7 ms·

The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

364 points by susam 5mo ago

WarmWash 5mo ago
The most emblematic thing about this clip is how generally audiences are totally blind to video cuts, and how how much that allows video producers to get away with.
aaron695 5mo ago
[dead]
devindotcom 5mo ago
The full series is on Archive: https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/ https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections... It still holds up for the most part, though of course some of the takes, being almost 50 years old, may seem a bit quaint. It's certainly worth watching the first series at least start to finish. Burke is an interesting guy.
- _JamesA_ 5mo ago
  I was so lucky to be able to grow up watching quality shows like this. Thank you PBS (and BBC).
- mandevil 5mo ago
  I personally feel like _The Day The Universe Changed_ (his second documentary) is better. I love Connections but the basic thesis (there are hidden connections between disparate developments in science and technology) ends up pretty scattershot, spreading out like Brownian Motion. _tDtUC_ is much more focused. Largely based on Kuhn's _Structure of Scientific Revolutions_ for individual stories, it traces how the understanding of time in Europe changed from the middle ages to the 1980's- the idea of time as a marker of descent from a previous golden age (1), or at best a repeating cycle, evolves into our modern conception of time as endlessly improving into a better future. And the supporting book was amazing too. I also want to speak up for the BBC history documentary team that worked with Michael Wood: _In Search of the Trojan War_, _In Search of the Dark Ages_, _The Story of England_, _The Story of India_ they were also a staple of American PBS and informed my understanding of the world. 1: My go to example for this is imagine you walk into the Pantheon in 1000 AD: no one on your entire continent has known how to build a dome like that in 500 years, and won't again for another 500 years. The fundamental way you understand the world has to be completely different from the "newer is better" baseline that we have understood the world by for the past 150 years.
  - ThrowawayR2 5mo ago
    > "I love Connections but the basic thesis (there are hidden connections between disparate developments in science and technology)..." Good grief, no. The basic thesis of Connections 1 was that humanity has become fatally dependent on technology (the "technology trap" he speaks of), that that dependence continues getting deeper and deeper, and it's hard to predict what technologies will emerge or where technology will take us, possibly utopia but just as likely a living hell, and finally that we don't even have the option to stop digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the technology trap because technological advancement can't be stopped because its emergence is unpredictable. Re-watch just the first and last episodes and they will terrify you. Connections 2 and 3 were indeed scattershot because people liked Burke's charming mannerisms and didn't want to think about the ever more complex and ever more fragile panoply of technologies that individuals, even the technologists themselves, can neither understand nor control that is all that stands between humanity and its extinction.
    - JKCalhoun 5mo ago
      Agree with your comments on Connections 1. Better still, like a well-written essay, there is closure to the series. All the ends left about in the preceding episodes are drawn together neatly in the final one.
    - eesmith 5mo ago
      I just watched the first episode. The simulated nuclear attack did terrify me. That said, his commentary about telecommuting is spot-on. At 39:49 of https://archive.org/details/the-day-the-universe-changed-s01e01-the-way-we-are https://archive.org/details/the-day-the-universe-changed-s01... . "The point about all this technological pizazz isn't the gee-whiz high-tech stuff. It's the secondary effects of using it. Take say what this chip could do to change the pattern of work. With this you could have telecommuting, that's where you work at home from a screen and you never go into the office. Great! No more rush hour. But what does that do to the public transportation system and the taxes it uses. Or to the car manufacturers and their workers' jobs, and the rest of the economy that depends on their output? Or to the concept of the city itself, with its support systems and businesses. Or to the downtown properties where maybe your pension fund's invested. Not to speak of working at home day in and day out and what that might do to a marriage. And what do you get out of work when it's only you? What would be the effect of isolating and fragmenting the community like that? From just one application of this microchip."
- esafak 5mo ago
  There is also a fourth season from 2023. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30222317 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30222317 Also note that there is a book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Connections/James-Burke/9780743299558 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Connections/James-Bur... https://archive.org/details/connections0000burk/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/connections0000burk/page/n7/mode...
- m463 5mo ago
  Thanks for the link. This clip is Season 1 Episode 8 "Eat Drink and Be Merry" and the shot starts at 48:17: https://archive.org/download/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/S01/S01E08%20-%20Eat%2C%20Drink%20and%20Be%20Merry.mp4 https://archive.org/download/bbc-connections-1978/Connection...
- jdub 5mo ago
  I first saw Connections in the late 2000s... the final scene of the last episode, "inside the British Airways computer" (an entire floor of a large building), had me standing on my couch pointing at the screen. A year or two before I was born, James Burke wandered between mainframes and reel-to-reel tape machines, speaking with extraordinary prescience about data, communications, decision-making systems, and power: "This is the future. Because if you tell a computer everything you know about something, it will juggle the mix, and come up with a prediction. Do this, and you'll get that. And if you have information and a computer, you too can look into the future. And that is power. Commercial power, political power, power to change things." I'm going to watch that scene again, because it's even more important 20 years further along: smart phones, "big data", large language models, Palantir...
  - hypercube33 5mo ago
    A fun background show (for those of us with ADHD?) I like to have on is Computer Chronicles - a weekly show that basically documented the weekly history, for the most part, of the evolution of personal computing. It basically starts out as "these things are cool and can run spreadsheets" to evolution into music, the internet, and beyond. Lots of crazy things happen in the 1980s that we're now realizing today like touch, voice, and ai that people kept saying we'd be 2-4 years away from...I guess that is marketing speak for 20-40 years, but it's still seems very relivant to today.
