REBIRTH: Neil deGrasse Tyson presents a follow up series to the 1980 television show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
By Ruthie Farrell, Staff Writer
Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage first aired in 1980. He endeavored to create a presentation that explored the origins of the universe and our place in the vast expanse of outer space. Sagan’s wife and producer Ann Druyan calls the show “both a history of the scientific enterprise, and an attempt to convey a soaring spiritual high of its central revelation.” Although only one season of the series was televised, it remained the most widely watched program of American Public Television until 1990. The success of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was long-lived but the series itself was cut short. Now Neil deGrasse Tyson is infusing new life into Sagan’s old idea with the creation of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which premiered on March 9.
Carl Sagan’s original series provided enough galactic inspiration to motivate Tyson to remake the series. He says his inspiration comes from the original Cosmos’ ability to “bridge the gap between the academic community and the general public.” With Druyan as one of his executive producers, he is determined to continue the Cosmos legacy.
Tyson added some original twists to Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. He says that his show is infused with themes of wonder and skepticism. Unlike Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Tyson’s series will not include much “textbook” science. The content that will be seen in the documentary “has to touch you” while keeping the “rigorously good science,” Tyson says. He feels confident that his version will find success during the coming season. It’s easy to see the progress that science has made on public television in shows like The Big Bang Theory and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and also in movies like Gravity, which received ten Oscar nominations this year. Tyson hopes that his program will find the same luck in the entertainment industry and gives justice to Sagan’s original scientific breakthrough for television.
Photo courtesy of www.galacticnewsone.com