Fox Greenlights "Cosmos" for 2013 13-Part Series (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/08/fox-orders-13-episode-sequel-to-carl-sagans-cosmos-docu-series-to-be-produced-by-seth-macfarlane-for-2013-launch/

I have to say: I am not just surprised, I am amazed. Outright amazed.

After recently signing on to reboot one classic TV show, Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones, Seth MacFarlane is taking on another iconic TV series, Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Fox has greenlighted Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, a 13-part docu-series from Family Guy creator MacFarlane and late Sagan's original collaborators – his widow, writer/producer Ann Druyan and astrophysicist Steven Soter. Envisioned as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original 13-part program, which was hosted by Sagan, the new Cosmos series will be hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

According to the producers, the new series will tell "the story of how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find our place in space and time. It will take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts will be presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience."

A lot of us grew up here with programming that was SCIENCE.. not SciFi, but there were shows on TV that were real, honest science that we'd catch. This move by Fox is gutsy. But it does something a whole lot of TV broadcasters took for complete granted: serving the public interest.

Getting kids and people excited about science is fantastic, and I'm going to hope this program is a slam-dunk, because the original Cosmos is great stuff.

 

[Josh Dial]

I'll be watching; I never miss an opportunity to support Dr. Sagan and his work. The fact that it's backed by Ann Druyan and hosted by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is icing on the cake (I consider him to be the spiritual successor to Sagan).

Now, if only PBS would bring back 3-2-1 Contact (and maybe improve the quality of the new Electric Company), science on TV would truly have a resurgence.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Awesome, I'm a big fan of Seth Macfarlane *and* Neil Degrasse Tyson.
PBS still has great science programming -- Nova, Nova ScienceNow, Secrets of the Dead, etc. (Tyson hosts one or both of the Nova shows.)

 

[joshEH]

Heh...naturally.
"MacFarlane" and "Cosmos" are two names I never thought I would be putting together in a sentence in real life. I hope it works, because we have a generation now that doesn't even realize how starved it is for a show like this.

 

[Scott-S]

I loved the original Cosmos. I am looking forward to this. I am a bit worried though that Seth will add politics to the series. He uses every platform he works on to push his views.
I hope they can re-create the great mixture of science and wonder that Cosmos (and Dr. Sagan) had.

 

[joshEH]

If you follow MacFarlane on Twitter, it's not surprising. He's a MASSIVE fan of Sagan; he rates The Demon-Haunted World as his favorite book of all time, and regularly retweets Tyson.
Given the clout he has at FOX, and probably more importantly Professor Brian Cox's successful series about the Solar System on the BBC (which apparently saw a doubling in telescope sales), it's all less surprising than it sounds. I think 7 million people tuned into Cox's show, so it's a reasonably safe bet.
MacFarlane is a LOT smarter than you'd think, and I've always thought he could really impress us if he were to step outside his regular comfort zone.

 

[DaveF]

I watched the pilot for the new Cosmos. I didn't watch the original Cosmos. I was unaware of it as a kid. I was a briefly baffled when I got to college, and classmates would mimic Sagan's "billions and billions". NatGeo ran a marathon of the original Cosmos last week in the run up to the new series. So for the first time, I watched a few minutes of the original. It was enjoyable. And surprisingly activist (save the planet, global warming, deforestation). I saw the appeal immediately.The new one, with Tyson: it was good. I thoroughly enjoyed the cosmic calendar, laying out he universe from Big Bang to today over 12 months. Nicely done. Clearly explained. The biography of Giordino Bruno was also interesting. The animation was a good approach. The depiction of his revelatory dream, pulling back and stepping past the dome of current space, was fantastic. Great bit of art explaining the science. The first third of the show was dull. A reheated, overlong Star Trek TNG intro, zooming through a CG solar system with dully "majestic" music. It also needs slightly tighter editing. The creation of the moon left me knowing less than when I started. I've heard it was caused by accretion of solar debris. I've heard it fundamentally a fragment of the earth from a particularly large collision. In this episode, they suggested both and neither. The segment ended and I understood less, not sure what position if any the show was taking.What about for kids? It seemed like a great show for the enthusastic youth. But a recurrent use of "hell" as emphatic could be off putting to parents. (I found it jarring and unnecessary as an adult)It was a good show. But for me it's not so amazing that I have to watch it. I'm not setting a season pass.

 

[Cinescott]

I watched the original Cosmos in 1980 and have it on DVD. While Tyson doesn't seem to have the same teaching "vibe" as Sagan, I found the first installment of the new Cosmos to be entertaining, if a bit slow. The commercials are a bit annoying, but I realize they're a necessity. Too bad PBS didn't fund this show, since commercial-free definitely helps. Blu-ray will be a great way to watch this.