RachelF 5mo ago
The late 1970's were the golden age of documentaries: Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth. Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down? As a side note: Quite ironic that he ends up pointing to a rocket propelled mostly by solid fuels.
- tocs3 5mo ago
  I also feel most of the documentaries are awful these days. There are a feww that are pretty good but I miss the older stuff.
- seer 5mo ago
  Yes, but the YouTube ed channels are such a treasure in and of itself. We had the “tech” to produce content like this for almost a century, but it took the Internet and democratization of content creation to come up with gems like smarter every day, veritasium, extra history, etc My fear is that this is also being reshaped with ai, mostly for good now but I feel like the personal touch and passion of these creators is being diluted with the advent of generated content. Maybe we are in a valley of the uncanny valley and the ai tools will become so good that they can successfully translate someone’s passionate vision faithfully, then it could be another renaissance.
  - ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
    In among all the MrBeasts and JackSepticEyes on Youtube there are some incredibly creative people. Two that my 5-year-old loves are OddAnimalSpecimens who could easily have been on BBC children's programming in the 1980s, and Terragreen who would have been his ITV counterpart :-) Probably the most entertaining child-friendly programme you can watch right now is whatever Jake Carlini is doing. Some wee guy in a house in Austin, Texas is coming up with better stories, better production values, and better life values than any of the "proper" children's TV productions, except maybe Sesame Street.
    - seer 5mo ago
      Thanks for the recommendations - I’m also big fan of 3blue1brown and PBS science, but as a recent dad am on lookout for content for my son to watch when he comes of that age - he’s just 1month now, hopefully by that time AI has not enshittyfied everything
chongli 5mo ago
I watched this show religiously as a kid (by then in reruns in the early 90s), along with Star Trek: TNG, Jeopardy, and playing Civilization for PC. The most formative years of my life were spent absorbing as much science, technology, and history as my growing brain could muster. I think that's why I'd grown up to be so optimistic about the future. I think there's still a lot of room for optimism, despite all of the pessimism in the media, and I'm not even talking about AI. There are a ton of other things which have benefitted enormously from ubiquitous, efficient, and powerful computing that hardly get talked about anymore, we've come to take it all for granted.
- wagwang 5mo ago
  The last line of the video was talking about nuking others...
  - chaboud 5mo ago
    Could have just been intercontinental ballistic human transport... I can't tell you how many times I've wished to just be fired out of a cannon to Hong Kong from SF.
    - bandrami 5mo ago
      He's even clearer about it in the last episode of season 1, where he assembles all the inventions from the season and shows how they make the US nuclear triad.
    - tclancy 5mo ago
      We have the technology to do that. What we do not have is circus tents big enough to cover the area.
  - chongli 5mo ago
    The very first episode of Connections walks through might happen in New York City if power went out and never came back on. Pretty much an apocalyptic scenario for people living there! He didn’t shy away from talking about technology for good or ill, for the ways it liberates us but can also trap us, for the ways it makes new sources of energy possible, and new weapons.
tocs3 5mo ago
I grew up watching Cosmos and Connections (and a bunch of stupid prime time on the one TV in the house and something like 5 clear channel [PBS being the best]).
51Cards 5mo ago
I always love this video, and I have been a lifetime dedicated fan of James Burke, but few seem to note that the whole segment didn't have to be timed as there is a cut shortly before the launch. If I recall either James or one of the producers talked about it once. They knew they had to start the last bit 13 seconds before launch and had practiced it repeatedly. At 13 seconds to countdown James nailed it. I'm sure even after practicing it I would have stumbled over a word in the clutch moment!
- rmunn 5mo ago
  Cuts from the speaker to some background footage, then back to the speaker, are a very useful technique. They can be used to lie, too, of course (cut from the interviewee's face to the interviewer, then back to the interviewee, and you can cut out context that changes the meaning of what was said). But when used with no deception in mind, they can really enhance a powerful moment. And this was a perfect example of it: no deception at all, just a wonderful visual image that makes an impact on the viewer.
  - hoppushoppard 5mo ago
    I was amazed by the perfect timing. I realized, if you listen closely, there is commentary audio feed from the launch with countdown. So knowing, the engines starts 3 seconds before liftoff, he was able to time the speech. I saw this clip dozen of times, and only after keeping attention I realized this. So with the cut technique, it seems like seamless feature, and that's the magic of the TV. Nevertheless amazing delivery.
- Polizeiposaune 5mo ago
  It would appear that this was the Titan IIIE which launched Voyager 2. They would have had another chance to get the shot about two weeks later when Voyager 1 launched. (Due to quirks of interplanetary orbital mechanics, Voyager 1 got to Jupiter several months before Voyager 2 despite launching second). The IIIE did indeed have a Centaur stage with a "thermos" full of liquid hydrogen and another with liquid oxygen, but that's not what we see in this clip -- the pillars of fire and smoke come from a pair of solid-fuel boosters that burn for about two minutes, followed by about six more minutes of flight powered by two more stages burning non-cryogenic liquid propellants (hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide) before the Centaur was ignited.
DavidWoof 5mo ago
I loved Connections so much as a kid, but I'm so tired of this clip. There's so many better clips from this show. So he nailed a 13 second countdown. Who cares? Newscasters do this at every commercial break. Sports announcers do this without a script and they still nail the cut to commercial almost every time. Yes, there's a talent to timing your speech to a countdown in your ear, but it's a talent that people do thousands of times a day around the world on far less preparation than Burke had here. The fact that this article calls a simple cut a "sleight of hand" just terrifies me. Does the public really not know what editing is?
- hyperific 5mo ago
  If it gets someone to watch the show for the first time then that's a win in my book. I think every young student should be exposed to Connections at various stages of their education.
