Reality shows hide a difficult reality
Reality shows hide a difficult reality.
Viewers have become enamored with reality programs and have drifted away from the normal staple of the television industry, sitcoms and dramas, according to a The New York Times story this morning on the annual network task of arranging a fall lineup.
In the current television season, 12 of the top 20 shows are reality shows, and many of the others (sitcoms and dramas) are either about to close down for good, like “Friends,” or are part of multipart crime franchises, like NBC’s “Law and Order” and CBS’s “C.S.I.”“It’s a really hard time to be in the business now,” said Dana Walden, the president of 20th Century Fox Television. Her point was echoed by Peter Roth, the president of the Warner Brothers television production studio. “The business is challenging and it seems more so this year than any in a long time,” Mr. Roth said.
Studio chiefs are not the only ones feeling the pressure: television writers, directors and actors have reason to be worried as well, specifically about how many jobs the old system is going to continue to generate - because fewer prime time slots are going to be available for scripted shows.
Come on, Jeff, do you really think The Apprentice can survive without Trump? I give it two more rounds before the ratings tank. Todd (Jupiter Analyst Todd Chanko) and I both think this sounds like Millionaire all over again. Since ABC bet too big on Millionaire, and didn’t develop any franchise scripted shows, it’s been in the tank.
MTV began all of this, and I think that’s important to remember. They didn’t do it on a whim. Like everything else MTV, the idea flows from its ability to tune into the younger generation. And as I’ve written about previously, Postmodernism is much more evident in younger people, and it’s ushering in two important changes in our culture that directly relate to so-called “reality” shows. One, Pomos distrust hierarchy, and that includes educated “experts” who used to be relied upon to tell us how to live. “Expert,” in that sense, is synonymous with “elite” in the minds of Pomos, who view the real experts in life to be those who’ve actually experienced whatever is the current topic of interest. Consequently, eavesdropping in on real adventures, whether competition or personal, is a natural part of the Postmodern education process.
Secondly, Postmodernism is the “Age of Participation,” much for the same reasons listed above. Technology has opened doors for Pomos that allow them to interact with life in ways beyond anything their parents knew. Participating in life — not just observing it — is the mantra of all of these programs, and that resonates with Pomos.
That said, I still think the industry will likely kill the genre through greed, because, well, that’s what they do. For every Survivor, there’s a celebrity mole. Sigh.
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BloggerCon II: The advancing wave
BloggerCon II: The advancing wave.
Thanks to the beauty of live streaming, I was able to eavesdrop on BloggerCon Saturday, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. Hats off to Dave Winer for another excellent event.
My award for the most recognizable voice (an old broadcasting bias) goes to Jeff Jarvis. His wit and his passion always come through, and I think he did a great job hosting the “blogging as business” session. The New York Times chose the business session (of course) to highlight for an article on BloggerCon.
Mr. Jarvis, who led a discussion on blogging as a business, has been watching all the ways that bloggers have managed to bring in a buck. Some bloggers have made money by selling books, T-shirts or CD’s on their sites. Some have tried selling access to individual articles or content through micropayments (99 cents for a poem, for example). A very few, like Andrew Sullivan, have made tens of thousands of dollars simply by asking for donations from loyal readers.But the most talked about route to profit was selling advertisements that pay by the month or by the number of blog visits. Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net), one of the most popular blogs on the Web with its musings by four freelance writers, is considering adding sponsors as a way to offset its server fees of about $1,000 a month.
My thoughts on business: I blog for many reasons. As a creative person, I find that it fulfills a need in me to express thoughts that are constantly drifting through my mind. My background allows me to see into two different worlds — broadcasting and the Internet — and write about convergence. Blogging gives me a voice with which to promote my consulting business, but another reason might surprise some: the discipline of daily blogging helps crystallize my business thinking. The research required to do the “job” helps keep me on the cutting edge, so making money off blogging is really a secondary, albeit wishful, thought.
