Ephemera Made Permanent
by Tod Mesirow
I mostly make television. the kind people today often call reality television. I used to object to the nomenclature, considering an Orwellian use of the word. but I’ve come to accept that anything created for television is real. it becomes real. it shapes reality. and in the early days of my work I thought what I made was largely ephemera - it was on, and then it was gone. I would and still do save copies of my programs. but they were not readily available elsewhere after they had aired, been broadcast, on television. then came cable. everything ever made was suddenly available again. entire channels existed to re-show things that had been seen before. then came the internet. it’s possible for everything ever made to be seen whenever one wants to see it. storage seems infinite, universal access is completely possible. now the insubstantial fleeting moments of television of the old days has become the constantly growing massive amount of output of today, always available everywhere. reality is shaped and re-shaped as people watch, create, mash-up, and uncover a new reality. with apologies to Descartes, if it’s on television, it is real.
creator, Wired Science, with Wired Magazine, for PBS
executive consultant, Smash Lab, for Discovery Channel
exec. producer, Ultimate Car Build-Off, Discovery Channel
exec. producer, Top Gear pilot, for NBC, for the BBC
exec. producer, Overhaulin’ for TLC
show runner, Mythbusters for Discovery Channel
co-exec. producer, Monster Garage, for Discovery Channel
