Television teaches lesson in Tuesdays with Bleier.
There is a place at Syracuse University where American history comes alive, each week, on the television screen.
Informal screenings of American television programs will coincide with lunch in a series called ‘Tuesdays with Bleier,’ a title spin-off of the popular novel, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie.’
The Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture holds screenings in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. The Tuesday viewing sessions, which began in 2007, are free and open to all students and faculty, on a drop-in basis.
From original, unedited footage of the moon landing and the Kennedy assassination to episodes of ’80s TV shows where the main characters lose their virginity, Tuesdays with Bleier takes advantage of SU’s archive of original television material. And according to the program’s founding director, Robert Thompson, SU professor and Director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, most students would not normally get the opportunity to see.
‘Show up regularly, and by the end of the semester you have gotten a pretty good smattering of screenings of the history of TV that in many cases you wouldn’t be able to get other places,’ said Thompson.
Simone Becque, a graduate student specializing in media studies, started spending her Tuesdays with Bleier last fall, and continues to make it a regular weekly event.
‘It’s different from other things on campus,’ said Becque. ‘It’s consistent, but very informal. You can come late, eat lunch and leave early.’
Typically, Thompson opens the screening with a short introduction about the scheduled program, which often relates to timely issues, controversies or holidays. This past month, for the example, the TV guru screened groundbreaking shows featuring Latino actors in observance of Hispanic Heritage Month. During the 2008 presidential election, students watched the original 1960 Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate.
In the program’s first year, Thompson hosted a mock New Year’s Eve party from the 1950s before winter break. The faux event’s main feature was a one-hour New Year’s pre-show hosted by Guy Lombardo, the famous musician who made it a tradition to play ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at the stroke of midnight.
‘I consider it a perfect Tuesday when I can show something that’s both important and something that’s not readily available,’ said Thompson.
Other popular screenings have included footage from the O.J. Simpson car chase and ‘Monica Lewinsky Day’, which included the former White House intern’s HBO interview along with a screening of her short-lived reality TV series, ‘Mr. Personality.’ Thompson said it was the most-attended Tuesday of all time.
Thompson continues the Tuesday tradition today at 12:30 p.m. in the Bleier Center Suite- Newhouse 3, Room 430-making light of David Letterman’s recent sex scandal with a rare screening of the late night host’s short-lived morning show from June 1980. It will be rounded out by another late-night talk show sex controversy: Hugh Grant’s July 10, 1995. Footage of the interview with Jay Leno two weeks after Grant was arrested for lewd conduct with a Hollywood prostitute in a public place.
Published on October 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm
