In one of the most talked about upcoming shows in the science community, Neil deGrasse Tyson is set to be the host of a revival of the classic television show Cosmos. Tyson is an astrophysicist, and has devoted his life to the world of science.
The series originally aired in the 1980, and at that time, it was hosted by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan. Neil deGrasse Tyson was in graduate school at the time, but before that, he had seen Sagan speak at Cornell University while in high school.
He recalls that story on the first episode of the revival of the series. He also mentioned that “We’re not trying to duplicate [Sagan] or that series. We’re creating a whole new series but in the same spirit of the original.”
In addition to Tyson, the show will be bringing in another name that perhaps more people will be even more familiar with, as Seth MacFarlane will serve as the executive producer. While MacFarlane is known for his humor for shows like Family Guy and American Dad, and films such as Ted, he is also a strong proponent of science, and liberal politics.
Producer Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow, had worked for over seven years, along with Mitchell Cannold and writer Steven Soter, in order to revive the series. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane have both worked hard to promote the show, and Fox clearly wants to draw in the viewers since the new series will debut not just on Fox’s main broadcast station, but on nine other Fox cable channels including the National Geographic Channel, FX, Fox Life, and even two Fox Sports networks.
Sagan’s popular PBS series, which will keep the same format, with updated information, was a highly influential, and informative science based show that was originally titled Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The updated version is called Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey.
Neil deGrasse Tyson likes to maintain a stable presence on social media outlets, and in addition to his main page on Facebook, he also maintains an alternate page called Tysonism, which is categorized as a church/religious organization on his page. Tyson has also appeared on numerous television talk shows including Realtime With Bill Maher, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report, to name a few.
The show is set to premiere on Fox on Sunday, March 9th, and the host continues to go crazy about it on his social media outlets. In addition to his social media rants on Twitter about films like Gravity, and the way that he keeps up posting at such a rate on both Twitter and Facebook, he is also the director of the Hayden Planetarium.
Cosmos will explore the origins,and evolution of the universe, using a mix of CGI, animation and live shots of Tyson on the Ship of Imagination, which was taken from the original series. People will also be able to see some extraordinary sights, as it will be filmed in more than 30 countries around the world.
I hope everyone watches Cosmos, this Sunday on Fox. The America I want to live in loves and celebrates this show.
— Spencer Porter (@porters) March 5, 2014
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) March 6, 2014
The show will air for 13 episodes, and is presented by Fox, a network that MacFarlane has worked with for years. Who is excited for the new series?
Image via Wikimedia Commons
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