As such, I’m free to explore and write with impunity, and that is a currency that transcends money to me. Moreover, as a student of Postmodernism, I view the Internet a bit differently than many of my blogging contemporaries. I don’t view the so-called “A-list” as something to be coveted, because reach/frequency really misses the point of the Web.
Back to BloggerCon. Most of my favorite bloggers were there, and I especially enjoyed the “blogging as journalism” session hosted by Jay Rosen. Much has already been written about it.
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Pew: 55 percent of adults have broadband
Pew: 55 percent of adults have broadband.
When you combine home and the office, over half of all Americans have access to the Internet via a broadband connection. That’s the latest finding of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. 42 percent have broadband access at home, which is far ahead of predictions even just a couple of years ago.
That broadband is growing is nothing new to this blog, but the size of the growth is a bit surprising. This should be a(nother) wake-up call for broadcasters, because Internet “broadcasting” — streaming video — is one of the key applications for broadband.
The Washington Post: The Pew report echoes findings from other research. A recent report from the In-Stat/MDR market research firm proclaimed 2003 “a major breakthrough for residential broadband service.”
The Associated Press: The increase counters Pew’s findings from last spring suggesting that the broadband market had begun to stabilize. That study found fewer Internet veterans wishing to upgrade their dial-up lines.
Reuters: Both President Bush and John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, have called for wider broadband availability in the past several weeks. Consumer frustration has largely been responsible for the jump, the survey’s author, John Horrigan, said.
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RTNDA is (asleep) inside the box
RTNDA is (asleep) inside the box.
I remember my first RTNDA convention. It was in Los Angeles in the early 80s. I remember the excitement and the intimidation that came with the exhibit floor and the general sessions. I’m sure those feelings will be realized by thousands when the RTNDA gathers again next week in Las Vegas.
My feelings about the organization and the convention have changed radically over the last few years, because of my involvement with New Media and a growing understanding of the real challenges facing broadcasting today, none of which are being addressed at next week’s convention. That’s a shame. If the organization representing radio and television news directors won’t look at reality, how on earth can news people expect their corporate owners to do so? By ignoring the truths of a worrisome future, audience fragmentation, disruptive innovations, shrinking or closing newsrooms, newspapers providing video, clear warnings from business analysts, citizen journalism, viewer distrust, and other issues directly impacting the industry, the RTNDA is guilty of, to be kind, public masturbation, and in so doing, it does a disservice to its members that borders on malfeasance.
Like the media as a whole, the RTNDA is stuck in an institutional box of its own making. It has no choice but to promote and perpetuate that which other box dwellers consider important, which produces a list of concurrent sessions that are helpful only to that end. Don’t get me wrong. These are all important, on-going matters for the industry, but they are a mile wide and an inch deep compared to those mentioned above. Here’s the program:
- Time Management for News Leaders
- Live Shots
- Fresh for the Third Time
- Online Boot Camp: How to Find Stories and Information in a Hurry
- How NOT to Get a Job
- From Conflict to Collaboration
- One-on-One with Ted Koppel
- Creating Powerful Radio News: “Facing the Blank Page”
- Covering Campaigns Correctly
- Crime Can Pay: Best Practices in Covering the Crime Beat
- Queer Eye for the Straight Reporter
- From Kobe to Laci: Covering Trials in Real Time
- The Talent Coach Was Here Last Week - Now What?
- Bridging the Gap: Educators and News Directors Talk to Each
- The Ed Bliss Writing Seminar
- Fostering Strong Relationship Between News Directors and General Managers
- Beyond ‘Go to Our Website’: Effective Online News Promotion
- How People REALLY Use the Media (Middletown)
- Sounding Conversational in the Read
- Broadcast News and Paying Your Dues
- This Just In: Shorter is Better (News Music Opens)
- Run Your Middle East News Bureau for Free!
- Boost W25-54 News Demos RIGHT NOW!
- International Viewpoint: One-on-One with the Head of BBC Newsgathering
- Sounds Like Better Radio
- Winning your 2nd Quarter Hour. Techniques That Hold Viewers Longer
- Fostering Photojournalism
- Covering Campaign 2004 On Air and Online
- Homeland Security: Is Your Newsroom Ready?
