This American Life is a weekly 30-minute long television program on Showtime which explores on the different aspects of human nature. The show is an adaptation of the radio program with the same working name with over 1.7 million devoted listening audiences.
Like the radio program, the series is also hosted and produced by known public radio personality, Ira Glass. The show features stories told through first-person and whimsical narratives, ranging from being mundane, gloomy, ironic, and even hilarious. The stories may either be based on real-life or can be fictional. Every week, a single theme or topic is explored that brings out the real drama in the American life.
Discussions of a television adaptation of
This American Life started way back in 1999. In January 2006, Showtime announced that it will be airing six episodes of
This American Life. Glass, together with four other producers of the radio show left Chicago and moved to New York, where Showtime is headquartered. The following year, it was announced that Glass has already completed the production of the show’s first season. The first episode of
TAL premiered on March 22, 2007. The show was nominated in the same year for three Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming.
Stories from
TAL have already been used as basis of numerous films. In 2002,
TAL signed a deal with Warner Brothers giving the studio the rights to choose from its hundreds of past and future episodes. The 2006 film
Unaccompanied Minors directed by Paul Feig is based on TAL’s “In the Event of an Emergency, Put Your Sister in an Upright Position” and “Babysitting.”
This American Life is already on its second season. Its first season on DVD is first exclusively distributed to Borders bookstores and will be released to other retailers starting on September 23, 2008.
-Katherine Garcia, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Showtime
(Image Courtesy of Showtime)