What was this crazy show called?
November 10, 2010 4:55 PM
Okay, I have scoured the "Worldwide Web" for YEARS trying to remember the name of a tv series that used to air on TLC back in the 90s (in the days of actual "learning"....). It was a British show--or, at least, the host was British--and it was called something like The Most Amazing Machine or the Incredible Machine or something like that.....
I remember it had a really trippy jazz theme at the beginning of every episode. The vintage seemed to be late 70s/early 80s (could be way off on that one). THe premise of the show was simply to explain in great but extremely accessible detail how everyday machines work. The episode that stands out most strongly in my mind is the one about the fax machine. I recall the guy setting up a primitive, large-scale fax machine in a field (to demonstrate how the technology works, somehow even without electricity).
I loved this show (second only to Connections, of course!), but I simply cannot find any reference to it and all of my friends think I am hallucinating. Please try to soothe my unquiet mind.....
I remember it had a really trippy jazz theme at the beginning of every episode. The vintage seemed to be late 70s/early 80s (could be way off on that one). THe premise of the show was simply to explain in great but extremely accessible detail how everyday machines work. The episode that stands out most strongly in my mind is the one about the fax machine. I recall the guy setting up a primitive, large-scale fax machine in a field (to demonstrate how the technology works, somehow even without electricity).
I loved this show (second only to Connections, of course!), but I simply cannot find any reference to it and all of my friends think I am hallucinating. Please try to soothe my unquiet mind.....
It's a reggae song called "The Russians Are Coming", and the show is called "The Secret Life of Machines".
There is a torrent of it out with the maker's permission. Read more here
posted by pompomtom at 5:02 PM on November 10, 2010
There is a torrent of it out with the maker's permission. Read more here
posted by pompomtom at 5:02 PM on November 10, 2010
I think you might be talking about British illustrator, Tim Hunkin's "Secret Life of Machines" series. Here is the one about fax machines. It was a great series delivered on British TV in the late 80s and early 90s.
posted by rongorongo at 5:13 PM on November 10, 2010
posted by rongorongo at 5:13 PM on November 10, 2010
Wow, you guys are fast! Secret Life....argh! And sorry for the jazz-reggae error--clearly my 9yo self was not terribly discerning. Funny, too, that I know the song now as an adult, but never connected it to the show!
THank you infinitely for finally putting this question to rest and for directing me to a torrent. I can finally prove all my friends wrong....
posted by oohisay at 5:51 PM on November 10, 2010
THank you infinitely for finally putting this question to rest and for directing me to a torrent. I can finally prove all my friends wrong....
posted by oohisay at 5:51 PM on November 10, 2010
Gosh, I don't remember watching this but I used to see Hunkin's cartoons in the Observer when I was little.
"The style doesn’t look too dated, probably because they never really looked like the mainstream TV of the time – even the style of my clothes has remained almost unchanged."
posted by lapsangsouchong at 8:24 PM on November 10, 2010
"The style doesn’t look too dated, probably because they never really looked like the mainstream TV of the time – even the style of my clothes has remained almost unchanged."
posted by lapsangsouchong at 8:24 PM on November 10, 2010
[warm approval]
posted by lapsangsouchong at 8:25 PM on November 10, 2010
posted by lapsangsouchong at 8:25 PM on November 10, 2010
Tim Hunkin is brilliant, charming, & awesome. I've seen & recorded a couple of local presentations of his artwork / machines / arcade games. They're inspirational for DIY-ers, & they kinda make me want to visit his arcade in Suffolk.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:20 PM on November 10, 2010
posted by Pronoiac at 11:20 PM on November 10, 2010
In some ways this series was a sort of protean "Mythbusters" - but with more emphasis on the audience going out and trying things themselves. I like the way that he shot so much of it in a barn complete with a cat wandering over the set every so often. In the early 90s I worked at British Telecom's research laboratories near where Hunkin lives. He came in to give a "families lecture" for the staff who worked there;I recall tagging along with a parent of a suitably aged kid to see the enormous set of cartoons, precarious looking prototypes, things to make and with paper wire and great stories that he brought along to that event.
On this subject you might also enjoy Hunkin's essay, "Technology is what makes us human", on why it is important that engineers do not forget to work with their hands (and on the demise of the kind of technical workshops, full of apprentice-trained technicians, that used to be ubiquitous in universities, art colleges and commercial research labs). In turn he is quoting from this paper by Francis Evans
posted by rongorongo at 2:41 AM on November 11, 2010
On this subject you might also enjoy Hunkin's essay, "Technology is what makes us human", on why it is important that engineers do not forget to work with their hands (and on the demise of the kind of technical workshops, full of apprentice-trained technicians, that used to be ubiquitous in universities, art colleges and commercial research labs). In turn he is quoting from this paper by Francis Evans
posted by rongorongo at 2:41 AM on November 11, 2010
On this subject you might also enjoy Hunkin's essay, "Technology is what makes us human", on why it is important that engineers do not forget to work with their hands (and on the demise of the kind of technical workshops, full of apprentice-trained technicians, that used to be ubiquitous in universities, art colleges and commercial research labs). In turn he is quoting from this paper by Francis Evans
Thank you for this link. I teach a humanities course with a pretty heavy "technology" component, and this essay is absolutely perfect for my students. Maybe it will persuade them that technology did not begin and end with the iPhone.
posted by oohisay at 4:07 AM on November 11, 2010
Thank you for this link. I teach a humanities course with a pretty heavy "technology" component, and this essay is absolutely perfect for my students. Maybe it will persuade them that technology did not begin and end with the iPhone.
posted by oohisay at 4:07 AM on November 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Paragon at 5:01 PM on November 10, 2010