesame Street days that eould take place about this time of year.

    At the end of our busy season, getting the various road tour fluffed and buffed- new characters made, old costumes replaced, there would be the costumes that were beyond repair.

    They couldn’t just be tossed in the dumpster, lest they later show up on the street. They had to be “destroyed”, including the foam underbodies.

    Still remember the first time I saw this and the resulting pile of chopped up limbs and torsos and someone by remarking, “oh the humanity”.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time. That was great.

    I think there was a special on public television about Simon & Garfunkel once, back when they were still together. The details are very hazy, but I remember liking that.

    Like

    Reply

  13. TV specials tend to run together in my memory. Mostly I liked the Christmas specials – Rudolph, Charlie Brown, the Grinch. Repitition makes them stand out. A couple of moths and it will be time to run through them again.

    Like

    Reply

    2. One of my problems with the question today is I don’t know what constitutes a “special” on TV. But in the realm of Christmas specials, I get weepy when I remember “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and the Truman Capote thing, “A Christmas Memory.”

      Like

      Reply

  14. Does anyone remember this one? Here’s a review summary from the New York Times:

    “Teacher, Teacher was originally presented February 5, 1969, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special. David McCallum plays a former schoolteacher, who has wrecked his career through alcoholism and is hoping to make a fresh start as a private tutor. Ossie Davis plays a black handyman with rage to spare over the racial inequities in America. Both men find a new direction in life as they try to communicate with a retarded teenage boy. Written by Allan Sloane, father of a mentally handicapped son, Teacher, Teacher costars Billy Schulman, a 13-year-old from Woodbury, New York, who was selected from 48 retarded youngsters to play the afflicted boy in the story. An almost instinctive actor, Schulman manages the near-impossible task of upstaging both David McCallum and Ossie Davis.”

    Like

    Reply

    1. I was flipping through channels just this past week and stumbled upon The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Haven’t seen one of those for years!

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Linda Cancel reply