"This American Life" Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence- The Onion, 4/20/2007
"We've done it," said senior producer Julie Snyder, "There is not a single existential crisis or self-congratulatory epiphany that has been or could be experienced by a left-leaning agnostic that we have not exhaustively documented and grouped by theme."
Added Snyder, "We here at public radio couldn't be more pleased with ourselves."
Bam! Could've ended the article right there. Of course, this comes from The Onion which Tony Kushner referred to as "used to be funny," in one of his more understated remarks.
It is true, however, that though I have still been enjoying the program - finding it actually politically relevant on many occasions, entirely since 9/11 by no small coincidence - the emergence of the t.v. show, which I can't watch because I don't have Showtime, and yet I truly believe I wouldn't watch anyway, because, having seen the clips, I have been freshly reminded of that feeling I had in the pit of my stomach the very first time I heard Ira's voice in a promo way back in the mid-90s, promising me that I would, oh yes, me, actually sit in my car, to wait for one of their stories to end.
True, perhaps. And so smug.
Jealous, churlish, what have you, Nancy Franklin puts it so much better in her review of the t.v. show in the New Yorker:
"One is so reluctant to express any degree of dislike for “This American Life,” th popular public-radio storytelling progra created by Ira Glass twelve years ago, an featuring such stars as David Sedaris, Sara Vowell, and John Hodgman, that one’ inclination is to avoid the use of the first-person pronoun for as long as possible in order not to be identified with any reservations concerning the show. On wants deniability; in fact, one wants to hide."
In fact, one goes on.
So for a few months now Dave at WCPN and I have been going back and forth about having I HATE THIS (the radio drama, of course) aired on WBEZ In Chicago, home to such noteworthy NPR programs like This American Life and Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me ... WCPN had submitted it to the