TeeVee for Beginners, Friday Period Two

[chosehumanity]

When students entered the classroom, they'd find that there were no tables, and all the chairs had been replaced with comfortable-looking couches. In front of the class stood Mitchell, without sunglasses, but dressed to the hipster nines and wearing his usual pair of fingerless gloves, his face pale and a little on the sunken, shaky side if you actually chose to pay that much attention to it. He smiled as people came in; as soon as they were in, he started to talk. "Welcome to TV class," he started, "If you're here, it's likely because of one of two reasons: either you don't know much about television, or you're looking to have a bit of fun."

He grinned. "Not that the latter is anything to be ashamed about," he said, "Everyone deserves something fun in their lives, something to make you smile. We used to just have books back in the day, theatre, stories passed on from mouth to mouth." He patted the large TV in front of the class. "For those of you in the first category, this is a television. When it's on, it lights up specks of colour, divided up in lines, that form moving images. The images can be anything you can see in real life, but captured, so you can see images from other places, other people." He gestured at the screen of the TV. "In the first few televisions, you didn't have a great deal of lines, so the image was unclear." He smirked at some private memory, "Faded."

"Television really started with radio, with broadcasting; people discovered how to project sound across great distances, not just to one person, but to everyone in the area who had a special box designed to capture the noise. The word comes from farming practices, actually -- to 'broadcast' is to throw a lot of seeds out in a circle, to cast them out. The radio did the same, except with a signal, and anyone with a radio box could capture the signal, capture the seed and listen to it. The possibilities seemed limitless at the time, there was anything you could do with radio, broadcast plays, festivals, whatever was happening in someone else's living room, people couldn't stop imagining about it. They thought radio would last forever."

"And they did get a lot of things done. Radio channels were formed, you could change the numbers on a radio so it would capture other bits of sound, and they'd broadcast music and other programmes across the area." He smiled at the class - he'd gotten a little carried away with his own memories, but that wasn't a problem. It was nice, it was going fairly smooth.

"It didn't last forever, though. There was some time spent tussling behind the scenes about the technology, but around the forties and fifties, the first commercial television was a fact. It was as big as the iPhone then, in the fifties. Everyone had to have one. Line standards grew rapidly until they were standardized in the sixties. The amount of channels grew exponentially, new genres were invented or ported over from radio: soaps, dramas, news, everything you could think of. People would crowd together in each other's homes on special nights just to watch the television, to get to talk about it the next day. Housewives loved it because it meant something to do in a time when they weren't allowed to do a great deal besides sit around. The television quickly became the center of a house, a place where everyone could come and relax and be themselves with the family."

With a flop, Mitchell landed himself on his own couch, pointed towards the kids. "That was what television was like for people back then," he said, "What's it mean to you? Does it mean anything to you? Have you even heard of it?" He pointed at a random student, "Tell me that. And your name and age, please."

Pause.

"Oh, and George? You're not getting out of assisting me." Mitchell did not at all smirk at that one. No. "When we're through, we'll be watching something to get you all into the subject matter."

Mitchell should probably not be this enthused.

[[ wait for the ocd up! ]]

Comments

Introductions

[chosehumanity]

Name, age, experience with the medium!

Re: Introductions

[future_sandworm]

"I am Leto Atreides II," he said, "And I'm sixteen years old. As there is no television where I'm from, my only experience is what I've managed to find out here in Fandom. As it seems to be an important cultural phenomena here, I decided to learn more."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"Welcome, Leto," Mitchell greeted, bringing his chin up as a gesture of roughly the same. "It's more than a cultural phenomenon, it's light, it's fun, it's part of all our lives in this century." He grinned. "How do you entertain yourselves, where and when you're from?"

Re: Introductions

[future_sandworm]

Fremen culture wasn't really into the light and fun.

"That would depend on your position in society and your wealth," Leto replied, "Or whether you live in the desert or in a city. But to generalise there is music, storytelling, sharing a meal. The more cynical might say religious ceremony is a form of entertainment." With all the pilgrims in Arrakeen, that wasn't completely wrong, either. "Some succumb to the temptations of various drugs and become slaves to it. For myself, I enjoy the freedom of the desert together with my sister, finding a sandworm to ride, escaping all other expectations."

Re: Introductions

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Alex Karev, seventeen," he recited like clockwork now. "Pretty experienced with television. Never had cable but I made due on the three or four channels I got. TV's a nice--" Escape. "--time passer for me."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"Alex, hey." He seemed to be roughly of the same time period, so Mitchell would just skip that part. "I've got an important question for you, then." Beat. "Pizza or Chinese?"

Two of the kids so far, and he hadn't had to deal with anything pounding at the back of his head; this was good.

Re: Introductions

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Pizza," Alex replied immediately. "Chinese makes me tired. Falling asleep in front of the TV isn't a bad thing but Chinese knocks me out. Better than a sleeping pill."

