ISBN: 0520086597 9780520086593

Category: Computers / Networking / General

Page count: 443

This spirited, first-ever history of public television offers an insider's account of its topsy-turvy, forty-year odyssey. James Day, a founder of San Francisco's KQED and a past president of New York's WNET, chronicles public television's fascinating evolution from its inauspicious roots in the 1950s to its strong, fiercely debated presence in contemporary culture.<br><i>The Vanishing Vision</i> provides a vivid and often amusing behind-the-screens history. Day tells how a program producer, desperate to locate a family willing to live with television cameras for seven months, borrowed a dime--and a suggestion--from a blind date and telephoned the Louds of Santa Barbara. The result was the mesmerizing twelve-hour documentary, <i>An American Family</i>. Day relates how Big Bird and his friends were created to spice up Sesame Street when test runs showed a flagging interest in the program's &quot;live-action&quot; segments. And he describes how Frieda Hennock, the first woman appointed to the FCC, overpowered the resistance of her male colleagues to lay the foundation for public television.<br>Along the way, Day identifies the particular forces that have shaped public television. The result, in his view, is a Byzantine bureaucracy kept on a leash by an untrusting Congress, with a fragmented leadership that lacks a clearly defined mission in today's multimedia environment. Public television's &quot;democratic&quot; structure of over 300 stations stifles boldness and innovation while absorbing money needed for national programming.<br>Day calls for a bold rethinking of public television's mission, advocating a system that is adequately funded and independent of government, one capable of countering commercial television's &quot;lowest-common-denominator&quot; approach with a full range of substantive programs, comedy as well as culture, entertainment as well as information. This spirited, first-ever history of public television offers an insider's account of its topsy-turvy, forty-year odyssey. James Day, a founder of San Francisco's KQED and a past president of New York's WNET, chronicles public television's fascinating evolution from its inauspicious roots in the 1950s to its strong, fiercely debated presence in contemporary culture.<br><i>The Vanishing Vision</i> provides a vivid and often amusing behind-the-screens history. Day tells how a program producer, desperate to locate a family willing to live with television cameras for seven months, borrowed a dime--and a suggestion--from a blind date and telephoned the Louds of Santa Barbara. The result was the mesmerizing twelve-hour documentary, <i>An American Family</i>. Day relates how Big Bird and his friends were created to spice up Sesame Street when test runs showed a flagging interest in the program's &quot;live-action&quot; segments. And he describes how Frieda Hennock, the first woman appointed to the FCC, overpowered the resistance of her male colleagues to lay the foundation for public television.<br>Along the way, Day identifies the particular forces that have shaped public television. The result, in his view, is a Byzantine bureaucracy kept on a leash by an untrusting Congress, with a fragmented leadership that lacks a clearly defined mission in today's multimedia environment. Public television's &quot;democratic&quot; structure of over 300 stations stifles boldness and innovation while absorbing money needed for national programming.<br>Day calls for a bold rethinking of public television's mission, advocating a system that is adequately funded and independent of government, one capable of countering commercial television's &quot;lowest-common-denominator&quot; approach with a full range of substantive programs, comedy as well as culture, entertainment as well as information.