- Joeboy 5mo ago
  > Does the public really not know what editing is? I think most viewers would be unaware of the cut unless it was pointed out. Hence this sequence being called a "shot".
- shmeeed 5mo ago
  I absolutely adore both Burke and the Connections series, and without a doubt this is a lovely shot, but I feel the same: I don't get the hype. It's been memefied to death for no real reason. There's no incredible feat involved. It wasn't a tightrope walk without a net live on air. You can bet they had stand-in footage done before that they could have made a montage of in case Burke stumbled a line.
  - Joeboy 5mo ago
    I suppose it's like a magic trick. It's less impressive once you understand how it all works. But still, it's clearly effective and you can admire the artistry.
slipheen 5mo ago
If you haven't seen it, there was a new season of connections made in 2023 as well. https://www.space.com/connections-with-james-burke-docuseries-curiosity-stream-q-and-a https://www.space.com/connections-with-james-burke-docuserie...
madaxe_again 5mo ago
[flagged]
fracus 5mo ago
Wow, I've only known the Carl Sagan shot in Cosmos. I'm happy to know the original now.
deleted 5mo ago
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momo26 5mo ago
really miss the time when the documentaries take the audience as audience.
s20n 5mo ago
It really grinds my gears that the uploader had to ruin the "Greatest Shot in Television" by stretching the 4:3 video to 16:9. I know I sound like a pedant but so many of these old TV recordings are uploaded this way on youtube. I was so annoyed by this infact that a few years ago I made a dumb extension that squeezes the video element back to 4:3 [1]. I'm not sure if this still works though. [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/doddimnledmldclhlbfnponmmkfdbkdk https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/doddimnledmldclhlbf...
- somat 5mo ago
  A question about aspect ratio on youtube, Does it care? or can you put whatever aspect ratio you want, I guess my complaint is that I don't see nearly enough (none) square video on the site.
  - pjc50 5mo ago
    You can. I've even seen intentional 4:3 used as an "80s" signifier. Quick googling suggested that square video under 3 minutes will be automatically classed as "shorts", which much of HN hates and may never have seen.
    - weinzierl 5mo ago
      Not YouTube but regarding the period signifier: Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" has every section of the movie shot in the time appropriate aspect ratio.
      - ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
        But the presentation format is actually 1.85:1 so the 1930s part is pillarboxed slightly and the 1960s part is heavily letterboxed. If you buy the Blu-ray it's presented in 16:9 and 1920x1080 throughout, it's just masked to suit.
  - OliverGuy 5mo ago
    AFAIK youtube will stretch the player window to match the aspect ratio of the source media, lots of cinematic content that's a wider than normal (21:9 I think?) ratio that youtube adjusts the player window to fit around without black bars. They won't ever squash or stretch video though, so this means the original uploader stretched the 4:3 content to 16:9 at some point before upload
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jurf 5mo ago
I wonder if this show is the ”Connections” in “Technology Connections” [1]. I can’t find a reference on it but I wouldn’t be surprised. [1] https://youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections https://youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections
- extraduder_ire 5mo ago
  I think at some point Alec did mention that was what he was going for. IIRC it was a mastodon or bluesky post.
rbanffy 5mo ago
I’d also mention the ascent of the Apollo 17 LM. The camera could be commanded to move up to follow the ascent, but the command had to be given ahead of time, from the MOCR, to coincide with the launch, which was commanded from the LM. The audio from the LM was delayed, as was the video from the camera, and the command would take about a second to reach the camera on the moon.
soundworlds 5mo ago
James Burke is one of Earth's treasures. Connections is the best docuseries I have ever seen.
radar1310 5mo ago
In the 80’s I worked for a radio station in Asheville NC. That allowed us to get press passes to launches at the cape. I was in the press area for 2 shuttle launches including the very first night launch of the Space Shuttle. They launched right after an incredible thunderstorm had rolled through. I’m old now but still remember it like it was yesterday. Incredible to see in person.
vova_hn2 5mo ago
Direct link to the youtube video, without this garbage ad-ridden website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ
- gjfr 5mo ago
  This comment reminded me I have an ad blocker. I reloaded the page without it, and instantly remembered why.
- Finnucane 5mo ago
  >this garbage ad-ridden website And that's not Youtube?
camkego 5mo ago
If you look at the start of that episode, there is another crazy thing in there, a device which allows you to "see" the bits on a credit card track. Apparently something called "magnetic viewing film" can allow you to see the bits on the magnetic stripes of credit cards. I had never heard about this before. Link to video time: https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/S01/S01E08+-+Eat%2C+Drink+and+Be+Merry.mkv?start=176.1 https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections...
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Scroll_Swe 5mo ago
I love this style of documentary, I feel like we had it even when I was a kid in the 90s - 00s and as an adult in the 10s, but now is totally a dead style. Sadly, it is not produced anymore. The producers chase a style and person that no longer exist, so they get their panties in a twist and make TikTok style and "true crime" style interviews is all I see from newer documentaries sadly. Women love "true crime" so 50% of new docus are just true crime drama slop. I used to watch all or most of our state TV ones but they are no longer as good (They do some of their own buy buy in most from BBC, Showtime and PBS.) I have been watching World at War and The World at War and such. Should watch Civilization and How should we then live?
Scroll_Swe 5mo ago
I love this back when we where not afraid to exhault our own virtues.
- tclancy 5mo ago
  If that’s what you got from James Burke’s body of work, may be worth a revisit.
  - Scroll_Swe 5mo ago
    [flagged]
    - tclancy 5mo ago
      Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
RedShift1 5mo ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk with the correct aspect ratio
jonathanlydall 5mo ago
It doesn’t compare to this shot, but I particularly enjoyed the one episode of the The Studio with Seth Rogan where it starts with him driving to a filming location where they were going to do a one shot scene and he was explaining to someone how difficult they are to pull off, etc. The episode was funny (although cringey too) for the things that happened in it. But what was quite clever I thought was that the episode was itself done (at least seemingly) in one-shot.
