Talking Faces, Eating Time, and Electronic Catharsis

Talking Faces, Eating Time, and Electronic Catharsis

Marvin Duckler

National Center for Experiments in Television

June 1973

Paper presented at the Conference on Television: Art and Information (Asilomar,California, June 8-10, 1973)

English

Art Expression; Educational Television; Financial Problems; Literary Analysis; Programing (Brcadcast); Public Television; Symbolism; Television; VisualLiteracy

Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Washington, D.C.; National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.

Abstract: Given that public television must often resort to "talking faces" to fill time (because discussion programs are so cheap to produce), consideration needs to be given to how to do this in audience-attracting ways. One particularly useful method is to pattern the discussion on the enduring human ritual of the sacrifice:with the audience as communicants represented by questioners, some highly placed sacrificial victim is called upon to answer for all the inadquacies [sic] of present conditions. (RH)

Duckler, Marvin. "Talking Faces, Eating Time, and Electronic Catharsis." Conference on Television: Art and Information. Asilomar,California, June 8-10, 1973. Print.

Abstract: Given that public television must often resort to "talking faces" to fill time (because discussion programs are so cheap to produce), consideration needs to be given to how to do this in audience-attracting ways. One particularly useful method is to pattern the discussion on the enduring human ritual of the sacrifice:with the audience as communicants represented by questioners, some highly placed sacrificial victim is called upon to answer for all the
inadquacies [sic] of present conditions. (RH)