Rebooting 'Cosmos': Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why Iconic TV Series Returns in 2014

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That's Awesome. When I was little, my Parents and I used to watch Cosmos and record every Episode with our VCR.
 
That may explain why the original series disappeared from Netflix.
 
I am not encouraged that FOX is going to have its fingers in the production -- as per orders from the top of their corporate structure, FOX always presents 'science' in a sniggering fratboy 'look at the pencil neck geeks' format; they usually bring on a token 'scientist' (surprisingly both Tyson and Michio Kaku have sometimes assumed this 'punching bag' role, but I guess they pay in cold green cash) to (VERY) briefly explain the topic under discussion (almost always in a 10-second sound bite edited by a science-illiterate producer, and invariably emphasizing any apocalyptic or disastrous implications), upon which their imbecle anchor-bimbos, who uniformly sport IQs in the low-room-temperature range and who almost certainly never got a grade over a C-plus in any science class in their lives, yuck it up with all sorts of har-de-har-har snarky commentary about how all them crazy scientists are wasting our tax money again. They could have an episode including a line, "Scientists believe our sun will go nova in approximately seven billion years," and the FOX promos will say, "FLAMING DEATH COMING: SCIENTISTS PREDICT SUN WILL INCINERATE EARTH."
 
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JStarStar said:
I am not encouraged that FOX is going to have its fingers in the production -- as per orders from the top of their corporate structure, FOX always presents 'science' in a sniggering fratboy 'look at the pencil neck geeks' format; they usually bring on a token 'scientist' (surprisingly both Tyson and Michio Kaku have sometimes assumed this 'punching bag' role, but I guess they pay in cold green cash) to (VERY) briefly explain the topic under discussion (almost always in a 10-second sound bite edited by a science-illiterate producer, and invariably emphasizing any apocalyptic or disastrous implications), upon which their imbecle anchor-bimbos, who uniformly sport IQs in the low-room-temperature range and who almost certainly never got a grade over a C-plus in any science class in their lives, yuck it up with all sorts of har-de-har-har snarky commentary about how all them crazy scientists are wasting our tax money again. They could have an episode including a line, "Scientists believe our sun will go nova in approximately seven billion years," and the FOX promos will say, "FLAMING DEATH COMING: SCIENTISTS PREDICT SUN WILL INCINERATE EARTH."
Click to expand...

I think you're jumping to conclusions on this one. Any broadcaster would have the same exact problem, but if Tyson has any producer status I doubt he'd let it become a charade.

OTOH I think Michio Kaku is an idiot. He may be a physicist, but a lot of his ideas and theories are pretty idiotic and outlandish, and many of his "Science Channel" Tv shows are complete fiction. What happened to educational TV that was actually factually accurate?
 
JStarStar said:
I am not encouraged that FOX is going to have its fingers in the production -- as per orders from the top of their corporate structure, FOX always presents 'science' in a sniggering fratboy 'look at the pencil neck geeks' format; they usually bring on a token 'scientist' (surprisingly both Tyson and Michio Kaku have sometimes assumed this 'punching bag' role, but I guess they pay in cold green cash) to (VERY) briefly explain the topic under discussion (almost always in a 10-second sound bite edited by a science-illiterate producer, and invariably emphasizing any apocalyptic or disastrous implications), upon which their imbecle anchor-bimbos, who uniformly sport IQs in the low-room-temperature range and who almost certainly never got a grade over a C-plus in any science class in their lives, yuck it up with all sorts of har-de-har-har snarky commentary about how all them crazy scientists are wasting our tax money again. They could have an episode including a line, "Scientists believe our sun will go nova in approximately seven billion years," and the FOX promos will say, "FLAMING DEATH COMING: SCIENTISTS PREDICT SUN WILL INCINERATE EARTH."
Click to expand...

Not all Fox productions are as contaminated by anti-science mockery as Fox News. The show is not a Fox News production.
 
The original series was amazing and very inspirational to me. I remember I had to fight my sister over whether we would watch Cosmos or her choice, which I think was Magnum PI. (Kids, back in the olden days, families often had only one TV and no DVR, or even a VCR or BetaMax. Families had to agree on what to watch. It was a dark and terrifying age.)
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Not all Fox productions are as contaminated by anti-science mockery as Fox News.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much they all are -- they all take orders from the same corporate offices.

20th Century Fox movies in fact almost always contain scenes depicting 'scientists' as dorky geeks pushing crackpot theories. It comes on orders from the top.
 
JStarStar said:
Yeah, pretty much they all are -- they all take orders from the same corporate offices.

20th Century Fox movies in fact almost always contain scenes depicting 'scientists' as dorky geeks pushing crackpot theories. It comes on orders from the top.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
The original series was amazing and very inspirational to me. I remember I had to fight my sister over whether we would watch Cosmos or her choice, which I think was Magnum PI. (Kids, back in the olden days, families often had only one TV and no DVR, or even a VCR or BetaMax. Families had to agree on what to watch. It was a dark and terrifying age.)
Click to expand...

My Parents spent $1350 for our first VCR. It had a "Remote Control" Which was literally a Remote, having a Wire connecting it to the Unit.
The Coolest thing was that it came with two Microphones, so that you could "Overdub" Audio onto what you had recorded.
I believe the Brand name was "Quasar", which made it all the more appropriate for recording Programs like NOVA, Cosmos, and early Space Shuttle Launches.
This Thread is making me miss my Coleco Intellivision and Vectrex Game Consoles.:(
 
Boo.

