Underplayed Gems

Fame in the 20th Century

Fame in the 20th Century poster
Genre
documentary film
Country
United Kingdom
Length
1 season, 8 episodes
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A BBC documentary series that surveys how fame evolved over the 20th century, decade by decade. Clive James presents profiles of notable figures and offers witty commentary on the nature of celebrity.

educationalwrythoughtfulreflectiveinformativeobservationalnostalgicanecdotal

What happens

Fame in the 20th Century is a 1993 BBC documentary television series and book by Clive James. The book and series examined the phenomenon of fame and how it expanded to international mass media proportions throughout the 20th century. The series first aired starting in January 1993, with 8 episodes divided in roughly 8 decades, from the 1900s to the 1980s. Each episode highlighted world-famous people during that part of the century. James delivered interesting and amusing comments about the portrayed celebrities and the various ways they became famous. In the United States, the series were broadcast on PBS and in Australia on ABC, though some footage was occasionally cut if the rights to it were too expensive. The series has never been repeated on television since, which James attributes to the fact that "every inch of footage in the gigantic compilation belonged to some agency legally equipped to charge the Earth." He further points out that the book contains "the text almost exactly as I read it out on screen... but I took care even at the time to write it as if it might have to survive on its own." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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