We all have ideas. Some big; some not. Below is one of mine. It’s a proposal for a show about writing. About 16 years ago, I gave it to WUSF, owned and licensed by the University of South Florida, where I graduated in 1977.
I hand-delivered the proposal along with a video-tape containing an episode of the Food Network’s “Good Eats” featuring Alton Brown. I’d included Brown’s show because its format was varied and lively, using props, an ensemble of clever characters, unexpected camera angles, and smart, sharp, hip editing. That’s the kind of spark and energy I wanted for my show, tentatively titled “Wordsmith.”
In the holy-of-holies of my heart-of-hearts, I wanted to be the scribe equivalent of Julia Child, author of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” the larger-than-life personality who emerged from the primordial soup of public broadcasting to become the prototypical TV cook.
Here’s my proposal — along with a bit of editing here and there.
Proposal for a New Program: ‘Wordsmith’ (Circa 2005)
Public Broadcasting has a rich heritage of helping its viewers enrich their lives through programs that do more than just entertain: They teach. Whether the subject is music, food, fitness or sewing, the list is deep and wide. Here is just a sampling:
- “Play Piano in a Flash”
- “Sewing with Nancy”
- “Terry Madden’s Wonderful World of Watercolor”
- “Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way”
- “Sit and Be Fit”
- “Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs”
- “Quilt Central”
These programs are engaging as well as informative — and they are interactive, in the best sense of that word: People watch, wonder and then work, whether it’s water-coloring a scene from the great northwest or re-creating a quilting technique from early American sewing traditions. Such shows are part of what makes Public Broadcasting the treasure that it is. The pioneering aspect of these efforts were never more apparent than with Julia Child who altered and affected generations of viewers after her humble start at WGBH in Boston on Feb. 11, 1963.
Today there is an entire cable network devoted to food, with slick kitchens, lively music, and high-tech appliances, so it seems quaint now to watch clips from the early days of “The French Chef,” with its flickering black and white images of a tall woman chumming around the kitchen making food (and mistakes) for all to see — in real time and with real charm. Who knew?
The Food Network recently presented a special program honoring Julia that featured many of its chief cooks and chefs, who are now culinary superstars in their own right. But in the presence of their mentor, they melted. Who would have thought that the tiny broadcasting seed planted in that modest Boston kitchen studio would have grown so far and large in stature and influence.
It happened because someone had the faith and foresight to give it a chance.
Cooking. Sewing. Playing piano. Working out. These are just a few of the topics spotlighted by Public Broadcasting shows. Are there other, not yet chosen, topics worthy of consideration? Of course. But someone must take that initial risk of being the first to invest time and resources on a subject that at first blush might not appear to have broad appeal. (Conversely, who could have imagined that a niche cooking show would succeed, let alone inspire an army of imitators.)
To that end, I propose a writing show. An interactive writing show. Not a show about books, though books will be featured. Not a show about authors, though they will be interviewed and discussed. No, this is a show where viewers are engaged, and challenged, to write.
Each week the show will focus on a given topic (a person, place, or thing). At the end of the show, a writing assignment and deadline will be given. Viewers will then work on the assignment and submit it to a specified Web site, where they will be registered as a user.
At the end of the week, the “private” writing assignments will be “published,” (that is, made public for all to see) so the community of writers watching the show can contrast and compare their interpretation of that week’s assignment with that of their colleagues.
(A provision might be made that participating writers leave comments re: their colleagues’ work.)
With the previous assignment closed, the next show is presented: A different topic (person, place, or thing) is spotlighted, a new assignment given; the process is repeated.
I believe such a show (working title “WordSmith”) is timely. The National Commission on Writing has noted that “we must improve the quality of writing in our schools if students are to succeed in college and in life.”
Bob Costas, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning broadcast journalist, put it this way: “Good writing is essential for almost any career, and with today’s advanced technology, the need to write well has never been more important.”
Dr. Rudolf Flesch wrote a ground-breaking best-seller in 1955 titled “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” It changed many people’s lives and attitudes. There is not sufficient space and time here to delve into Flesch’s substantial methodology, but the essence of his approach was founded in common sense, summarized by this quote: “Johnny couldn’t read for the simple reason that nobody ever showed him how.”
That, I might add, is also why Johnny can’t write.
Teachers teach about nouns and verbs. Sentences and spelling. Paragraphs and punctuation. These are important. They should and must be taught. But teaching writing that focuses only on these essential elements is like teaching architecture by studying nails and hammers.
Consider this: One can learn more about architecture in one minute walking through Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” (voted “the best all-time work of American architecture” by the American Institute of Architects) than one can learn in a full hour waltzing around Home Depot.
But how do you take the act of writing, hardly a visual medium, and convert it into a captivating teleVISION program? Perhaps we do not now have such a show simply because it cannot be done. Or perhaps …
Once again Dr. Flesch offers simple, yet elegant counsel: “Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done.”
I passionately believe that a well-crafted, high-energy, tightly focused program in conjunction with a well-designed, interactive Web site, would produce a pioneering effort that would not only benefit viewers who directly engage in the weekly writing assignments. I believe that such a show (done well) would send ripples and waves of quality communication over, on, through and within families, communities, schools, businesses and houses of worship.
Helping people to seek and set free the oft elusive voice that laughs or cries in the shadows of their soul is liberty and liberating in and of itself. What a wondrous journey upon which to embark. A generation from now, others might look back and see our efforts as quaint as those of “The French Chef” or the Wright brothers’ fragile-winged flight at Kitty Hawk. What joy …
Better to look back and see that (win or fail) than to turn aside and see nothing at all, except for the side-glanced, shadowed lurk of what might have been — had we but tried.
NOTE: Jim Lamb is a former reporter and copy desk editor for The Tampa Tribune. He was also a section editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is a graduate of the University of South Florida, having attended that school on the GI Bill after serving in the United States Navy, including a brief stint in Da Nang, Vietnam.
PS: Never heard back from USF about the bundle that I dropped off. Called them several times. No response. To get a taste of what I was trying to accomplish with Wordsmith, please listen to audio versions of my “Literary Gems” at https://radio-joyonpaper.com/jim-lamb-literary-gems/