- cheschire 5mo ago
  I remember on a podcast interview I listened to that he said he intentionally made every episode as close to a “oner” as possible using very long takes and hidden transitions where possible. It’s to heighten the sense of anxiety and tension for the viewer in order to amplify the comedy. Great show!
nickdothutton 5mo ago
I strongly encourage all HN readers to seek out any of his work online. Including the meta, where he tasks about being hired for the job, and the approach he took to communicating. Although some of it will look a little dated, the messages are timeless.
hjkl0 5mo ago
This is my pet peeve. I don't know the show, but when I first watched this clip (under the title of "greatest shot on television") I totally bought in to the hype and thought it really was amazing. You start out just walking alongside him, and only slowly realize where you are and what is about to happen, and everything is perfectly timed and composed: he ends his walk, reaches the conclusion of his explanation, and you realize what is going on, all at the exact time the launch begins. Brilliant! Except that this is not "a shot" at all. I just hadn't noticed on my first watch that there's a very obvious cut just at the end of the "walk". It's a different angle from a different location at a different time of day, and he just has one sentence to say before he looks back at the blast off. It would be no different from any news reporter on location at the time, reading a prepared message ahead of the launch, timed to end before the launch itself with no need for extensive rehearsals, the launch timing is widely broadcast, you time yourself accordingly with your talking speed, by adding pauses, etc. And on top of everything they probably had to do it live too. I have no issue with James Burke or his show. And this scene is really beautifully done. But it's not the greatest shot in television. It's not even one shot! (edited: typos)
- jleyank 5mo ago
  If you want a single, unedited shot, Neil’s ladder descent would be a candidate. If you didn’t think Stanley actually did it.
  - Thegn 5mo ago
    He did, but he was such a stickler for accuracy that he insisted they shoot on location.
    - wolfram74 5mo ago
      The CIA didn't read his contract carefully enough. He snuck it into one of the rider clauses.
    - angry_octet 5mo ago
      It's very explanatory of his fear of flying.
K0balt 5mo ago
Anyone know if the connections shows can be watched online somewhere?
- dredmorbius 5mo ago
  Internet Archive: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48090682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48090682>.
iancmceachern 5mo ago
Hands down one of the best TV shows ever made
HocusLocus 5mo ago
The "Trigger Effect" episode ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOb3Dilzjc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOb3Dilzjc ) that set off Connections:I was one of the finest hours ever produced for television. It influenced my family and I in the years to come. Hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. It begins at South Tower of the World Trade Center, and as Burke enters an express elevator (Car 6 or 7 if you must know) he says in effect, "Do I worry about ascending to the top in a steel box? Of course I don't! We take going up in the world like that for granted." When an elevator later goes dark he says. "We expect this to happen sometimes so what do we do? We strike a light and look around in the dark for an emergency button to push and if we find one, we press it." In this discussion of single takes, note what the temperature of the butane lighter must have been by the time he finishes his speech. Ouch! Also interesting to note in the realm of happenstance: the airliner portrayed in trouble over darkened New York was flight 911.
- dredmorbius 5mo ago
  In an episode that opened in the World Trade Center towers. That is an awesome set of coincidences. ... or perhaps the series influenced OBL ...
ericol 5mo ago
I loved this show as a kid. Growing up in Argentina, back in the day these were all dubbed. The version I watched on tv had a voice and personality of its own - Latin American "neutral" Spanish - and for the life of me I could never find that same version, only the Spain-dubbed one.
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maxglute 5mo ago
I miss big budget documentaries, definitely a niche that youtube/nebula small creator teams hasn't filled.
mschuster91 5mo ago
I would not be surprised if Tom Scott stated one day that this video was an inspiration for his legendary old video format: just him walking through some random place and explaining things, seemingly completely without script.
NDlurker 5mo ago
Meh
yagizdagabak 5mo ago
Despite its editorial antics, this is one of those videos that you are randomly reminded of at 2am, watch it, and get emotional.
dlev_pika 5mo ago
The Day the Universe Changed is amazing. It combines history, science and philosophy. Do yourself a favor, and search for the episodes.
psyclobe 5mo ago
The guy won't shutup he's just foaming st the mouth babbling on and on its like enough we've seen this a million times the show sucks!
yomismoaqui 5mo ago
When the wise man points to the rocket, the fool looks at the tv host.
chermi 5mo ago
I just don't think it's that great? It's cool, I just don't think we should all accept it's the greatest. I mean I feel like some spacex stream segments are more awe-inspiring than this. Or some planet earth shots.
pugworthy 5mo ago
Personally I put the Jonnie Walker The Man Who Walked Around The World ad with Robert Carlyle as the greatest one take shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6aiVg2qVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6aiVg2qVk
- skrebbel 5mo ago
  Wow that was very well done!
SCAQTony 5mo ago
James Burke is a great man. I have a personal policy that when I write a white each paragraph has a "layperson's" explanation beneath it, which was inspired by the first and the last episode of his BBC show Connections
neves 5mo ago
Where can I watch Connections show? What's the best place? Any episode recommendations?
- ews 5mo ago
  archive.org has all episodes
skeeter2020 5mo ago
reminds me of "Scene 113: The Bridge" in the show The Franchise when they're on location in Armenia. I won't spoil the show/episode but let's just say it doesn't go as well as the shot highlighted here.
padjo 5mo ago
I love connections but holy crap can people just not spot an edit? It's a cool shot but the bit he had to time is short and pretty simple.
jh00ker 5mo ago
Connections is one of the greatest shows in television. The pilot episode is amazing, highlighting the problem with dependence on technology that we don't understand. "Never have so many people understood so little about so much." Even more true today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ
Elonreevemusk 5mo ago
[dead]

