"This American Life": Back on Showtime (and Live in Theaters) by Popular Demand

 

The popular radio show, This American Life, was born and is still produced in Chicago. Hosted by Ira Glass, it was first presented on WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate, in 1995. By 1996 it was being distributed nationally. More than 500 public radio stations across the country now carry the show, as well as XM Satellite. It's also on MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

 

A weekly audience of more than 1.7 million listeners heart true stories of real people told on This American Life. Every show has a theme, with several  vignettes are built around that theme. The themes chosen, and the freedom given to the writers and performers, allow the show to go in any direction. It’s reality radio, stories told to Glass and to us, by those who really lived or are living them.

 

One of the first stories I remember hearing centered on a 24-hour diner here in Chicago. The host sat in the diner and spoke to the people there. There were homeless people there to buy a meal with change they had begged for, young teenage girls from the suburbs there to meet up with someone they chatted with on the Internet, and so on. A recent show related the story of a young wife who was held hostage with her children for weeks by an “associate” of her absent husband who was waiting for him to return with some money he was owed. The story of how she managed and eventually got herself out of this situation was a tale of grit, courage, luck and smarts. Sometimes the stories are funny, sometimes bizarre, sometimes touching, sometimes chilling. They are always compelling.

 

Showtime came to Ira Glass in 2002 with the idea of creating a TV version of This American Life. The team had a hard time figuring out how to turn this unique radio show into a TV show effectively, and for a while, the idea was put on hold. Last year, the TAL team and Showtime figured out how to get it done.

 

This American Life’s second season on Showtime begins May 4. To introduce Season 2, host Glass is presenting This American Life Live this Thursday night, May 1, in a live format from the Skirball Center on the New York University campus. It will be broadcast digitally and live in HD to theaters across the country.

 

In 2007, Glass and the team did a tour of live, sold-out shows. But the “live digital event beamed to theaters” idea was a new one, so the TAL team did a poll on their website to ask fans what they thought. More than 20,000 fans said they’d love to see the show in theaters, and so the idea became a reality.

 

A list of theaters presenting the live event, as well as a link to buy tickets, can be found at www.Fathomevents.com. You can also check out both the radio and TV versions of This American Life on their website, www.thislife.org, where you can listen to podcasts, view previews of the upcoming season, and more.

 

This is REAL reality programming, real Americans at their best, their worst, their funniest, their most tragic. Give it a listen or a look. I guarantee, once you start, you won’t be able to stop.