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Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2008 Run time: 168 minutes

Host of Chicago Public Radio's This American Life since 1995, Ira Glass segues successfully to the small screen with this Showtime series. The first season begins with the saga of Chance, a Brahma bull who met President Bush, appeared in a movie with Vince Vaughn, and guested on The Late Show. To prepare for the passing of their elderly pet and "business associate," Chance's owners clone him, but things don't go as planned. Their segment airs in tandem with a piece in which an improv group gives a band their best gig ever--to mixed results. In other episodes, Glass profiles a late-in-life screenwriter, the stepson of a one-hit wonder, and a 14-year-old who's sworn off love. As quirky as these one-act movies sound, Glass and reporters Jorge Just, Nancy Updike, Nazanin Rafsanjani, and Alex Blumberg play up the universality of their subjects rather going for exploitation or easy laughs. They also leave it up to viewers to provide morals and conclusions (We never find out, for instance, whether the short featured in "Lights" makes it into the Sundance Film Festival). In each of the six half-hour programs, prologues or epilogues reinforce the theme, such as Chris Ware's animation about a childhood craze for fake TV cameras. Emmy voters presented This American Life with awards for outstanding non-fiction series and direction, while Showtime renewed the show for a second season. Bonus features include a photo gallery, a Glass biography, and commentary from Glass and director Christopher Wilcha on the pilot. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

• Quirky and clever -- works for me!
  Like, oh so many of my geeky, nerdy kith and kin, I love listening to "This American Life" on NPR... Was there ever a better show to wash dishes to, or be stuck in traffic with? But when I heard it was being adapted to television, I confess I had my doubts. So much of the charm of radio is that, well... it's radio! It's a medium that engages your imagination in a way unlike any other... and how much of that ineffable, undefined charm would be taken out in a concretized, on-film version? Turns out -- no worries! The TV "This American Life" is every bit as odd and arresting as the audio version... Indeed, they recycle some of the same stories we've already heard on-air, but they are even weirder and kookier here. The format changes that do effect the content have more to do with length than with style: this is a half-hour show, and the stories are generally shorter and fewer, and the concept of a through-line for each show are a little less well-developed. Still, it's a great show, and Ira Glass and his pals sure know how to grab your attention. I've showed this to friends who have never heard the radio show, and their jaws dropped... they couldn't believe how addictive this was. Definitely worth checking out. (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)...more info
• Cloning, Bathroom Accidents, Jesus as a model - It's This American Life
  If you are a fan of This American Life, you will enjoy the re-telling of several familiar stories with well-recorded video. If you are not familiar with TAL, what are you waiting for? The stories are rich, vibrant, well-researched, and real. Told with complete respect for the subjects - the stories will move you - make you laugh, make you cry - make you think. As a biology instructor, I enjoyed the coverage of Second Chance (a story about cloning) and the description of breeding strategies in pigs - the stories were accurate, fun, and enjoyable - favorites of mine in the classroom. Enjoy!...more info
• Love this show, both auditory and visual, but...
  Quality of the transfer to the DVD is subpar, they decided to cram everything (if you can call a little over 2 hours everything). Not really a lot of extras if thats your thing. The stroies were great though - I watched all 1 disk of this in a single sitting and I laughed and cried, sometimes at the same time. Its shows like this that make paying for cable worthwhile....more info
• Highly recommend
  One of the better documentary series I have seen in a long time, touching, deep, very well done, thoughtful....more info
• Rats !!
  How sad I can't download to my Apple TV box or my Mac !!
  
  
  ..waiting for Amazon to catch-up with the real world!!!
  
  
  :-(...more info
• What You'd Expect Reality Television To Really Be Like
  I'm continually impressed with Ira Glass as an editor, interviewer and now with his new Showtime programme, This American Life, TV host. I honestly can't believe how good this series is. I've watched every episode back to back twice and I'm still reeling.
  
  Quite simply, this is reality television or what reality television should have been before it got commandeered by posers in constructed atmospheres. Have you ever thought about why it's called "Reality TV" when there isn't anything real about it? A bunch of people who would never meet up in real life are thrown together in a completely artificial situation-a house, an island-to compete for something equally artificial-a modeling contract, a million dollars. That's not real. This American Life is a hundred percent human, real, and down to earth all the time. The stories are forthright, touching, amazing.
  
  It's a testament to Ira's skill as an interviewer that he somehow manages to find people and tell their stories without artifice-there isn't an ounce of cheese or a single turn of spin in any one of these stories. You don't hear Ira or his staff ask a lot of questions on camera, but he must be amazing at his job because he brings out the best in people. Also the camera shots in this series are outstanding. In one interview a 13 year old boy rallies against love while his red headed classmate floats dreamily though a field of grass. In another interview the viewers get to see Chance the Bull through the kitchen window of it's owner. It's beautiful. All of it. It's simply amazing. My husband and I were both teary eyed after several of these stories.
  
