Fandom High School

"We are nearing the end of our time together," Mitchell started. He was seated on the back of his own couch, lounging in his own way, and still looking fairly relaxed and happy. "So you'll all have to kiss each other off and say goodbye for good. At least 'till you run into each other on the stairs when you head back home from class."

He gestured to the TV, which was now set up in the middle of the room. "We started off this class trying to teach you a few things about television as a medium, but also just... something to watch. So I'd like you to tell me - have you found yourself watching at all during this course? Did you have fun, or was it boring? Do you have a favourite program? Was it what you expected? What did you look for in a program to begin with? Would you recommend it to anyone else? Who were your favorite characters, that sort of thing. Or did you not like it at all, and have you played the avoidance game?" He paused. "And then I'll judge you all ruthlessly. Better start cowering behind your sofas."

He grinned. "Then as a final treat," he finished, "I've got one last thing to show you, so don't run out. I'm sure all the alcohol and teenage flirtation can hold for another twenty minutes."

Mitchell had sprawled back in an armchair of his own today. If he looked visibly relieved to be here, well-- back home wasn't exactly pleasant at the moment.

"Today, we'll be discussing recent television," he started, "It's faster-paced than it was in the old days, cut more rapidly, making its departure from the theatre. Some say it's because our cultural attention span has gotten so short. Some say it's simply because we can absorb more information than we did previously. I'm not a scientist, I can't tell you which one it is, but I can tell you that modern standards of comedy seem to have fallen quite a bit."

"The television medium is much more scattered now. There's far more channels than in the past, when at best you'd get five or six. Now, you can watch a hundred different things or more, geared towards your tastes, wishes, and expectations. Cooking channels, comedy channels, news channels. Anything you might want to learn, anything you might want to follow, anything you might want to have fun with? It's there on the TV. Just a click of the remote away."

He went into a bit of a routine about sci-fi and fantasy channels and fiction, but it was a bit sketchy. "Science fiction and fantasy have grown popular as a genre nowadays," he said, "After a stint of being mostly ignored. Basically, they're the same kind of thing: speculative fiction. Except science fiction is about the future, and fantasy is about an imagined past. With dragons, that kind of thing." He smiled. "Then there's the sitcom. Developed back in the 50s, perfected in the 80s. Situational comedy. A cast of characters operating from the same 'situation', like a drama with jokes. It's often about the dialogue."

He pointed at the TV with the remote. "Today, we'll be watching different channels. You'll discuss what defines each and every one of them. What are the most obvious visual markers? Who does the channel seem to be geared at? Would you watch it on your own?"

"Now we've talked about a lot of the more human parts of television. The watching, the shows, that kind of thing. But I can imagine that some of you have come into this class wondering just how we manage to stuff these images in a box in the first place."

Mitchell looked a bit more frazzled after the weekend - but he wasn't going to go into any of that. Not in front of his class. "Now we'd had film cameras for much longer at this point, of course. Using reflected light to burn images into a film strip very fast, so that if you played them back to back they'd look like something was moving."

He cracked a slight smile. "The history of television technology is a lot more muddled than that. A lot of different factors went into it: whether the people were ready for the idea of having film in the house, the willingness of companies to actually create and distribute TV sets, even though they might be sold at a loss or cut into their own profits, and the constant struggle for who got this patent or that."

"Depending on who you ask, people will answer the question of who invented television with any number of names, and I'm not going to go into them - it's confusing enough to us who've lived with the thing for the past few decades. The central problem of the TV was this: we do have these images on film, but how do they get to the people at home? You can't just send them in over the mail, that wouldn't work. At the same time, radio was very popular back then - which is a bit like TV but only sound, as you've probably found by now. TV had to become a middle ground between film and radio."

Mitchell held up a disk with a number of holes in it. "This is the Nipkow Disc," he said, "One of the first important inventions used for television. It could scan an image by essentially taking a bit of it at a time and casting it at another disc. It never really took off, but it was the start of invention - of what they called 'mechanical' TV. Analogue - you could see it working. The picture was small, and you could only ever achieve between thirty to hundred 'lines' - nowadays, a regular TV manages 525 lines on the screen at the very least. They were planning to use radio waves to project the images of one disc to another over a distance."