- Building Effective Feedback Systems
- Success Stories from the Hub & Spoke
- Working with Newspapers and Other Cultural Wars
- People Meters: Newsrooms Regroup
- Good Writing at the Speed of Spot News
- Good Leaders Conduct Effective Meetings
- Crisis Makes History. Or Does History Make a Crisis?
- Solving the Diversity Puzzle: Tips and Tools
- “Doctor, I Have This Awful Pain in My HIPAA!”
- Encore Anxiety: Been There, Done That. Now What?
- Indecency–Sex, Violence and the News–The Challenges Facing Today’s Journalists
Most of my contemporaries go to RTNDA to do business on the side, often not even walking the exhibit floor, much less attending the sessions. It that sense, the real value of the convention is simply that it exists as a place where people can get together. That’s pretty sad.
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Korean election postscript
Korean election postscript.
Here’s a link to the OhmyNews! International summary of the National Assembly elections yesterday. It gives credit for the Uri Party victory to “Korea’s Internet and mobile telecommunications infrastructure that empowered the 2030 generation.”
Be it a political bulletin board or in line at a movie or polling station, they had access to up-to-the-minute election information. They could then use these same applications — mobile phone text messaging, online chat or email — to spread the word and get people out to vote.The balance of Korean political power, which traditionally lay with older voters who favored a conservative government, has now given way to a new block of youth power. Politicians and younger voters used cyber campaigning to effectively harness this politically expedient force and “rally the troops.”
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A tax day digression
A tax day digression.
Dear Mrs. Savimbi, Mrs. Kume, Mrs. Abacha, Princess Ifeoma, and all of the other wealthy widows of Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and South Africa. I bring you greetings in the name of all that is good and kind, and I trust that this most wonderful correspondence greets you with the same warmth and magnificence with which yours and those of your country men and women have greeted me. It is with the utmost distress and emotion that I find myself unable to assist you in your urgent and noble efforts to secure your deceased husbands’ fortunes through my humble bank account. My heart wishes with all sincerity that I could be the knight that you so desperately seek, but, alas, misfortune has overtaken me as a mist in the forest at twilight, for this day, my government — that bastion of goodness and mercy for which I would gladly sacrifice all — has instructed me to provide to them, by midnight, the sum of $675(USD) to satisfy my obligation and secure my future freedom. It is therefore necessary for me to close the bank account that could have, in all rightness and willingness, assisted you in your most holy plight. May my spirit rest in the dry places for this loathsome deed, to rise only through the waters of your forgiveness.
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The genius of OhmyNews!
The genius of OhmyNews!
Dick Cheney’s visit to South Korea today comes amidst a huge political change taking place within our ally. The liberal Uri Party swept into power today in the National Assembly elections, ending 44 years of conservative rule in the country. What you’ll likely NOT read elsewhere is that this was largely accomplished through the steady efforts of a New Media entity that fought the conservative press in South Korea. OhmyNews! is an Internet-based media company that took on the giants and won in its bid for influence. In so doing, it has involved young people in the political process in record numbers and turned the whole culture on its ear. It’s a wake-up call for traditional media everywhere.
Here’s my essay, The Genius of OhmyNews!
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Uri Party wins big in South Korea
Uri Party wins big in South Korea.
I’m working on a lengthy piece about this and hope to have it online later today, but the news can’t wait. Reuters (and every other media outlet) is reporting that exit polls project a landslide victory.
Exit polls showed the pro-government Uri Party winning a large majority on Thursday in South Korea’s parliamentary election, harvesting a windfall of support for impeached President Roh Moo-hyun.Foreign investors and the opposition Grand National Party have said they fear the Uri Party could use a majority to indulge militant labour and push a radical agenda. But Uri moved swiftly on Thursday to pledge no dramatic shifts in economic policy.
“If the exit polls are true, the people saved democracy, the people saved the president,” said Uri Party leader Chung Dong-young.