364 points by susam 5mo ago

The most emblematic thing about this clip is how generally audiences are totally blind to video cuts, and how how much that allows video producers to get away with.

aaron695 5mo ago

[dead]

devindotcom 5mo ago

The full series is on Archive: https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/ https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections... It still holds up for the most part, though of course some of the takes, being almost 50 years old, may seem a bit quaint. It's certainly worth watching the first series at least start to finish. Burke is an interesting guy.

_JamesA_ 5mo ago
I was so lucky to be able to grow up watching quality shows like this. Thank you PBS (and BBC).
mandevil 5mo ago
I personally feel like _The Day The Universe Changed_ (his second documentary) is better. I love Connections but the basic thesis (there are hidden connections between disparate developments in science and technology) ends up pretty scattershot, spreading out like Brownian Motion. _tDtUC_ is much more focused. Largely based on Kuhn's _Structure of Scientific Revolutions_ for individual stories, it traces how the understanding of time in Europe changed from the middle ages to the 1980's- the idea of time as a marker of descent from a previous golden age (1), or at best a repeating cycle, evolves into our modern conception of time as endlessly improving into a better future. And the supporting book was amazing too. I also want to speak up for the BBC history documentary team that worked with Michael Wood: _In Search of the Trojan War_, _In Search of the Dark Ages_, _The Story of England_, _The Story of India_ they were also a staple of American PBS and informed my understanding of the world. 1: My go to example for this is imagine you walk into the Pantheon in 1000 AD: no one on your entire continent has known how to build a dome like that in 500 years, and won't again for another 500 years. The fundamental way you understand the world has to be completely different from the "newer is better" baseline that we have understood the world by for the past 150 years.
- ThrowawayR2 5mo ago
  > "I love Connections but the basic thesis (there are hidden connections between disparate developments in science and technology)..." Good grief, no. The basic thesis of Connections 1 was that humanity has become fatally dependent on technology (the "technology trap" he speaks of), that that dependence continues getting deeper and deeper, and it's hard to predict what technologies will emerge or where technology will take us, possibly utopia but just as likely a living hell, and finally that we don't even have the option to stop digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the technology trap because technological advancement can't be stopped because its emergence is unpredictable. Re-watch just the first and last episodes and they will terrify you. Connections 2 and 3 were indeed scattershot because people liked Burke's charming mannerisms and didn't want to think about the ever more complex and ever more fragile panoply of technologies that individuals, even the technologists themselves, can neither understand nor control that is all that stands between humanity and its extinction.
  - JKCalhoun 5mo ago
    Agree with your comments on Connections 1. Better still, like a well-written essay, there is closure to the series. All the ends left about in the preceding episodes are drawn together neatly in the final one.
  - eesmith 5mo ago
    I just watched the first episode. The simulated nuclear attack did terrify me. That said, his commentary about telecommuting is spot-on. At 39:49 of https://archive.org/details/the-day-the-universe-changed-s01e01-the-way-we-are https://archive.org/details/the-day-the-universe-changed-s01... . "The point about all this technological pizazz isn't the gee-whiz high-tech stuff. It's the secondary effects of using it. Take say what this chip could do to change the pattern of work. With this you could have telecommuting, that's where you work at home from a screen and you never go into the office. Great! No more rush hour. But what does that do to the public transportation system and the taxes it uses. Or to the car manufacturers and their workers' jobs, and the rest of the economy that depends on their output? Or to the concept of the city itself, with its support systems and businesses. Or to the downtown properties where maybe your pension fund's invested. Not to speak of working at home day in and day out and what that might do to a marriage. And what do you get out of work when it's only you? What would be the effect of isolating and fragmenting the community like that? From just one application of this microchip."
esafak 5mo ago
There is also a fourth season from 2023. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30222317 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30222317 Also note that there is a book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Connections/James-Burke/9780743299558 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Connections/James-Bur... https://archive.org/details/connections0000burk/page/n7/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/connections0000burk/page/n7/mode...
m463 5mo ago
Thanks for the link. This clip is Season 1 Episode 8 "Eat Drink and Be Merry" and the shot starts at 48:17: https://archive.org/download/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/S01/S01E08%20-%20Eat%2C%20Drink%20and%20Be%20Merry.mp4 https://archive.org/download/bbc-connections-1978/Connection...
jdub 5mo ago
I first saw Connections in the late 2000s... the final scene of the last episode, "inside the British Airways computer" (an entire floor of a large building), had me standing on my couch pointing at the screen. A year or two before I was born, James Burke wandered between mainframes and reel-to-reel tape machines, speaking with extraordinary prescience about data, communications, decision-making systems, and power: "This is the future. Because if you tell a computer everything you know about something, it will juggle the mix, and come up with a prediction. Do this, and you'll get that. And if you have information and a computer, you too can look into the future. And that is power. Commercial power, political power, power to change things." I'm going to watch that scene again, because it's even more important 20 years further along: smart phones, "big data", large language models, Palantir...
- hypercube33 5mo ago
  A fun background show (for those of us with ADHD?) I like to have on is Computer Chronicles - a weekly show that basically documented the weekly history, for the most part, of the evolution of personal computing. It basically starts out as "these things are cool and can run spreadsheets" to evolution into music, the internet, and beyond. Lots of crazy things happen in the 1980s that we're now realizing today like touch, voice, and ai that people kept saying we'd be 2-4 years away from...I guess that is marketing speak for 20-40 years, but it's still seems very relivant to today.