"But that technique had its flaws. At the same time, scientists had been working on something called the cathode ray tube since the late 19th century. A man named Boris Rosing first managed to produce an image with it back in 1907. The cathode ray tube is a little hard to explain, but the basic idea is that you've got three little guns that produce light in red, blue and green. You can how much each bit of your image has these colours, and then you communicate that information to TVs with their own three guns. It's... sinot that simple, but that's sort of the idea. If you can find a TV that's not digital, just look at it closely and you'll be able to see all the red green and blue dots of all the cathodes."

He rubbed at the back of his head. "But that's a bit complicated," he said, "Which is why I've brought this dummy." He nudged at the facsimile TV by his feet, which was half-broken-open so anyone could see the insides. "Have at, ask questions, whatever you'd like."

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."( Cut for TL;dr )

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."

"Morning, kids."

Mitchell was in an exceptionally good mood today. "Today, we aren't going to be talking about television. It's something to be watched and enjoyed, not to be spoken of endlessly." Not that he couldn't, mind, but he was making a point. "Next week, I want you all to give a short presentation on what you've gotten to enjoy most out of television. This week, you need to go over there," and he gestured at the large closet full of DVD cases sitting at one end of the classroom, "Or browse the channels in your time off. Find a program that fascinates you, something that inspires you, or makes you laugh. Then tell me about it. Team up if you wish, or do it alone. The way we experience culture can be a very personal thing."

With that, Mitchell tossed himself at his couch, and snagged a bag of crisps. It was possible he'd learned this teaching strategy from Max.

[ ocd up! ]

They were not in a classroom today. In fact, they were in the gym. And there weren't any couches, just very cold, very plastic chairs. The A/C was running on high. There was a flatscreen at the front of the class, which Mitchell was standing in front of - many feet away from the chairs.

He had some wads of cotton plugged up his nose. With his complexion, he figured he could get away with saying he was simply a bit ill. It wasn't that whatever was happening affected him, but it meant that the air was full of pheromones - of desire, want, blood rushing heavily through veins and--( Class under the cut. )

He pointed at the TV with the remote. "Today, we'll be watching different channels. You'll discuss what defines each and every one of them. What are the most obvious visual markers? Who does the channel seem to be geared at? Would you watch it on your own?"

"Today, we're going to be talking about people," Mitchell said, once they'd all filled into the classroom. Anyone paying attention may have noticed the large table full of bags upon bags of crisps off to the side of the room. "People watching television, to be precise." You know, in case they'd thought he was going to talk about something a little less savoury. "Academics call television the 'electronic hearth', because where families used to gather before the fireplace, they started to gather in front of the television instead. It grew very very quickly from being a novelty to being in every household, in every family."

He gestured at the television. "Others call it being couch potatoes," he said, wryly. "People who spend too much time in front of the television. They have a little food, have a little drink, and let the programmes flow on past. Wasting their lives away, never looking for some meaning in life, never bothering to find out who they really are, what the world's really like." He smiled once. "The truth, as it generally is, lies somewhere in the middle. Television nowadays is a unifier, it brings people together, but it also sets them apart."

He wandered over to the table, patting it with his hands. "Now for the fun part," he said, "Snacks are a vital part of the modern television experience. Sometimes, it's entire meals, pizza and Chinese food." Mitchell was a great appreciator of the art. "But at this hour, that may be pushing it. Crisps," he picked up a bag and waved it around, "Are excellent television chow. I want you all to pick what looks like it may taste good, and if you're not sure, ask your fellow classmates about it." He set the bag down. "Today is all about people. About audiences, which we all are when we're watching the television. So go on, make yourself comfortable. Be an audience, meet people, see what the social contexts are all about."

He took a seat on his own couch. "Have fun. That's what television's all about."