The polls showed the Uri Party, which backs Roh, winning up to 172 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly. They saw the main opposition Grand National Party taking up to 115 seats.
“This is a tremendous victory for the Uri Party. The outcome represents voters’ stern judgment on the impeachment,” said political commentator Shim Jae-hoon.
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When logic isn’t logical
When logic isn’t logical.
This is a little off-topic, but not really. Here in Tennessee, we’re a few months into our new lottery. The thing was sold to the citizenry as a way to provide college scholarships to those who formerly weren’t able to fund an education. Sounds great, right?
Oops. The legislation doesn’t provide any new monies for the colleges and universities to handle the influx of new students, so they have no other choice than to raise their admissions standards. Hence, the lower socio-economic strata — which the lottery was designed to help — is still cut out of the education dream, because such students generally score lower academically. What’s even worse is that a great deal of the lottery revenue comes from this “class,” so the actual outcome is that the lower class is funding the education of the upper class through scholarships provided by the lottery.
Who knew?
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Citizen journalism’s big test is in South Korea
Citizen journalism’s big test is in South Korea.
All eyes should be focused on the National Assembly elections Thursday in South Korea (today is tomorrow over there). AFP has some of the background here but fails to mention the role of OhmyNews! in the rise of the liberal Uri Party. This will be a huge test of the political power of citizen journalism, and if the Uri Party makes the gains predicted, it will further turn all of journalism on its head.
Previous posts:
04/07/2004: New Media eyes should focus on South Korean elections
03/23/2004: OhmyNews readies for National Assembly elections
02/27/2004: Asia: two differing views of the Internet s
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Open source, open policies, open media companies
Open source, open policies, open media companies.
IBM is offering sound advice to media companies through a new report, Media and entertainment 2010. Coming from IBM, one hopes this’ll get the attention it deserves among media executives, because IBM’s word for the future is “open.”
Recommendations:Our ten strategic guidelines for players evolving toward becoming the open media company of the future:1. Get your digital house in order: Create or convert content to digital formats.
2. Manage content for optimum flexibility and asset value.
3. Be open for distribution, no matter where or when.
4. Be open for delivery — in multiple packages,with variable pricing and always-on customer service.
5. Open digital doors — to contribute, produce or author dynamic content.
6. Create new product windows and business models.
7. Manage openly and communicate in realtime through digital infrastructure.
8. Leverage a new depth of business intelligence made possible by digital technology.
9. Use partnership strategies that drive efficiency and optimize customer attention.
10. Become an on demand business.The open media company of the future will result from the confluence of new media technologies, changing customer and consumer behavior patterns driven by more digital capabilities at affordable prices, and new developments in business systems enabling digital content management, business intelligence and on demand response to customers and consumers. The past’s closed and proprietary media and entertainment business models will give way to open media business strategies that will enable forward-looking companies to exploit significant opportunities for profitability within these trends.
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A Big Mac, fries and Wi-Fi
A Big Mac, fries and Wi-Fi.
McDonald’s is moving past the test phase and plans to install Wi-Fi hotspots in 6,000 restaurants by year’s end. According to the Associated Press, that’s about half their restaurants in the U.S.
McDonald’s will charge $2.95 for two hours of connectivity and may continue some of its pilot promotions, such as free connections for buying an “extra value meal.”By offering Wi-Fi, the fast-food giant is following the lead of Starbucks, which offers wireless connectivity in many of its coffee shops. Some analysts see Starbucks as a more natural fit for Wi-Fi.
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Trust and the blogosphere
Trust and the blogosphere.
Everywhere I go as an evangelist for New Media and citizen journalism, I encounter the same question. How do you know you can trust the validity of what bloggers report? The question is often buried within statements like, “I dismiss that whole thing (blogging) completely, because there’s no way to know if it’s being written by some 13-year old somewhere.”
