"Y2k - The Movie" : Much ado about nothing?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Electric Utilities and Y2K : One Thread

Over the past few months, there's been a lot of discussion in Y2k circles about the upcoming television movie, "Y2k - The Movie", scheduled to air on NBC this coming Sunday. In my experience as a connoisseur of bad TV, I do not recall a time in television history where an event that is sure to happen on a given date (such Y2k) was given a fictional screen treatment in advance of the event. Even more so, with most TV movies where there is controversy, the government / business / industry backlash usually comes from the perception of an inaccurate rendering of historic events, not the rendering of an event yet to come. However, with "Y2k-TM", we're seeing a response to advance airings of this movie that really floors me. Business and industry trade groups as divergent as Edison Electric Institute and the American Bankers Association have been lobbying NBC and its affiliates long and hard to either a) squash the movie entirely, or b) air specific disclaimers throughout the showing...

***** Read the complete article at Energyland.net *****

-- Anonymous, November 18, 1999

Answers

Indeed, it's as if both gov't and industry are saying, "bad movie, bad, BAD movie...don't watch, DON'T WATCH". Hmmmmm?????

-- Anonymous, November 18, 1999

Uh oh Rick, Now we can say "Rick Cowles consulted on this movie" as engineers laugh at the very beginning when an F18 (?) falls out of the sky.

Seriously, I read your article in full, and I can empathize with you on your frustrations with Hollywood's unwillingness to incorporate the realities of technology into movies and TV shows. I believe that this is indicative of our nation as a whole - we require the teaching of physics, science, or technology in our high schools OR liberal arts colleges to any significant degree.

What mystifies me even further is that your story is not uncommon - I know of a number of occurances where technical expertise was provided yet ignored by the screenwriters. Its as though most screenwriters were educated by TV....and that may indeed be the case.

Too bad, I have no doubt that your input would have provided at least a scenario where there was at least a remote possiblity that something could occur - such as problems in the plant monitoring computer, followed by perhaps human error by the Operators...I think that together, all of us in this forum could have written a good script, lol.

As far as the industry and government response to the movie, well, the worry over public panic is silly, the public doesn't even panic until they KNOW a disaster is going to strike. My opinion is "this should be a funny movie....where's the popcorn"?

Regards,

-- Anonymous, November 19, 1999


FactFinder,

"...we require the teaching of physics, science, or technology in our high schools OR liberal arts colleges to any significant degree."

Was that a typo? Are you saying that all the wailing and lamintations about the shoddy education America's children is getting is hype? That the tests done in recent years that revealed that the US is dead last, or close to it in math and the physical sciences are wrong?

Just curious.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 1999


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