Re: Introductions

[bitten_notshy]

"Jack Priest, seventeen," Jack said, for what seemed like the fifteenth time this week. "It's 1899 at home, so I've never seen television before. We have moving pictures, though, and I've been to the cinema."

As he talked, he brought his left hand up to brush a bit of hair aside, and the ruby in the ring signaling he was of Sebastien's court caught the light for a moment.

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"1899?" Mitchell asked, his voice betraying some curiosity - the odd jewelry was barely a part of that, though. He'd been, what was it-- five? In 1899?

The odd thing about immortality, as he liked to tell George, was that it sometimes made you feel so bloody old. "You've got quite a few things coming up in your lifetime," he said, "Radio isn't too far away now." He nodded his head at the TV. "It's like having a cinema in your home," he said, which was much like he'd understood it at the time. "But with theatre, and song. Like variety."

Re: Introductions

[bitten_notshy]

A hundred and twenty years was an eyeblink; Mitchell should see how old he felt after another eight or nine centuries had passed, to go by Sebastien's lectures.

"Like filmed vaudeville?" Jack echoed, staying with the terms he understood since they seemed to be on firmer ground there. "I can't imagine having it come to you, instead of having to go out to see it. People really watch it all the time?"

He liked the cinema and plays as much as anyone; he just couldn't quite grasp either as an everyday thing.

Re: Introductions

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

"I'm Penelope Wilhern," she began quietly. "I'm sixteen and my only experience with television is what I've seen of it here. And I was in the Movie Appreciation class last semester. We had a small television at home used for security purposes."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"Hi, Penelope," Mitchell returned with a little smile. "So your home universe does have television? Or is it just security cams?"

Re: Introductions

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

"Yes, sir, we do. I'm from England, present year," she answered, respectfully. "So televisions were everywhere, I suppose. Just not in my home."

Re: Introductions

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine had her feet drawn up carefully on the couch, soles of her shoes not actually touching the upholstery. "I'm Francine Peters, and I'm seventeen now. I don't think we ever didn't have a tv in our house, except maybe when I was a baby, before we moved to Texas. I love it, especially dorky older sci-fi shows like Bitterwoman and Galaxy Quest."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"Francine, welcome," he said, grinning. "We'll see about some of that dorky sci-fi in class, then. Have you met anyone from space?"

The last was with genuine (somewhat dorky) curiosity.

Re: Introductions

[wantstodirect]

"I'm Tony Foster, I'll be eighteen in a month and I've watched a lot of television. Really a lot. Classics and modern. The older stuff's a lot slower paced, but I like seeing how they used the cameras and lighting back then. I mean, you can see this whole evolution of-" Tony paused, realizing he was rambling on. "Sorry. I like TV a lot."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"Wouldn't have noticed if my life depended on it," Mitchell assured him, seriously. "In this classroom, we will all love the TV. It's law."

Re: Introductions

[wantstobehuman.livejournal.com]

It took George a moment to realise it was his turn, when it came around to him; he'd been too busy examining the material of the couch he was on, and wondering where he could find the nearest IKEA -- if this was going to be a class about TV, there needed to be a much better television stand. And tables! Oooh, and couches, new couches would be good, and tables to go with them, and maybe they could do matching curtains for the windows!

"Oh! Uh. I'm George," he said, as he clued in that it was his turn. "And I'm seventeen. I guess you could say I've got a lot of experience with television? At least modern stuff. I don't really know the classics or anything."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell knew that look. Mitchell was not going to IKEA.

"Hi, George," he said anyway. "So what would you define as classics?"

He might have had found a reservoir of mock for that statement.

Re: Introductions

[puppy_fair]

"I'm Zack Fair, fifteen years old, and my experience with the television is..." Zack tilted his head, thinking that over. Thinking was hard. So was sitting still in order to watch television. This was going to be an interesting class. "I used to watch it back in my hometown, to catch the news reports on SOLDIERs and heroes in the big city. So I guess you could kind of say that what I saw on the television helped to inspire where I'm taking my life, now."

Hence the uniform. Thing. Uniform thing. Purple turtleneck.

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"So you're a news guy, Zack," Mitchell said, thoughtfully. "We can use a few news guys. Welcome. You're a soldier?"

Re: Introductions

[fabulous-secret.livejournal.com]

"I am Adora," she said, smiling. "I'm sixteen years old and my only knowledge of television comes from making a sports program last semester and watching E-S-P-N in the common room."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"ESPN's no good," he told her, grinning. "Welcome, Adora. We'll enlighten you. What's for entertainment in your world?"

Re: Introductions

[heromaniac]

"Momoko Akatsutsumi, 16!" Momoko jumped to her feet with a grin. "And we've always had TV! My mom and dad have been buying me and my sister dvds for as long as I can remember. I was excited when I got here to find so many different shows."

Re: Introductions

[chosehumanity]

"We've got a few," Mitchell said, with false modesty. Her enthusiasm was infectious, to say the least. "But that means we've got more reason to watch a lot of it."

Also, you got bored, given enough years.