The History Channel...

yeah, point taken..

subjective comparisons of non qualitative data is really just a chat about "taste" ..

A few comments

Ultimate stardom can be found in the US. Not a lot of Hollywood actors heading off to Bangalooroo to make the "big time."

In that same Bangalooroo most people (i.e. poor) have TV \ electricity a few hours a day, so even if there are more eyeballs to see, the eyes on screen time is considerably less then the average yank's 4-5hours daily TV suckage!

China? Similar but more Geo political in nature not so much infrastructure related..


"Downtown Abbey" or "Breaking Bad" you decide.. lol
(ridiculous comparison, just having fun)
 
One word, PBS, er, acronym, or string of consonants, or whatever that is. =)

PBS History

Do I even need to say their names? Ken and Ric Burns.

Michael Wood! Yay.

American Experience

American Masters

So much other great history content. So many great specials.

Probably the best Bible-plus history I've ever seen on TV: Frontline: From Jesus to Christ

And another good Bible-plus one from Frontline: Frontline: Apocalypse

It's been a long time since I had cable. But I think A&E had a bible series back in the day that was actually quite good.

I think there was a good one about sorting out the history of King Soloman recently, for another example.

Maybe it was this one: Nova: Quest for King Solomon's Mines

Actually, Nova has lots of good history stuff, usually mixed with archeology stuff. Like, Nova: Ancient Worlds

Oh yeah, and there's Secrets of the Dead, are you kidding me? Very nice.

And for news that doesn't suck:

PBS Newshour

And, Fronline, the best investigative news journal on TV.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Ultimate stardom can be found in the US.
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That maybe true but it would also be true to say that many of the "ultimate stars" and greatest filmmakers are not Americans. David Lean, Hitchcock, Kubrik, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson and many others and we won't even start with the great French, Italian or Russian directors.

Richy: PBS is a good channel, one of my favourites when I'm in the US but does it produce better shows than say the BBC? In some cases sure, in others I certainly wouldn't say so. I don't want to get into a pissing match about who/what is better because that's subjective. But to say the US produces the best TV is more than a little strange and seems to have no decent basis I can see beyond the fact that you are actually Americans and don't get to see much of the great content produced outside of the States due to political/ultra conservative considerations. Even if we just look at the numbers, I still don't see how you can justify saying that all the best TV content is made in the US.

G
 
Too many subjective terms floating around.. I added too it of course..

I still stand by my semi-subjective reasoning line..

If USA consumes the most content, and most of what the US consumes is US made, then it is true that more US content is consumed than non US content. ipso facto US content is the best by virtue of the amount that is consumed!

US movies are popular world wide. I saw Total Recall the week it was released while on business in Tel Aviv, how many NON US films get that kind of world wide distribution at opening? Sure, it happens, but practically EVERY movie out of Hollywood plays everywhere all the time.

I complete agree that the US gobbles up souls from around the world in its insatiable apatite for content, but we never eat it as given, we always add our american flavors to it, and spit up something that the rest of the world likes MORE than they liked the original! The beetles were great, but they weren't GREAT until the made it in the US and were changed by the experience.

For whats its worth, I don't have that serious of a view on the mater, jut felt like talking about it a bit.. right now Im more captured by the idea of vertically integrated information society and the possible ramifications of the same...
 
wheatgrinder said:
If USA consumes the most content, and most of what the US consumes is US made, then it is true that more US content is consumed than non US content. ipso facto US content is the best by virtue of the amount that is consumed!
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The rest of the world consumes many times the amount of content than the US market, ipso facto the content produced by the rest of the world is many times better than the content produced by the US, if we follow the logic of the argument that is. If we take the BBC (which I believe is the biggest broadcaster in the world), some of their content is routinely distributed to the British Commonwealth, which contains over a billion people, and is also syndicated to many countries outside the Commonwealth. I don't know the figures but the BBC makes many billions of dollars a year from syndication, even one of it's smaller independent rivals in the UK made $3billion last year from syndication. Quite frankly some of the content made in the UK, IMHO at least, is quite easily the best in the world.

wheatgrinder said:
US movies are popular world wide. I saw Total Recall the week it was released while on business in Tel Aviv, how many NON US films get that kind of world wide distribution at opening? Sure, it happens, but practically EVERY movie out of Hollywood plays everywhere all the time.
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True to an extent but I could counter that by asking if you've ever heard of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or James Bond films for example? Numbers are not everything when we are discussing "best" though. Look at some of the films by the filmmakers I quoted previously. Just the films of Kubrik alone dispels the notion of all the best films being American.

wheatgrinder said:
The beetles were great, but they weren't GREAT until the made it in the US and were changed by the experience.
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Up until now, we been talking rather subjectively but I've got to disagree with you factually on this one. The Beatles were great and internationally famous before they ever went to America. Were they subsequently influenced by America? Sure but arguably they were more significantly influenced by their time in Germany and India but all these international influences pale into insignificance compared to the influence of their homeland. Are you also going to say that The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues and countless other great British bands were only great due to America? You're not seriously suggesting that surely? I would say it was more like the other way around, the "British Invasion" of the mid-sixties/seventies influenced the US at least as much, if not more, than the American culture influenced the UK. In my experience America frequently has a different view of history to the rest of the world but this is going too far.