The question is understandable, but it stems from Modernist assumptions about the news media. It assumes that trust is somehow imputed to professional journalists through their education, their position within an editor-governed entity, and the history and traditions of that entity. This elitist assumption is a common self-delusion among journalists but has no bearing in reality. Firstly, the Jayson Blairs of the world have proven the fallibility of the vaunted institution of professional journalism, but, more importantly, professional journalists have no more right to claim trustworthiness than anybody else. That determination is reserved for the reader, viewer, etc. And public trust in the news media has never been lower.
The self-governing nature of the blogosphere is perplexing to traditional journalism types. There is no hierarchical blessing granted to one but not the other, and this flies in the face of their training and the history of the press since the days of Walter Lippmann.
My response to the question is to ask another. “Who grants this trust to you (journalist) in the first place? Upon whose authority is it based?” This is a question most journalists have never honestly considered, for it is assumed that the anointing takes place somehow during the education and employment process. This is artificial and illusionary, for trustworthiness cannot be so granted. That power belongs with those from whom the trust is desired.
Frankly, I trust the blogosphere more than I do the traditional press for two reasons. One, deception is quickly weeded out by others within the blogosphere, and I find that refreshing. Two, the blogosphere isn’t governed by the artificial journalistic hegemony called “objectivity,” and it is, therefore, more honest. That, too, is refreshing.
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Pew: One in six use wireless Web
Pew: One in six use wireless Web.
Reuters is reporting on new data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that shows a growing market for wireless Internet connectivity (Wi-Fi).
Seventeen percent have logged on (to the Web) using a wireless device, and those under 27 were nearly twice as likely to have done so.
The Last Mile technology uses very much faster data than Wi-Fi can achieve, and enhances this with clever proxy/cache design. Each lamppost contains not only the 63-65 GHz wireless unit, but a large memory store, which will hold around 80 per cent of the data that most people will want to download.Data which isn’t in the post will be sucked from the Internet over a variety of backhaul routes; if necessary, from lamppost to post in a high speed mesh, if no other backbone is handy.
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Fear of the unknown
Fear of the unknown.
I had the pleasure of being on a panel this morning in Nashville discussing changes in the media landscape with an audience of Public Relations people. The event was sponsored by the Nashville (regional) office of Business Wire.
I shared the panel with two wonderful colleagues, Bill Hobbs, a New Media consultant like myself. Bill’s also a current events blogger, specializing in the blogosphere itself. He’s well respected and connected, and I was glad for the opportunity to get to known him. Also on the panel was Catherine Mayhew, executive editor of The Nashville City Paper, the Nashville daily newspaper with demos to die for. (Hint: it’s a FREE paper.)
There’s a great deal of (justifiable) fear that traditional media types have when it comes to the changing media landscape, and it’s often expressed in defensive comments and questions. After all, who wants to have their fatted calf whacked? This morning we heard about the reliability of the information provided by citizen journalists (bloggers), credentials, the lack of a valid business model for the “new” media, and privacy issues regarding the idea that any neighbor could be a citizen reporter in disguise. Good questions all, and there was also a genuine sense of wonder expressed about the sweeping changes and the bigness of it all. The best question was from a gal who asked for guidance on where to begin to develop an understanding. Ultimately, knowledge is the best way to overcome fear of the unknown, and discussions like this morning’s are an excellent first step in that direction.
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Fear of the unknown
Fear of the unknown.
I had the pleasure of being on a panel this morning in Nashville discussing changes in the media landscape with an audience of Public Relations people. The event was sponsored by the Nashville (regional) office of Business Wire.
I shared the panel with two wonderful colleagues, Bill Hobbs, a New Media consultant like myself. Bill’s also a current events blogger, specializing in the blogosphere itself. He’s well respected and connected, and I was glad for the opportunity to get to known him. Also on the panel was Catherine Mayhew, executive editor of The Nashville City Paper, the Nashville daily newspaper with demos to die for. (Hint: it’s a FREE paper.)