I'm really looking forward to Part 2, since I think it is here where the new series could hit its stride. I'm hoping there will be a lot more focus on what has been learned since 1980 and more stories from history that don't overlap what Sagan did.

Contrary to what I have read around the net, I didn't find the first episode to be dumbed down; I thought it was very appropriate for a general audience, much like the 1980 version. It'd be cool if 2014's Cosmos fueled a renewed interest in science and new discoveries.

 

[Jeffery_H]

I really enjoy most of these science type shows, a lot better way to spend time than the mind numbing "reality" shows.

It's going to be REALLY hard to beat Carl Sagan though, I still do his "Billions and Billions!" imitation at times and loved his approach. Simply a classic for me, but I'm willing to see what these do different and hopefully unique by comparison.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

A station in Oklahoma edited a mention of evolution out of the pilot episode. . .I wonder what happened with this week's episode, which was entirely focused on the topic!

 

[Hanson]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oklahoma-fox-station-cuts-evolution-segment-cosmos-article-1.1720481

"KOKH Fox 25 blamed the error on a technical glitch."

 

[Patrick Sun]

Not going to lie, when I saw Brannon Braga's name as EP and director on this show's credits, I was not filled with confidence. And I still remain a little dubious about the quality level being sustained throughout the season.

 

[DaveF]

A station in Oklahoma edited a mention of evolution out of the pilot episode. . .I wonder what happened with this week's episode, which was entirely focused on the topic!

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/oklahoma-station-drops-evolution-from-showing-of-cosmos/Read the Promoted Comment at Ars. It was most likely a technical error."Do not ascribe to malevolence what is better explained by incompetence."

 

[SamT]

I was amazed by this week's episode
http://trakt.tv/show/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/season/1/episode/2

Just that one idea that there has been 5 major extinctions on earth is mind-boggling to me and teaches you a lot.

I knew all these concepts before but have them in this one nice beautiful package is great.

 

[TonyD]

A station in Oklahoma edited a mention of evolution out of the pilot episode. . .I wonder what happened with this week's episode, which was entirely focused on the topic!

Someone over on dvdtalk posted a response.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sydonesia
I work at that station. The guy typed in the wrong time for the commercial to air. It was a F-up. That is EXACTLY what happened. But it doesn't matter. You hear evolution and Oklahoma and FOX (yet our local news department here is almost entirely liberal) and your minds are made up. Because, gosh, us Oklahoma people, we're so dumb. We just walk around in the wide open and ride horses and milk cows and marvel at indoor plumbing. And it makes for a better story. It's not like we had a script beforehand that told us what was going to be said so we could censor it. The guy just screwed up at literally the worst possible time he could have. That's what happened.

Carry on.



Anyway, I'm not finding myself enjoying the show.
I feel bored by whats on screen and mostly by Tyson.
He just doesn't engage me.

Too much cgi, I feel like I'm watching a cartoon.

 

[Jeffery_H]

A station in Oklahoma edited a mention of evolution out of the pilot episode. . .I wonder what happened with this week's episode, which was entirely focused on the topic!

While the topic of evolution is an open debate that people will be divided on forever, this seems to be just a simple goof and nothing more.

 

[Greg.K]

I'm finding the show to be pretty good and the second show was an improvement over the first one. NDT is more subdued and serious than he usually is, which is actually nice to see.

I just wish it was a full hour (without commercials) so they could go into more details on stuff, like the "hall of extinction" that was introduced but barely touched on the various extinction events in Earth's history.

The description of the evolution of the eye was nicely done, and I liked the showing of the evolution animation at the end from the original Cosmos.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I've enjoyed both episodes thoroughly so far.

 

[Jason_V]

I don't consider myself very knowledgable about science and the universe, so what I appreciate about the show is it takes you step by step through the topic. There's no assuming the audience knows X, Y or Z thing. Rather, it's all explained, thoroughly and slowly so everyone can follow along.

If nothing else, I'm thinking more about the greater universe and how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things more and more. Not that I'm going to go back to school for an Astro Physics degree or anything, but I'm enjoying the show so far.

 

[DaveF]

I was amazed by this week's episodehttp://trakt.tv/show/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/season/1/episode/2 Just that one idea that there has been 5 major extinctions on earth is mind-boggling to me and teaches you a lot. I knew all these concepts before but have them in this one nice beautiful package is great.

I wish I'd recorded the second one. That sounds very interesting.