RachelF 5mo ago

The late 1970's were the golden age of documentaries: Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth. Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down? As a side note: Quite ironic that he ends up pointing to a rocket propelled mostly by solid fuels.

tocs3 5mo ago
I also feel most of the documentaries are awful these days. There are a feww that are pretty good but I miss the older stuff.
seer 5mo ago
Yes, but the YouTube ed channels are such a treasure in and of itself. We had the “tech” to produce content like this for almost a century, but it took the Internet and democratization of content creation to come up with gems like smarter every day, veritasium, extra history, etc My fear is that this is also being reshaped with ai, mostly for good now but I feel like the personal touch and passion of these creators is being diluted with the advent of generated content. Maybe we are in a valley of the uncanny valley and the ai tools will become so good that they can successfully translate someone’s passionate vision faithfully, then it could be another renaissance.
- ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
  In among all the MrBeasts and JackSepticEyes on Youtube there are some incredibly creative people. Two that my 5-year-old loves are OddAnimalSpecimens who could easily have been on BBC children's programming in the 1980s, and Terragreen who would have been his ITV counterpart :-) Probably the most entertaining child-friendly programme you can watch right now is whatever Jake Carlini is doing. Some wee guy in a house in Austin, Texas is coming up with better stories, better production values, and better life values than any of the "proper" children's TV productions, except maybe Sesame Street.
  - seer 5mo ago
    Thanks for the recommendations - I’m also big fan of 3blue1brown and PBS science, but as a recent dad am on lookout for content for my son to watch when he comes of that age - he’s just 1month now, hopefully by that time AI has not enshittyfied everything

chongli 5mo ago

I watched this show religiously as a kid (by then in reruns in the early 90s), along with Star Trek: TNG, Jeopardy, and playing Civilization for PC. The most formative years of my life were spent absorbing as much science, technology, and history as my growing brain could muster. I think that's why I'd grown up to be so optimistic about the future. I think there's still a lot of room for optimism, despite all of the pessimism in the media, and I'm not even talking about AI. There are a ton of other things which have benefitted enormously from ubiquitous, efficient, and powerful computing that hardly get talked about anymore, we've come to take it all for granted.

wagwang 5mo ago
The last line of the video was talking about nuking others...
- chaboud 5mo ago
  Could have just been intercontinental ballistic human transport... I can't tell you how many times I've wished to just be fired out of a cannon to Hong Kong from SF.
  - bandrami 5mo ago
    He's even clearer about it in the last episode of season 1, where he assembles all the inventions from the season and shows how they make the US nuclear triad.
  - tclancy 5mo ago
    We have the technology to do that. What we do not have is circus tents big enough to cover the area.
- chongli 5mo ago
  The very first episode of Connections walks through might happen in New York City if power went out and never came back on. Pretty much an apocalyptic scenario for people living there! He didn’t shy away from talking about technology for good or ill, for the ways it liberates us but can also trap us, for the ways it makes new sources of energy possible, and new weapons.

tocs3 5mo ago

I grew up watching Cosmos and Connections (and a bunch of stupid prime time on the one TV in the house and something like 5 clear channel [PBS being the best]).

51Cards 5mo ago

I always love this video, and I have been a lifetime dedicated fan of James Burke, but few seem to note that the whole segment didn't have to be timed as there is a cut shortly before the launch. If I recall either James or one of the producers talked about it once. They knew they had to start the last bit 13 seconds before launch and had practiced it repeatedly. At 13 seconds to countdown James nailed it. I'm sure even after practicing it I would have stumbled over a word in the clutch moment!

rmunn 5mo ago
Cuts from the speaker to some background footage, then back to the speaker, are a very useful technique. They can be used to lie, too, of course (cut from the interviewee's face to the interviewer, then back to the interviewee, and you can cut out context that changes the meaning of what was said). But when used with no deception in mind, they can really enhance a powerful moment. And this was a perfect example of it: no deception at all, just a wonderful visual image that makes an impact on the viewer.
- hoppushoppard 5mo ago
  I was amazed by the perfect timing. I realized, if you listen closely, there is commentary audio feed from the launch with countdown. So knowing, the engines starts 3 seconds before liftoff, he was able to time the speech. I saw this clip dozen of times, and only after keeping attention I realized this. So with the cut technique, it seems like seamless feature, and that's the magic of the TV. Nevertheless amazing delivery.
Polizeiposaune 5mo ago
It would appear that this was the Titan IIIE which launched Voyager 2. They would have had another chance to get the shot about two weeks later when Voyager 1 launched. (Due to quirks of interplanetary orbital mechanics, Voyager 1 got to Jupiter several months before Voyager 2 despite launching second). The IIIE did indeed have a Centaur stage with a "thermos" full of liquid hydrogen and another with liquid oxygen, but that's not what we see in this clip -- the pillars of fire and smoke come from a pair of solid-fuel boosters that burn for about two minutes, followed by about six more minutes of flight powered by two more stages burning non-cryogenic liquid propellants (hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide) before the Centaur was ignited.

DavidWoof 5mo ago

I loved Connections so much as a kid, but I'm so tired of this clip. There's so many better clips from this show. So he nailed a 13 second countdown. Who cares? Newscasters do this at every commercial break. Sports announcers do this without a script and they still nail the cut to commercial almost every time. Yes, there's a talent to timing your speech to a countdown in your ear, but it's a talent that people do thousands of times a day around the world on far less preparation than Burke had here. The fact that this article calls a simple cut a "sleight of hand" just terrifies me. Does the public really not know what editing is?