Just make a new series, but they won't. The latest trend in "science shows" is digging up old optical illusions and presenting them as proof your brain is broken...
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
The original series was amazing and very inspirational to me. I remember I had to fight my sister over whether we would watch Cosmos or her choice, which I think was Magnum PI. (Kids, back in the olden days, families often had only one TV and no DVR, or even a VCR or BetaMax. Families had to agree on what to watch. It was a dark and terrifying age.)
Click to expand...

What's this "choosing what to watch" you speak of...

Back in my day, it was "change to channel 13" and by d@mn, you got up off the floor or quit playing and got up and went across the room and flipped the dial to channel 13... If it wasn't loud enough, or too loud, you got up and turned the knob to turn up the sound or turn it down. If you were watching something you liked and the parents or grandparents wanted to watch Lawrence Welk, that's what happened... If something you wanted to see was coming on on a different channel, and Hee Haw was on, FORGET IT... you were SOL...

"See the remote, BE the remote"... you were the remote... because the only remote we had back then WAS the youngest kid in the room that could actually flip the channel! The "remote" was the shoe that was thrown at you if you didn't get up to change the channel quick enough when told to...

Later! OL JR :)
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
The original series was amazing and very inspirational to me. I remember I had to fight my sister over whether we would watch Cosmos or her choice, which I think was Magnum PI. (Kids, back in the olden days, families often had only one TV and no DVR, or even a VCR or BetaMax. Families had to agree on what to watch. It was a dark and terrifying age.)
Click to expand...

I enjoy frightening children with stories of UHF reception.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
The original series was amazing and very inspirational to me. I remember I had to fight my sister over whether we would watch Cosmos or her choice, which I think was Magnum PI. (Kids, back in the olden days, families often had only one TV and no DVR, or even a VCR or BetaMax. Families had to agree on what to watch. It was a dark and terrifying age.)
Click to expand...

Heh. Well, until I was 12-13 years old, we got one (1) channel clearly, two channels blurry and faintly, and that was it. Pretty much simplified the arguments of what to watch on teevee.
 
I saw the trailer an it was Awesome ! I had my Cosmos an it was great,of course I'm a Nerd but the new generation needs a Cosmos of their own. This one looks good,looks like it covers the originals topics.
 
A modern day “Cosmos” with Neil DeGrasse having a hand in it.
You can pretty much bet that whatever the topic, some way will be found to tie it into AGW and how we have to give the UN all our money so they can Put a Stop to it.
 
boomtube said:
A modern day “Cosmos” with Neil DeGrasse having a hand in it.
You can pretty much bet that whatever the topic, some way will be found to tie it into AGW and how we have to give the UN all our money so they can Put a Stop to it.
Click to expand...

And now the thread will inevitably descend into the toilet. Thanks.

It's ironic you think the AGW topic would be inappropriate for the show, but you think it is appropriate for you to bring that same topic into this thread, which has absolutely nothing to do with AGW. I'm thinking maybe you should avoid watching the show --- it may touch on a number of different science topics that will challenge viewers' pre-concieved notions, and not everyone is comfortable with that.
 
jderimig said:
No, the thread went into the toilet with post #5 and the handle was depressed in post #7.
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I'm sorry you think I "depressed the handle" by defending the idea that the show could be made WITHOUT political or policy bias.
 
The original Cosmos was very political. Sagan was afraid we were going to blow up Earth in a nuclear war and frequently mentioned in the series he hoped we would evolve past our petty terrestial humanity into a grand and glorious celestial destiny. We just had to believe and trust in Science and It would save us.

I got the cassette tape of the soundtrack music of the show, as that was the media of the 70's. Vangelis is awesome.
 
The Original Cosmos was about just that an our place in it as supported by Science. How Science evolved. Some of the topics will be uncomfortable,not much room for theology for one. I am old now an hope they got that one wrong !
 
The last few months, I've been catching up on almost all the episodes of his "Star Talk" show (archive free on iTunes). Really good.

I cannot imagine him not trying his best to knock this out of the park. This could be the pinnacle of his career. Even aside from his commitment to science and education, his professional integrity means too much for him to risk damaging it by letting a TV network screw with the science or the truth in it. If ordered to do or say something he didn't agree with, I'm pretty sure he'd walk.

Sagan was a great influence on him. Here is a 1:37 clip from an interview where he describes how he first met Carl Sagan, and why that first meeting had such an effect beyond just meeting someone who was famous in the field he was interested in. The bus station part and the rest after that….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeqrN3Bfro8

- George Gassaway
 
There has really been an incredible explosion in our collective database of knowledge on astronomy-related topics since the original "Cosmos" came out, so I think it is perfectly appropriate to do an update or sequel series (I am also quite confident if Carl Sagan were alive, he would be right in the middle of producing it).

When the original series came out, the existence of planets outside the solar system was still only an intriguing possibility. Data from the Apollo landings was still being analyzed and even the origin of the moon was still being hotly debated. The idea of asteroid impacts having significant effects on terrestrial evolution hadn't been widely accepted, either.

Funny, sometimes I show my nephew and nieces (now entering their teens) science and astronomy books I read in the 1960s and 70s, when I was a kid in grade school and high school. I have to tell them to take everything with a grain of salt since much (if not most) of it has been disproven in intervening decades. In the early 1960s when the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were sending the first probes to Venus, many believed entirely possible they were going to discover a humid, steaming, watery jungle planet. When Mariner IV swung by Mars in 1965, there was much speculation of whether the photos would reveal any details of the legendary 'canals.'

But the probes went there and we learned what we thought might be true wasn't even close. That process has accelerated greatly in recent years. So a new take on 'Cosmos' is perfectly appropriate.
 

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