I, Claudius (TV Series Wiki Article)
Posted on 11/04/2010 3:02:22 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
(Television series proposal, submitted to History Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E, Learning Channel, Disney, et al, by Word-Wise Productions.)
Marketing context: American public education has been dumbed down, neutered, rendered dull and boring. Little is taught. One thing especially is not taught. History. There is thus an unfed hunger for History real, raw, and revelatory.
Everything that makes children and adults love History has been eliminated from History. Starting in the 1920s, progressive educators used a gimmick called Social Studies to constrict the teaching of History. Less was taught, and taught in a less interesting way. Throughout the 20th century History was made more politically correct, more timid, bloodless, and unfocused, more a vehicle for social engineering, more wimpy. Soon History had all the intellectual excitement of an infomercial for a new vegetable slicer.
At this point, we all need to be reminded of what History was always about for many thousands of years: Quests. Victories. Defeats. Excellence. Death. Egos. Genius. Battles. Greatness. Insanity. Business. Law. Art. Family. Government. Luck. Military campaigns. Heroes. Disease. Monuments. Crime. Tragedies. Plots. Romance. Religion. Engineering feats. Politics. Duty. Sacrifice. Honor. Human behavior both ordinary and under pressure. Great personalities. Inventions. Glory. Suicide. Philosophy.
We all delight in extremes and superlatives. We love a great story. History is millions of good stories. The Roman Empire, with 10 centuries of history, has a million stories all its own.
[[Who knows, somebody might actually want to produce this series. But the main impetus was to dramatize the pathetic way that history is taught. Rest is on AmericanChronicle with a fine graphic of Crassus, said to be one of the richest men in all of History.]]
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(Excerpt) Read more at americanchronicle.com ...
I’m a dedicated fan of HBO’s “ROME”. Even though somewhat dramatized, it was well done and very entertaining.
I remember, I had a lib teacher who had no problem not keeping his ideas from the class. But one thing he did.
He made us memorize the names of all the president’s cabinet (we had a test on it), and bring in articles about them where we discussed their jobs. It made me aware for the first time of how the executive branch really worked, and that it was a living lesson, as opposed to history.
I’d watch this. We watched everything we could find on ancient Rome (except the HBO series - NOT for kids!!) before we took our boys there in 2009.
The fact that this a ‘proposal’ for a show disappoints me. I want to watch it now. Oh, however, I don’t have cable, so it will have to go on Netflix Instant Watch or on DVD.
In the Roman Empire there were no blogs to pimp.
Like the History Channel will actually do a history documentary instead of more reality shows, UFO’s, and cryptozoology.
Crassus is purported to have said "You are not really rich until you can afford your own army."
Actually 15 to 20, depending on how you figure it.
I actually think ROME was more ambitious and more expensive than what I’m proposing, but with a smaller possible audience. ROME, as I understood it, was a dramatic series, with characters and plot lines that you have to follow from episode to episode. A high-level soap opera. It could only be made if the producers were totally in love and had lots of money.
My series, as I see it, would be more opportunistic, more thrill-seeking, using bits and pieces from old movies, just creating the most entertaining and informative melange possible. Maybe not as fine and artistic as ROME, but perhaps better able to hold 30-year-olds.
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“Throughout the 20th century History was made more politically correct, more timid, bloodless, and unfocused, more a vehicle for social engineering, more wimpy. Soon History had all the intellectual excitement of an infomercial for a new vegetable slicer.”
Through some oversight, we don’t have a state-mandated test for World History here in NC....so, I can bend the curriculum somewhat...and pretty much stick to war, politics, philosophy, science and technology, in my teaching. Drums and trumpets.....
There are some BBC series like this regarding Hannibal and Rome. You can find them in their entirety on YouTube.
Here’s the first of the Hannibal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXnxdVcnqI0
Here is one from the Rome series:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s101upMAOmY&feature=related
Anything that the History Channel would do would probably be polluted by a leftist “narrative”. The BBC isn’t perfect, but has higher standards than PBS or the History Channel.
thanks for the links
All that? I thought it was who did what to whom, when, and how in the great struggle of the Proletariat against whatever the Imperialist Hegemony was in any particular era.
I'd swear that's what my college history profs were always pounding into us.
I have boys and they all really enjoy history. We study it in terms of wars, weaponry, inventions, and buildings. It’s amazing how much can be learned about people by the way, or the reasons, they wage war.
I can’t help replying,..I Claudius is like cricket. I’m thinking of the Steelers versus the New England Patriots.
Amazing that Ancient Rome still intrigues us 1500 years after it’s “fall”.
Aside from war, I’m sure men stood around discussing a new chariot then the way they now discuss a new Corvette.
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