hyperific 5mo ago
If it gets someone to watch the show for the first time then that's a win in my book. I think every young student should be exposed to Connections at various stages of their education.
Joeboy 5mo ago
> Does the public really not know what editing is? I think most viewers would be unaware of the cut unless it was pointed out. Hence this sequence being called a "shot".
shmeeed 5mo ago
I absolutely adore both Burke and the Connections series, and without a doubt this is a lovely shot, but I feel the same: I don't get the hype. It's been memefied to death for no real reason. There's no incredible feat involved. It wasn't a tightrope walk without a net live on air. You can bet they had stand-in footage done before that they could have made a montage of in case Burke stumbled a line.
- Joeboy 5mo ago
  I suppose it's like a magic trick. It's less impressive once you understand how it all works. But still, it's clearly effective and you can admire the artistry.

slipheen 5mo ago

If you haven't seen it, there was a new season of connections made in 2023 as well. https://www.space.com/connections-with-james-burke-docuseries-curiosity-stream-q-and-a https://www.space.com/connections-with-james-burke-docuserie...

madaxe_again 5mo ago

[flagged]

fracus 5mo ago

Wow, I've only known the Carl Sagan shot in Cosmos. I'm happy to know the original now.

deleted 5mo ago

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momo26 5mo ago

really miss the time when the documentaries take the audience as audience.

s20n 5mo ago

It really grinds my gears that the uploader had to ruin the "Greatest Shot in Television" by stretching the 4:3 video to 16:9. I know I sound like a pedant but so many of these old TV recordings are uploaded this way on youtube. I was so annoyed by this infact that a few years ago I made a dumb extension that squeezes the video element back to 4:3 [1]. I'm not sure if this still works though. [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/doddimnledmldclhlbfnponmmkfdbkdk https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/doddimnledmldclhlbf...

somat 5mo ago
A question about aspect ratio on youtube, Does it care? or can you put whatever aspect ratio you want, I guess my complaint is that I don't see nearly enough (none) square video on the site.
- pjc50 5mo ago
  You can. I've even seen intentional 4:3 used as an "80s" signifier. Quick googling suggested that square video under 3 minutes will be automatically classed as "shorts", which much of HN hates and may never have seen.
  - weinzierl 5mo ago
    Not YouTube but regarding the period signifier: Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" has every section of the movie shot in the time appropriate aspect ratio.
    - ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
      But the presentation format is actually 1.85:1 so the 1930s part is pillarboxed slightly and the 1960s part is heavily letterboxed. If you buy the Blu-ray it's presented in 16:9 and 1920x1080 throughout, it's just masked to suit.
- OliverGuy 5mo ago
  AFAIK youtube will stretch the player window to match the aspect ratio of the source media, lots of cinematic content that's a wider than normal (21:9 I think?) ratio that youtube adjusts the player window to fit around without black bars. They won't ever squash or stretch video though, so this means the original uploader stretched the 4:3 content to 16:9 at some point before upload

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jurf 5mo ago

I wonder if this show is the ”Connections” in “Technology Connections” [1]. I can’t find a reference on it but I wouldn’t be surprised. [1] https://youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections https://youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections

extraduder_ire 5mo ago
I think at some point Alec did mention that was what he was going for. IIRC it was a mastodon or bluesky post.

rbanffy 5mo ago

I’d also mention the ascent of the Apollo 17 LM. The camera could be commanded to move up to follow the ascent, but the command had to be given ahead of time, from the MOCR, to coincide with the launch, which was commanded from the LM. The audio from the LM was delayed, as was the video from the camera, and the command would take about a second to reach the camera on the moon.

soundworlds 5mo ago

James Burke is one of Earth's treasures. Connections is the best docuseries I have ever seen.

radar1310 5mo ago

In the 80’s I worked for a radio station in Asheville NC. That allowed us to get press passes to launches at the cape. I was in the press area for 2 shuttle launches including the very first night launch of the Space Shuttle. They launched right after an incredible thunderstorm had rolled through. I’m old now but still remember it like it was yesterday. Incredible to see in person.

vova_hn2 5mo ago

Direct link to the youtube video, without this garbage ad-ridden website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ

gjfr 5mo ago
This comment reminded me I have an ad blocker. I reloaded the page without it, and instantly remembered why.
Finnucane 5mo ago
>this garbage ad-ridden website And that's not Youtube?

camkego 5mo ago

If you look at the start of that episode, there is another crazy thing in there, a device which allows you to "see" the bits on a credit card track. Apparently something called "magnetic viewing film" can allow you to see the bits on the magnetic stripes of credit cards. I had never heard about this before. Link to video time: https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections/S01/S01E08+-+Eat%2C+Drink+and+Be+Merry.mkv?start=176.1 https://archive.org/details/bbc-connections-1978/Connections...

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Scroll_Swe 5mo ago

I love this style of documentary, I feel like we had it even when I was a kid in the 90s - 00s and as an adult in the 10s, but now is totally a dead style. Sadly, it is not produced anymore. The producers chase a style and person that no longer exist, so they get their panties in a twist and make TikTok style and "true crime" style interviews is all I see from newer documentaries sadly. Women love "true crime" so 50% of new docus are just true crime drama slop. I used to watch all or most of our state TV ones but they are no longer as good (They do some of their own buy buy in most from BBC, Showtime and PBS.) I have been watching World at War and The World at War and such. Should watch Civilization and How should we then live?