There’s a great deal of (justifiable) fear that traditional media types have when it comes to the changing media landscape, and it’s often expressed in defensive comments and questions. After all, who wants to have their fatted calf whacked? This morning we heard about the reliability of the information provided by citizen journalists (bloggers), credentials, the lack of a valid business model for the “new” media, and privacy issues regarding the idea that any neighbor could be a citizen reporter in disguise. Good questions all, and there was also a genuine sense of wonder expressed about the sweeping changes and the bigness of it all. The best question was from a gal who asked for guidance on where to begin to develop an understanding. Ultimately, knowledge is the best way to overcome fear of the unknown, and discussions like this morning’s are an excellent first step in that direction.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Fear of the unknown
Fear of the unknown.
I had the pleasure of being on a panel this morning in Nashville discussing changes in the media landscape with an audience of Public Relations people. The event was sponsored by the Nashville (regional) office of Business Wire.
I shared the panel with two wonderful colleagues, Bill Hobbs, a New Media consultant like myself. Bill’s also a current events blogger, specializing in the blogosphere itself. He’s well respected and connected, and I was glad for the opportunity to get to known him. Also on the panel was Catherine Mayhew, executive editor of The Nashville City Paper, the Nashville daily newspaper with demos to die for. (Hint: it’s a FREE paper.)
There’s a great deal of (justifiable) fear that traditional media types have when it comes to the changing media landscape, and it’s often expressed in defensive comments and questions. After all, who wants to have their fatted calf whacked? This morning we heard about the reliability of the information provided by citizen journalists (bloggers), credentials, the lack of a valid business model for the “new” media, and privacy issues regarding the idea that any neighbor could be a citizen reporter in disguise. Good questions all, and there was also a genuine sense of wonder expressed about the sweeping changes and the bigness of it all. The best question was from a gal who asked for guidance on where to begin to develop an understanding. Ultimately, knowledge is the best way to overcome fear of the unknown, and discussions like this morning’s are an excellent first step in that direction.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Fear of the unknown
Fear of the unknown.
I had the pleasure of being on a panel this morning in Nashville discussing changes in the media landscape with an audience of Public Relations people. The event was sponsored by the Nashville (regional) office of Business Wire.
I shared the panel with two wonderful colleagues, Bill Hobbs, a New Media consultant like myself. Bill’s also a current events blogger, specializing in the blogosphere itself. He’s well respected and connected, and I was glad for the opportunity to get to known him. Also on the panel was Catherine Mayhew, executive editor of The Nashville City Paper, the Nashville daily newspaper with demos to die for. (Hint: it’s a FREE paper.)
There’s a great deal of (justifiable) fear that traditional media types have when it comes to the changing media landscape, and it’s often expressed in defensive comments and questions. After all, who wants to have their fatted calf whacked? This morning we heard about the reliability of the information provided by citizen journalists (bloggers), credentials, the lack of a valid business model for the “new” media, and privacy issues regarding the idea that any neighbor could be a citizen reporter in disguise. Good questions all, and there was also a genuine sense of wonder expressed about the sweeping changes and the bigness of it all. The best question was from a gal who asked for guidance on where to begin to develop an understanding. Ultimately, knowledge is the best way to overcome fear of the unknown, and discussions like this morning’s are an excellent first step in that direction.
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There’s right Googling, and there’s wrong Googling
There’s right Googling, and there’s wrong Googling.
There are a couple of fun stories making the rounds today about our friend, the Web, and research. It seems the producers of the upcoming NBC sweeps disaster miniseries 10.5 have a few scientists ruffled, because nobody contacted them about the veracity of the plot. Seismologists told the Associated Press that the idea is preposterous.
The faults that underlie California would not be capable of generating such a huge temblor, experts said. Such a quake could be theoretically possible elsewhere, but the largest earthquake in recorded history was a magnitude 9.5 off Chile in 1960.“The production is blatantly inconsistent with everything we know about earthquakes,” said Lucy Jones, scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey office in Pasadena. “It’s complete science fantasy, but as long as people know that nothing about it could be true, they can sit back and enjoy it.”
Asked whether he consulted scientists in developing the project, (Executive Producer Howard) Braunstein said: “Not really. We went on the Internet for backup research.”
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