5 ms·

Boston’s most radical TV show blew minds in 1967

70 points by tintinnabula 9y ago

chomp 9y ago
Unrelated: You're using a browser set to private or incognito mode. To continue reading articles in this mode, please log in to your Globe account. Haven't seen this one before. No, I don't want you tracking me, and no, I'm not going to view your article because of it.
- protonimitate 9y ago
  You can still get around it by disabling javascript completely. Will load a text only version.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- andrewl 9y ago
  I opened the page in Firefox in a private window and did not get that message. I did get it in Chrome.
meatsock 9y ago
experimental media is important, and so is a public-media world it can exist in. support shows your local public stations motives other than profit are necessary for culture.
- gowld 9y ago
  Is TV important for this, nowadays when we have YouTube / Vimeo / Dailymotion?
  - jkFeiwi 9y ago
    No but who's going to fund the non-commercial streaming videos? Public (in the American sense, viewer supported) broadcasting like NPR and PBS develop excellent digital content that we would not otherwise have because it's not advertiser friendly. If you hate clickbait, fake news, and spam, you should support public media.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
pmarreck 9y ago
These should be put online before they are lost, seems like it was an innovative time in TV
Nition 9y ago
Reminds me a lot of a bit from Edmund Carpenter's anthropology book They Became What They Beheld (1970). I'll have to copy it out of the book so please forgive any transcription errors: "In the 1968 elections the McCarthy campaign staff was approached with a suggestion for crossing media. In the United States no law prohibits the mating of radio and TV. In Southern California, for example, Spanish-speaking sportsfans watch the picture on TV but listen to a Spanish-speaking sports broadcaster on radio. So it was proposed that the New York-New Jersey area be offered a night of radio sound & TV picture. Five commentators were to provide the audio; John Culkin, Jean Shepherd, Marshall McLuhan, myself & Tony Schwartz, who originated the idea and had a sound studio equipped to handle the project. A bank of small TV sets offered simultaneous coverage of all principal TV stations in the area; each would be kept on its particular channel. From these the connentators would select programs shown on a master TV set & toward these programs would direct their comments. The plan was to announce in the New York-New Jersey newspapers that at 7 P.M. on a certain night a local radio station would provide that evening's TV audio. For example, the audio for a TV cigarette commercial would be one minute of coughing via radio. If there was a laughshow, it would be pointed out that the laughtracks were copyrighted in 1935 & that most of the people one heard laughing had been dead for some time. Then listeners would be asked to turn to a channel showing Walter Cronkite, at which point they would hear a taped "countdown," first in English, followed by a A-blast; then in Russian, then Chinese, each followed by blasts & more blasts & finally only a child's cry. Finally, and this was the point of the whole project, listeners would be encouraged to turn to a channel with Hubert Humphrey speaking. Instead of his speech, however, they would hear - on radio - the four letters he wrote to his draft board gaining exemption from duty in the Second War - one letter citing two lectures he had delivered to an ROTC class, while in the background would be played Hitler's ranting, bombs & screams; then Humphrey's pro-Vietnam War speeches - "A glorious adventure and great fun, isn't it?" - while in the background the guns & screams continued. The McCarthy team, mostly literate men, saw something profoundly immoral in the suggestion. New forms always seem immoral or chaotic since they are unconsciously judged by reference to consecrated forms. But a curious contradiction arises: New forms are condemned, but the information they disseminate is believed, while the old & valued aren't even seen."
- jackfoxy 9y ago
smrk007 9y ago
Where can I find this show / episode? I've been looking but to no avail...
dang 9y ago
Speaking of radical TV from 1967, this was pretty radical, and still worth watching: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/this_is_marshall_mcluhan https://dangerousminds.net/comments/this_is_marshall_mcluhan https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9404250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9404250
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

70 points by tintinnabula 9y ago

Unrelated: You're using a browser set to private or incognito mode. To continue reading articles in this mode, please log in to your Globe account. Haven't seen this one before. No, I don't want you tracking me, and no, I'm not going to view your article because of it.

protonimitate 9y ago
You can still get around it by disabling javascript completely. Will load a text only version.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
andrewl 9y ago
I opened the page in Firefox in a private window and did not get that message. I did get it in Chrome.

meatsock 9y ago

experimental media is important, and so is a public-media world it can exist in. support shows your local public stations motives other than profit are necessary for culture.

gowld 9y ago
Is TV important for this, nowadays when we have YouTube / Vimeo / Dailymotion?
- jkFeiwi 9y ago
  No but who's going to fund the non-commercial streaming videos? Public (in the American sense, viewer supported) broadcasting like NPR and PBS develop excellent digital content that we would not otherwise have because it's not advertiser friendly. If you hate clickbait, fake news, and spam, you should support public media.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

pmarreck 9y ago

These should be put online before they are lost, seems like it was an innovative time in TV

Nition 9y ago

Reminds me a lot of a bit from Edmund Carpenter's anthropology book They Became What They Beheld (1970). I'll have to copy it out of the book so please forgive any transcription errors: "In the 1968 elections the McCarthy campaign staff was approached with a suggestion for crossing media. In the United States no law prohibits the mating of radio and TV. In Southern California, for example, Spanish-speaking sportsfans watch the picture on TV but listen to a Spanish-speaking sports broadcaster on radio. So it was proposed that the New York-New Jersey area be offered a night of radio sound & TV picture. Five commentators were to provide the audio; John Culkin, Jean Shepherd, Marshall McLuhan, myself & Tony Schwartz, who originated the idea and had a sound studio equipped to handle the project. A bank of small TV sets offered simultaneous coverage of all principal TV stations in the area; each would be kept on its particular channel. From these the connentators would select programs shown on a master TV set & toward these programs would direct their comments. The plan was to announce in the New York-New Jersey newspapers that at 7 P.M. on a certain night a local radio station would provide that evening's TV audio. For example, the audio for a TV cigarette commercial would be one minute of coughing via radio. If there was a laughshow, it would be pointed out that the laughtracks were copyrighted in 1935 & that most of the people one heard laughing had been dead for some time. Then listeners would be asked to turn to a channel showing Walter Cronkite, at which point they would hear a taped "countdown," first in English, followed by a A-blast; then in Russian, then Chinese, each followed by blasts & more blasts & finally only a child's cry. Finally, and this was the point of the whole project, listeners would be encouraged to turn to a channel with Hubert Humphrey speaking. Instead of his speech, however, they would hear - on radio - the four letters he wrote to his draft board gaining exemption from duty in the Second War - one letter citing two lectures he had delivered to an ROTC class, while in the background would be played Hitler's ranting, bombs & screams; then Humphrey's pro-Vietnam War speeches - "A glorious adventure and great fun, isn't it?" - while in the background the guns & screams continued. The McCarthy team, mostly literate men, saw something profoundly immoral in the suggestion. New forms always seem immoral or chaotic since they are unconsciously judged by reference to consecrated forms. But a curious contradiction arises: New forms are condemned, but the information they disseminate is believed, while the old & valued aren't even seen."

jackfoxy 9y ago

smrk007 9y ago

Where can I find this show / episode? I've been looking but to no avail...

dang 9y ago

Speaking of radical TV from 1967, this was pretty radical, and still worth watching: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/this_is_marshall_mcluhan https://dangerousminds.net/comments/this_is_marshall_mcluhan https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9404250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9404250

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]