This looks real good, and I’m looking forward to watching it.
Not crazy about Peter Coyote as a narrator. Why does he get so many narrator gigs?
Anyone else planning to watch? It’s on tonight and then the next two nights.
I really enjoy the American Experience documentaries so I definitely will DVR it! I just re-watched the Seabiscuit one the other day- I think that’s my favorite.
It’ll be the usual PBS Ken Burns stuff-excruciatingly boring (remember “Baseball”…“a metaphor for life”), with lots of political correctness ladled in (look for comments about how prohibition discriminated against minorities and ethnic groups), and sloooowly paced narration.:o
Because ever since he can remember people have been telling him he should take narration gigs. His friends always say to him “Dear Peter, your voice is like butter to our ears. Could you please find a way to get that audible chocolate on television?” Well, here he is.
I didn’t see the Baseball or Jazz series but was totally engrossed by the Civil War and WWII series. I caught parts of the National Parks and thought it was good.
Saw the first segment. It seemed both slow and rushed at the same time. But there were plenty of fascinating facts about the roots of the temperance movement and it seemed to be sort of a prequel to the really good stuff tomorrow.
Sure, Burns will skillfully increase the interest level as the story reaches the Prohibition era.
It’s a 1920s-style deft raise.
Haven’t seen it yet, but I understand the point is to demonstrate how deeply ingrained, historically, the movement was-- it wasn’t something that sprung up out of nowhere in the 1920s.
Didn’t have a chance to watch tonight’s episode, but I did read the book it’s based on, Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. It’s terrific, a book that I’ve mentioned and recommended many times here since it appeared. I first discover Okrent as a great writer with Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center. You wouldn’t think a book about a set of buildings could be that good, but it was.
Anyway, the highlight of Last Call for me was the part before the 1920s, detailing the creation of the thing now called Prohibition. It was mostly new to me and the parts I thought I knew - like the WCTU controlling the action - turned out to be fairy tales that covered up the underlying politics. Even the sections on the 1920s are far from the usual telling of the tale. Instead of gangsters and speakeasies, which get about two chapters total, he finds much more to talk about that doesn’t get mentioned in the glib surface histories.
I don’t know the history of the documentary, but the book didn’t read like the usual post facto book that gets produced after Burns does his thing. That might make this production different in some way. Have to hope. Burns’ glacial pace doesn’t work for me either.
I enjoyed it, and learned a lot–I always like the Burns Boys’ work. None of those cheesy re-creations, with people over-acting in inaccurate costumes (If I want that, I’ll watch The History Channel or those murder-mystery shows).
I do question their choice to commission a modern score for a period when there are so many original recordings extant, but hey, I’m not producing it.
Yeah, 'cause we all know that nothing in our history ever happened that discriminated against minorities and ethnic groups.
I enjoy the pace because it seems to explore several different perspectives of the same historical event. I especially like the historic photos and voiceover anecdotes from often ordinary people experiencing history. I watch the first part of Prohibition this morning and didn’t find it slow or boring at all.
Ah, you mean “facts.” Yeah, those can be really distracting.
Then don’t blame anybody but yourself when you don’t learn anything about the ancient aliens and Rosicrucians behind Prohibition.
I only saw about 30 minutes of it but what I saw I liked. I wish they’d gotten John Lithgow as narrator instead of “Special Guest Voice”.
I had to turn off one of those usually enjoyable Who Dunnits this weekend because the suspects, Mr. and Mrs. Michaels, were referred to by the narrator as “the Michaels” rather than “the Michaelses.” Twice, and I dove for the remote.
Especially during the 1920s, noted for being an era of racial tolerance and advancements in civil rights, sometimes nostalgically referred to as “Jim Crow”.
Anyway, I thought it was very good. I liked the pace just fine. I liked the statistics that were used to reinforce the narrative. Very much looking forward to tonight’s and tomorrow’s showings.
I can see that you hate America as much as Ken Burns does.
What was fascinating to me was how our modern political life is very much a continuation of what went on at the time. Reactionary movements driving wedges into the electorate and driving the public agenda. It’s almost eerie.
Much more. But I’ll reserve anything else for GD.
It’s no Hee Haw, I’ll give you that.
No that’s *their * history, our history is all peaches and cream".