Scroll_Swe 5mo ago

I love this back when we where not afraid to exhault our own virtues.

tclancy 5mo ago
If that’s what you got from James Burke’s body of work, may be worth a revisit.
- Scroll_Swe 5mo ago
  [flagged]
  - tclancy 5mo ago
    Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

RedShift1 5mo ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJh5D0FCZk with the correct aspect ratio

jonathanlydall 5mo ago

It doesn’t compare to this shot, but I particularly enjoyed the one episode of the The Studio with Seth Rogan where it starts with him driving to a filming location where they were going to do a one shot scene and he was explaining to someone how difficult they are to pull off, etc. The episode was funny (although cringey too) for the things that happened in it. But what was quite clever I thought was that the episode was itself done (at least seemingly) in one-shot.

cheschire 5mo ago
I remember on a podcast interview I listened to that he said he intentionally made every episode as close to a “oner” as possible using very long takes and hidden transitions where possible. It’s to heighten the sense of anxiety and tension for the viewer in order to amplify the comedy. Great show!

nickdothutton 5mo ago

I strongly encourage all HN readers to seek out any of his work online. Including the meta, where he tasks about being hired for the job, and the approach he took to communicating. Although some of it will look a little dated, the messages are timeless.

hjkl0 5mo ago

This is my pet peeve. I don't know the show, but when I first watched this clip (under the title of "greatest shot on television") I totally bought in to the hype and thought it really was amazing. You start out just walking alongside him, and only slowly realize where you are and what is about to happen, and everything is perfectly timed and composed: he ends his walk, reaches the conclusion of his explanation, and you realize what is going on, all at the exact time the launch begins. Brilliant! Except that this is not "a shot" at all. I just hadn't noticed on my first watch that there's a very obvious cut just at the end of the "walk". It's a different angle from a different location at a different time of day, and he just has one sentence to say before he looks back at the blast off. It would be no different from any news reporter on location at the time, reading a prepared message ahead of the launch, timed to end before the launch itself with no need for extensive rehearsals, the launch timing is widely broadcast, you time yourself accordingly with your talking speed, by adding pauses, etc. And on top of everything they probably had to do it live too. I have no issue with James Burke or his show. And this scene is really beautifully done. But it's not the greatest shot in television. It's not even one shot! (edited: typos)

jleyank 5mo ago
If you want a single, unedited shot, Neil’s ladder descent would be a candidate. If you didn’t think Stanley actually did it.
- Thegn 5mo ago
  He did, but he was such a stickler for accuracy that he insisted they shoot on location.
  - wolfram74 5mo ago
    The CIA didn't read his contract carefully enough. He snuck it into one of the rider clauses.
  - angry_octet 5mo ago
    It's very explanatory of his fear of flying.

K0balt 5mo ago

Anyone know if the connections shows can be watched online somewhere?

dredmorbius 5mo ago
Internet Archive: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48090682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48090682>.

iancmceachern 5mo ago

Hands down one of the best TV shows ever made

HocusLocus 5mo ago

The "Trigger Effect" episode ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOb3Dilzjc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOb3Dilzjc ) that set off Connections:I was one of the finest hours ever produced for television. It influenced my family and I in the years to come. Hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. It begins at South Tower of the World Trade Center, and as Burke enters an express elevator (Car 6 or 7 if you must know) he says in effect, "Do I worry about ascending to the top in a steel box? Of course I don't! We take going up in the world like that for granted." When an elevator later goes dark he says. "We expect this to happen sometimes so what do we do? We strike a light and look around in the dark for an emergency button to push and if we find one, we press it." In this discussion of single takes, note what the temperature of the butane lighter must have been by the time he finishes his speech. Ouch! Also interesting to note in the realm of happenstance: the airliner portrayed in trouble over darkened New York was flight 911.

dredmorbius 5mo ago
In an episode that opened in the World Trade Center towers. That is an awesome set of coincidences. ... or perhaps the series influenced OBL ...

ericol 5mo ago

I loved this show as a kid. Growing up in Argentina, back in the day these were all dubbed. The version I watched on tv had a voice and personality of its own - Latin American "neutral" Spanish - and for the life of me I could never find that same version, only the Spain-dubbed one.

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maxglute 5mo ago

I miss big budget documentaries, definitely a niche that youtube/nebula small creator teams hasn't filled.

mschuster91 5mo ago

I would not be surprised if Tom Scott stated one day that this video was an inspiration for his legendary old video format: just him walking through some random place and explaining things, seemingly completely without script.

NDlurker 5mo ago

Meh

yagizdagabak 5mo ago

Despite its editorial antics, this is one of those videos that you are randomly reminded of at 2am, watch it, and get emotional.

dlev_pika 5mo ago

The Day the Universe Changed is amazing. It combines history, science and philosophy. Do yourself a favor, and search for the episodes.

psyclobe 5mo ago

The guy won't shutup he's just foaming st the mouth babbling on and on its like enough we've seen this a million times the show sucks!

yomismoaqui 5mo ago

When the wise man points to the rocket, the fool looks at the tv host.

chermi 5mo ago

I just don't think it's that great? It's cool, I just don't think we should all accept it's the greatest. I mean I feel like some spacex stream segments are more awe-inspiring than this. Or some planet earth shots.

pugworthy 5mo ago

Personally I put the Jonnie Walker The Man Who Walked Around The World ad with Robert Carlyle as the greatest one take shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6aiVg2qVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6aiVg2qVk

skrebbel 5mo ago
Wow that was very well done!

SCAQTony 5mo ago

James Burke is a great man. I have a personal policy that when I write a white each paragraph has a "layperson's" explanation beneath it, which was inspired by the first and the last episode of his BBC show Connections

neves 5mo ago

Where can I watch Connections show? What's the best place? Any episode recommendations?

ews 5mo ago
archive.org has all episodes

skeeter2020 5mo ago

reminds me of "Scene 113: The Bridge" in the show The Franchise when they're on location in Armenia. I won't spoil the show/episode but let's just say it doesn't go as well as the shot highlighted here.

padjo 5mo ago

I love connections but holy crap can people just not spot an edit? It's a cool shot but the bit he had to time is short and pretty simple.

jh00ker 5mo ago

Connections is one of the greatest shows in television. The pilot episode is amazing, highlighting the problem with dependence on technology that we don't understand. "Never have so many people understood so little about so much." Even more true today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ

Elonreevemusk 5mo ago

[dead]