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This American Life (TAL) is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ in Chicago and distributed by Public Radio International. TAL is hosted by Ira Glass and is primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, although it has also featured essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage. A TAL television series is in production and is tentatively scheduled to begin broadcasting in on the Showtime cable network.

Each week's show loosely centers on a particular theme. Examples of themes include "The Cruelty of Children", "Hoaxing Yourself", "Accidental Documentaries" and "Fiasco!". The theme of the show is explored in several acts. Shows usually consists of two to five acts, however sometimes an entire program can consist of a single act. A notable exception "20 Acts in 60 Minutes" broke the normal convention and fit 20 acts into a single hour. Each act is produced by a different contributor in conjunction with a staff producer, some editors of the show and some freelancers.

Since every show can be so different it is very hard to describe a typical TAL episode. The mood of the show can range from gloomy to ironic to thought-provoking to hilarious. The show often tackles very current and often controversial events like hurricane Katrina in “After the Flood”. It also exposes listeners to issues that they likely have never heard of such as the island nation of Nauru in The Middle of Nowhere. Often times it simply shares stories of human nature, such as Kid Logic, which we all have probably observed. Acts often have added credibility because of their use of first person testimonials.

TAL moving into TV

A This American Life television series is in production and is tentatively scheduled to begin broadcasting in "the winter or fall of 2006" on the American cable network Showtime. According to the official TAL website the series will be shot to look like a movie in widescreen with movie-like cinematography. Although the TV format will not be replacing the radio format, Public Radio International has agreed to let TAL cease producing new radio shows for 12 months, however, Glass may continue producing new episodes to maintain radio presence. With the new format also comes a new locale; TAL is leaving its longtime home of Chicago for New York, where Showtime is headquartered. Currently TAL is filming 6 episodes of the TV show and has a contract to make 30 shows over the next four years. *

History of TAL

Ira Glass created the show, and has served as the producer and host since it debuted on November 17, 1995. The show was originally titled Your Radio Playhouse, but changed its name with the March 21, 1996 episode. A vestige of its original title is the reference to each segment as an "act." The show began national syndication in June 1996 and currently airs on 509 public radio stations in the United States, reaching an estimated 1.6 million listeners each week. The show helped launch the literary careers of contributing editor Sarah Vowell and essayist David Sedaris.

Awards

  • 1996, Peabody Award
  • 2001, Susan Burton receives the Third Coast International Audio Festival Best New Artist award for act 1 (Tornado Prom) of episode 186 ("Prom")
  • 2002, Jonathan Goldstein, Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass receive the Third Coast International Audio Festival Gold Award for Best Documentary for act 3 (Yes, There is a Baby) of episode 175 ("Babysitting")
  • 2002, Alix Spiegel receives the Livingston Award for National Reporting for episode 204 ("81 Words")
  • 2003, Susan Burton and Hyder Akbar receive the Third Coast International Audio Festival Silver Award for Best Documentary for episode 230 ("Come Back to Afghanistan")

Other media

Some of the show's episodes are accompanied by multimedia downloads available on This American Life's website. One notable mention is a remake of the Elton John song "Rocket Man" that was produced for episode 223, "Classifieds," * and released as an MP3. The song was performed by a "one day band" composed of musicians looking for work in the classifieds. The band, consisting of various performers (one played a Theremin), only met and practiced for one day before recording the song.

Two 2-disc CD sets collecting some of the producers' favorite acts have been released: Lies, Sissies, and Fiascoes was released on May 4, 1999, and Crimebusters & Crossed Wires was released on November 11, 2003.

A 32-page comic book, Radio: an Illustrated Guide (ISBN 0967967104), documents how an episode of TAL is put together. It was drawn by cartoonist Jessica Abel, written by Abel and Glass, and first published in 1999.

In 2002 the show signed a six-figure deal with Warner Bros. giving the studio two years of "first-look" rights to its hundreds of past and future stories. In the first year of the deal, at least four scripts are being developed. The scripts are inspired by the following stories:

It is unknown whether any of these will actually make it to the silver screen.

Current and former staff

Other contributors

References

  • Jessica Abel and Ira Glass (1999). Radio: An Illustrated Guide. ISBN 0-9679671-0-4

See also

External links

Public Radio International | American radio programs

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "This American Life".

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