(Image source: PBS / Wikipedia)
BY STEVEN SPARKMAN
ANCHOR AUSTIN KIM
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It’s one of the most memorable PBS shows ever, and it’s getting an update and a makeover. Cosmos, the science documentary series hosted by the late Carl Sagan, is getting a sequel -- on Fox! And one of the new project’s members has everyone talking.
“Seth MacFarlane would be rebooting… Cosmos. Yes, that Cosmos. And not as a raunchy, non-sequitur-filled cartoon, but an honest-to-God documentary series hosted by honest-to-God astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of Nova.” (Source: TIME)
MacFarlane was invited to the project by the original Cosmos’s co-creator -- and Carl Sagan’s widow -- Ann Druyan.
The original series aired in 1980, and was designed to bring a scientific understanding of the universe to the public. Fox executives say the show has had roughly 700 million viewers. (Video source: PBS / Hulu)
The new series’ host -- Neil deGrasse Tyson -- was the public face of the decision to knock Pluto down to dwarf-planet status. He promotes science on cable news, the Daily Show and elsewhere.
In a 2009 interview with PBS affiliate KCTS9, he explained why it’s important for people to understand science.
“The main part is -- how do you look at the world? What lens... What does the world look like through your lens? If you’re scientifically literate, the world looks very different to you. It’s not just a lot of mysterious things happening -- there’s a lot we understand out there. And that understanding empowers you.”
The news that Family Guy-creator Seth MacFarlane would be producing the project raised a few eyebrows, though MacFarlane is a self-professed science nerd. And a writer for the Washington Post says it was probably the animator’s pull that got the show off the ground at all.
“You want to see real acting at a TV press tour? Watch a … programming chief waxing enthusiastic … about how he’s going to exhume and re-make Carl Sagan’s old PBS science series … because it’s the passion project of one of his network’s hottest show creators.”
Still, a lot of critics are stuck on the idea of seeing Cosmos... in prime time... on Fox. A writer for Wired weighs the pros and cons.
“Now, in one way I’m all for showing it in prime time on a major network, because it’ll be that much more likely that people ... will actually see it. I’m less thrilled, though, that it will have to compete with other, more mainstream prime-time shows -- and it’ll be on Fox, which doesn’t have the greatest track record for giving shows a chance to pull their ratings up...”
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