Anyone else pumped for the new COSMOS series with Neil deGrasse Tyson?

I read that they are aiming for a mass audience; deGrasse Tyson and Sagan's widow want to reach as wide a demographic as possible. PBS does not fit the bill, so I'm not sure if they were even in the running. It's actually rather groundbreaking for an educational series like this to be on primetime network TV.
And there's a fine line between "dumbing down" and making big ideas understandable to average folks. If any living scientist can walk that line, it's Tyson.

 

There was a time I would have said the same thing about Michio Kaku. TV and fame can do strange things to good people though.

One day you are a great physicists educating the masses on TV, next you are saying crazy things about ghosts on The History Channel.

 

haha, well, they probably showed him the list of shows http://www.history.com/shows that were available for him to make comments in and he just gave up and said just tell me what you want me to say.

 

Pretty much. He's all about selling his books and showing up on TV now. He says some out there crazy stuff.

 

It's not like he's that guy with the strange hair on "Ancient Aliens".

 

Kaku has come close and said some really unscientific stuff in the Aliens episode of his own series.

 

Now I'm waiting for someone to Photoshop that picture so it looks like he is...

 

FOX and ABC only do 720p.

One other recent modern physics series I enjoyed watching was "Through the Wormhole" hosted by Morgan Freeman.

 

Imagine if it was with Mike Tyson!

Evan

 

First reports are in, and a nice review of the premiere has been posted over at the "Cloudy nights" astronomy forum.

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/cosmos-premier

I can't wait! The original Cosmos series blew me away as a high school student, and have had a love in astronomy ever since. I'm also a big Sagan fan as well. I'll be watching it out in my observatory that I originally built just a few years after the first Cosmos! I recently had it moved to my new home, and refurbished it.

 

My biggest hopes are that this 'reboot' fires the imagination and enthusiasm of the 'masses' for the importance of investing in the future - because 'science' is relevant right now. Expansion of our understanding of the Cosmos benefits everyone - now.

If not that, well, I look forward to my own personal journey on the Spaceship of the Imagination.

 

I'm taking my family for a free showing tonight at the local planetarium!+++

 

Just watched the Cosmos series on Nat Geo this afternoon and waiting for the new one to come on in 90 minutes.

 

Looking forward to the series debut tonight. I've heard Tyson being interviewed a number of times. He is brilliant, yet comes across as an everyman.

 

This is so far the best thing I've ever seen on TV. I could fly around on the Ship of the Imagination with NdGT forever, so long as they served food.

 

The original Cosmos had a huge influence on me, so naturally I came to this with a significant degree of skepticism. My expectations were high, and the new series has exceeded them so far! I thought Tyson did a great job of stepping into Sagan's shoes, and I thought his story at the end about meeting Sagan at Cornell was very touching.

The show itself was well paced and interesting. It wasn't dumbed down the way so many science docs seem to be done these days, but yet it was very approachable and accessible. The CG and animated sequences were well done and didn't come off cheesy at all. I'm really excited to see where this new series goes.

 

Fantastic first episode!+++ We choked up when he did the tribute to Carl Sagan. What a *great* job Neil Tyson did. Wonderful voice and persona. Exceeded my expectations. Will buy on blu-ray....The audience in the planetarium applauded at the end.

Carl Sagan did the commencement speech at my alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, in c. 1987. He was terrific. They played the Cosmos music as he came up on the stage with the wind blowing in his hair. Just 9 years later he was gone....

 

The burning of an Italian philosopher at the stake by the church should have been shown in the first five minutes. Pretty hard to walk away after that. Maybe they should watch Fox News to learn how to capture an audience during the lead-in.

Tyson’s "We are all descendants of astronomers” sounds self-aggrandizing, but the full quote is from Sam Storch, director of the planetarium at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn - "We are all descendants of astronomers who had to know the sky or they starved.”

Otherwise nothing new science-wise, and essentially nothing new to think about, although I expect that will be forthcoming.

 

Was pretty much blown away by it.

Only two minor gripes:

First, too many damn commercial breaks.

Second, I wish they had use a different animation style rather then a slightly upscale version of the cheap animation that seems to be ending up in every other documentary these days.

 

Watched the first episode and thought the opening meandered a bit and didn't draw me in as I hoped - all I got was a sense of someone opening a drawer of shiny baubles and commenting - see all the shiny baubles, aren't they cool?

I'm going to see if Fox has it loaded to watch again

 

I thought it was pretty imaginative production. Decent graphics and very well written dialogue. The concept of the cosmic calendar was a perspective tool.

 

I got to watch it and enjoyed it.

Having watched the old series 30+ years ago...and having the Cosmos book...this new one didn't seem to really cover any new ground. I spose it IS a remake to some degree but was a bit underwhelmed.

I'm hoping the subsequent episodes will be more enlightening for me.

I'll mirror an earlier comment...TOO MANY commercials. That's the way of the world (and websites ) though...one of the many reasons I don't watch modern TV or go to some web pages.

 

It seemed a bit dumbed-down to me, and the late time slot seemed odd as I'd guess a lot of younger viewers might miss it.

 

The series was well done and enjoyable to watch. I was not phased by the "mainstream" level of the show, but this is to enlighten a wide audience, not for the tech bunch. I am hoping this series is essentially a remake of the original with some new updates, such as a focus on dark matter/energy.