Cosmos Remake Coming To Fox In 2014

TheSync writes "The long-awaited remake of Carl Sagan's amazing Cosmos series, Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, will be coming to Fox television next year. It will star astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Surprisingly, Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame is an executive producer. MacFarlane was introduced to Carl Sagan's widow Ann Druyan by deGrasse Tyson, and MacFarlane helped them pitch the show to Fox executives."

Comments

Let me guess

[the eric conspiracy]

In the Fox version the Universe is 6000 years old and the Earth is at the center of the Universe.

Re:Let me guess

[T.E.D.]

Think of it as a Neil deGrasse Tyson show done a bit in the style of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

The guy is so enthusiastic and charasmatic that he's a regular vistor on the late-night talk show circuit, and I believe currently holds the record for the most guest appearances on Colbert. He has 1.2 million followers on twitter. I think he's got what it takes to pull this off.

Re:Let me guess

[Dutchy Wutchy]

Michio Kaku sounds a lot like a crackpot on the subject of aliens/UFOs, and his anti-nuclear soundbites seemed irresponsible--or at least quite misleading.

Re:Let me guess

[SirGarlon]

The original show is far out of date. I watched a couple of episodes a few years ago. The visual effects were dated of course, but a lot of the science had gaps as well. When the original Cosmos was produced, the Hubble Space Telescope had not been launched. Exoplanets had not been discovered. The universe was known to be expanding but its rate of expansion was presumed to be decreasing, not increasing. The source of gamma-ray bursts had not been identified. We knew a lot less about black holes. I don't think dark matter was considered important. And, back then, Pluto was a planet. ;-) (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

All that is just off the top of my head. Astrophysics has really advanced since 1980.

Re:Let me guess

[cyberchondriac]

lol.. that would take Billions upon Billions of pixels!

Re:Let me guess

[Pino Grigio]

There's also been quite a lot of new physics and cosmology since 1980. We have Hubble. We have the CMB. We have all kinds of other interesting things...! Tyson is perfect for this. His enthusiasm is infectious (if you've listened to any of his audio books).

Re:Let me guess

[Warbothong]

Astrophysics has really advanced since 1980.

True, and the show also covered much more than Astrophysics. For example its claims that the brain operates using symbolic logic seem dated, since these days we would say the brain is more about statistics. It also covered evolutionary biology and microbiology, fields which have progressed tremendously in recent decades.

I suppose that's the problem when one tries to cover such a broad subject as the Cosmos ;)

Re:Let me guess

[Omestes]

Kaku doesn't really strike me as credible. I'm sure he's a good scientist, but he does too many "time travel wormhole star trek is cool!" pop-sci things to really let me trust him. Tyson reminds me of Sagan, smart and doesn't feel the need to dress things up to sell to the lay audience. Kaku is like Bill Nye, science for people who hate science. Tyson is Mr. Wizard, science for people who just didn't go to school for it but find it cool just because science is cool in-itself.

I suppose thats main difference in how people teach science; one group thinks to be interesting science must DO something. The other school think that the intrinsic "aha" of science is enough to make it interesting. I find the former group to be annoying, and more destructive than useful.

Tyson is willing to let the science talk for itself, without dressing it up. Which makes him Sagan-y enough to reboot something as venerable as Cosmos. He's more likely to let the sheer beauty of the universe talk for itself, without forcing wormholes and time-travel down our throats.

Re:Let me guess

[spire3661]

I think of the Persistence of Memory all the time. It was this chapter that brought the past alive for me. After i read that chapter Jefferson, Newton, Socrates, Aristotle became living men to me. I was able to peer across time through the works of these men and see them as humans. Thats what is great about Cosmos, its much more then an essay on astrophysics.

Re:*sigh*

[Kreigaffe]

From what I understand, if something is even tangentially related to astronomy, and it's possible to bring him in.. people will want to do that, because he's a likeable guy, he's smart and blunt but not demeaning or haughty, he's passionate but relatable, and he's smart AND cool.

Honestly I'd much rather hear his opinion on non-science matters rather than celebrity opinions on anything that isn't acting or singing or sex tapes or whatever else got them famous.

We leave Saturn for the deeper regions of the

[funwithBSD]

cosmos and come upon Uranus...

*giggity giggity goo*

Re:I made an account after 10+ years just to say..

[Ogi_UnixNut]

Heh, funny. I can't stand Brian Cox. I just find his manner irritating, and as a result I don't watch any of the shows he is on.

Just goes to show the variety in peoples tastes, eh? :)

I've not imagined Neil DeGrasse Tyson as a host, but I am willing to give it a shot and see how it goes. Who knows, he might actually be good at it.

As Carl once said...

[freeze128]

"If you wish to make a science show from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

Re:Worst disaster since the Tunguska Incident

[ArcadeMan]

With so many people spinning in their graves, you'd think free energy would be reality by now.

sorry

[wbr1]

Neil you killed Pluto. Fuck you.

Re:This has made my day.

[j00r0m4nc3r]

Not true. It inspires me to change the channel.