Welcome to Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub!
From Peter Cook to Ricky Gervais and from Upstairs/Downstairs to MI5 (Spooks), the Brits produce some of the best shows on television.
Bill Young
As Vice President of Television Programming at KERA (Dallas/Ft. Worth), I have a job that affords me the opportunity to screen and evaluate much of the available British television catalogue for possible broadcast to American PBS audiences like you. And I think that makes it one of the best jobs in the world. Well, that job just got even better because I can now share All Things British Television with you on a daily basis!
Why now, you ask? Well, several factors caused the stars to align perfectly:
- The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was established 42 years ago.
- British comedy made its U.S. debut on your very own KERA-TV 35 years ago this month with the premiere of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. That very daring decision was made by then Program Director, Ron Devillier, and CEO Bob Wilson.
- The Brits caught on and, today, KERA runs more British comedy than the BBC, thanks, in part, to member support.
- And, of course, there was the invention/ongoing evolution of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Every day is a new day on the Web, so when blogs came along, it didn’t take long for them to evolve into the rich, dynamic, interactive, fan/fanatic get-together meet-up they are today.
Given the above, I am willing to go out on a limb here and say that because PBS, KERA-TV (with your continued support!), the Internet, the WWW and blogs (of some form) are here to stay, it definitely is time for Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub.
So tell your friends and strangers too. Because, in any British pub, a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet. If you like the idea of Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub then email, text, IM, digg, facebook, myspace, Twitter, FriendFeed, Skype, post to delicious, Tumblr, Posterous, etc. to share it with your favorite mates. Or, go old school and ring them up.
Also, follow Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub on Twitter @tellyspotting. Sign up for the RSS feed to be among the first to get latest post. And keep an eye out for our YouTube channel and flickr stream.
Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub really encourages and welcomes your ideas, input, suggestions, questions and ever-so-clever critiques. It’s up to you. Thanks for popping in. Come back often and hang a bit.
Finally, a quick shout out to Stephen Becker and the folks over at Art&Seek for their mention and welcome to the blogosphere. That said, I will leave you with a classic scene from Fawlty Towers. And a question: What’s your favorite bit from Fawlty Towers?
Cheers!