  Besides meeting a 13 year old boy who has sworn off love, you'll visit a Chicago hot dog stand where customers and staff swear at each other in a free for all that brings out the worst in human nature, sit with a man who watches TV in his wife's mausoleum every other day, walk the ranch of a kind hearted Texas man who had his beloved bull cloned and you'll probably give up meat after "smelling" an Iowa pig farm. And after every single episode you'll feel like the human race isn't headed for a big black hole in space after all. You'll feel like we're good, like there's hope for us because it can't be that bleak if this is what people are really like-vulnerable, kind, interesting, good hearted.
  
  If you're looking for more culture like this-I'd recommend The New Kings of Non-Fiction edited by Ira Glass and Best American Essays 2007 edited by David Foster Wallace. And for a movie that's down to earth (if a little quirky) Eagle v. Shark. ...more info
• In love with Ira
  Even thought I had showtime, I had never been able to successfully catch a full episode of this show. It was recommended by my little sister, who has the same taste as me when it comes to documentary type shows. I watched every episode the first night I got it. I absolutely LOVE how every episode has a topic, and 3 different stories on this topic. To be able to peek inside the lives of fellow americans, and see life through others' eyes is my cup of tea. I have shared this DVD with my family and friends (the ones who have good taste, at least) It really bums me out that the show was cancelled, and not just because I think Ira Glass is a dreamboat, because in my perfect world, all TV would be this good. ...more info
• Innovators In Radio NOW on TV
  Ira Glass and company have been producing the lovable radio show "This American Life" for years now. Fans of the radio show will undoubtedly be interested in the television show.
  
  The show is masterfully photographed, and very well produced. I thought at first that if the television show was to be as effective as the radio show, it would be nearly impossible to produce, but apparently not so! Content-wise, it's very similar to the radio show. Every story follows a common narrative arc, but each story also features the unique setting that the radio show is known for. There's really little more to be said, especially if you are already a fan of the radio show. This is real American journalism focused on uncommon people who every day pass for common. Ira Glass and his show bring us these people's stories and do so with great artistry.
  
  Often humorous, sometimes sad, but always interesting, "This American Life" is groundbreaking television!...more info
• Fantastic
  Ira Glass and the This American Life crew deliver yet another outstanding compilation of American stories. The story-telling maintains the typical flawless delivery that captivates you and keeps you there....more info
• A work in progress
  First of all, I have been listening to This American Life on NPR for quite a while now. That being said my expectations of the show were very high. I thought the overall content of the stories in the first season was good however the television version just doesn't tie everything together like the radio show does. I still enjoy the television show I think it is important to remember that this isn't the radio show....more info
• But would it be as good as the radio version?
  .... was a question I'm sure many people asked when hearing that the most innovative, wonderful NPR radio program "This American Life" was going on television. It seemed almost impossible to believe that they would be taking their winning format and trying it out in a totally different medium. Would the intimacy that radio provides be possible on TV? Would seeing ruin the visuals the stories build in your heads? Rest assured, the show was in good, good hands and the result is a winning combination.
  
  Host Ira Glass, with his nasally calm voice, introduces each week a theme, and spins stories on that theme from a wide pancea of possibilities, each a complete story within it's own, each adding to the examination of the question without ever directly answering it. The television show picks up the same concept, albeit in a shorter, half-hour version. More about this later.
  
  The opening episode tells about reality, and two disparate stories (and one of the funniest introduction stories I ever heard) that you can possibly imagine. One about a tame bull named Chance and his unlikely offspring, and the other about a radical improv group in New York City. That's the beauty of Glass' radio show: taking these two stories, that literally happen in different worlds in our own country, and putting them together to make beautiful poetry. That's Glass' and the show's genius.
  
  I found the show's visual aspects to not be a detractor, but to enhance the storytelling of the show. One segment in the second episode tells about a group of dastardly senior citizens deciding they were going to make a movie for Sundance. The story was definitely enhanced by seeing the woman who was selected playing the robber, a plastic mask covering her face, her hand shaking. Less needs to be said description wise as the stories are told (yes, I did miss that), but it's nice to actually see the "reality" of it.
  
  My only small beef is the length of the show. It cuts at a half hour, and every time the episode ended and the credits rolled, I did feel ripped off. I'm very used to the hour format of the radio show, and the three act format (although even the radio show bends that format by doing one or two act shows, depending on the content). I simply want an hour of the show!
  
  Glass manages to tells diverse stories of our diverse country, honoring the people telling the stories, and giving them a wonderful sense of dignity. Their realities may not be one ounce similar to your or my realities, yet we find common themes that unite us together. This American Life expertly unites all of us by helping us understand life in other people's shoes just that much more. Bravo for that!...more info