I've seen the credit for many things taken where it wasn't due by Americans but I don't think I've seen it done for The Beatles before. Nice try! :)

G
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
Richy: PBS is a good channel, one of my favourites when I'm in the US but does it produce better shows than say the BBC? In some cases sure, in others I certainly wouldn't say so. I don't want to get into a pissing match about who/what is better because that's subjective. But to say the US produces the best TV is more than a little strange and seems to have no decent basis I can see beyond the fact that you are actually Americans and don't get to see much of the great content produced outside of the States due to political/ultra conservative considerations. Even if we just look at the numbers, I still don't see how you can justify saying that all the best TV content is made in the US.

G
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Oh, my friend, you and I are very much on the same page. :) I see now how it might look like I meant to jump into that pissing match about American TV vs. European TV, or whatever. But not at all, that was not my intention, not whatsoever. I'm glad that you enjoy PBS when you come over here, and the truth is that PBS broadcasts quite a bit of BBC content. I enjoy BBC World or America or whatever it is for news. And there are some awesome BBC documentaries aired on PBS as well. Also, dramaitic content. Thanks to PBS, which carries these things, I, like so many, am a big Downton Abbey fan, though I haven't gotten around to watching Season 3 yet. I love Inspector Lewis. Though I haven't seen any new episodes for a while...is PBS still carrying the latest season, or what? :( The new Dr. Whos haven't been too bad. Sherlock has been quite good, though I guess I haven't seen any new ads for new episodes even for some time. And of course some of the best science docs are from the BBC, which I usually learn about from, you guessed it, PBS. =)

So yeah, to sum all of that up, great BBC programming is one of the things that makes PBS programming so great.

Nah...I meant to juxtapose the great content from PBS, not with UK or European programming, but with that of the History Channel.
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
Just the films of Kubrik alone dispels the notion of all the best films being American.
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Bad example. Kubrick was American. After his big Hollywood hit (Spartacus), he moved to, and filmed in, the UK. Compare and contrast, Hitchcock was born in the UK, but moved to Hollywood in the 30s.

Personally, I find nationalistic pride to be a little silly. There are awesome people doing awesome stuff all around the world. Some of my favorites are American (Lynch, Gilliam, Kubrick) and some are not (Herzog, Scott, Jeunet)
 
American Cinema VS Non-American Cinema is a strange argument considering the cultures are different, and Cinema is a cultural thing.
 
richy said:
I love Inspector Lewis. Though I haven't seen any new episodes for a while...is PBS still carrying the latest season, or what? :(
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Lewis is filmed where I'm at university and I constantly see the film crews out in the streets and in the various colleges. I can't watch an episode of it without constantly going 'ah, I know where that is!'. I hadn't realised it was broadcast, let alone popular, in the US.
 
NickClapper said:
Lewis is filmed where I'm at university and I constantly see the film crews out in the streets and in the various colleges. I can't watch an episode of it without constantly going 'ah, I know where that is!'. I hadn't realised it was broadcast, let alone popular, in the US.
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Nick, that is too cool. Can you get me some autographs, please? =P

It is pretty amusing, one reviewer I've read noted, gee, who knew there were so many murders at Oxford? But it was, of course, a positive review.
 
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Richy: I must have misinterpreted.

I think there has been some relationship between the BBC and PBS for quite some time. There are quite a few programs/documentaries which are co-produced by PBS and the BBC.

BTW, if you like Inspector Lewis, you might like to find some episodes of a series called Inspector Morse. Morse was a series in the late 80s and 90s starring one of the UK's finest TV actors (John Thaw). The scripting, acting and production values were world class and the series was greatly loved by the public. John Thaw died over a decade ago and no more Inspector Morse's were ever made. What's this got to do with Inspector Lewis? Morse's sidekick was a Sargent Lewis, so Inspector Lewis is a spin off, the direct descendant of Inspector Morse. The same writer Colin Dexter for both and even the same actor plays Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately) as played the supporting role of Sargent Lewis in Inspector Morse. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.

JoshL said:
Bad example. Kubrick was American.
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Yes he was but he is an excellent example of someone who rather than being a foreigner who needed Hollywood in order to progress his career but in fact did the exact opposite and moved from the US to England to produce his films. In the short list of directors I gave I included Peter Jackson, who also isn't British but is another good example of of the point I was trying to make because not only is he not an American but he doesn't even produce his movies in the US. In fact, if you want an eye opener and to learn the truth behind what you often consider to be "Hollywood", have a good read about Pinewood Studios near London and have a look at the Pinewood Group's credits.

G
 
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MHpHlHN.png


Seriously, though, everyone just drop your pants, I'll get the ruler and we can just be done with this ;)
 
Dreadylocks said:
I almost had an aneurysm.
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:lol:

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Dready, please put away that ruler.
It ain't long enough. :lol:
 
Curse you APE! You win this round.. but I'll be back! :)
I knew the Beatles gambit was a risk! lol.

In regards to measurements, lets just say its the quality of the results that count.. I have 6 amazing kids.. just sayin..
 
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