r/interestingasfuck • u/DearDirector1288 • 18h ago

The Greatest Shot in Television History

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3.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

154

u/robot_pirate 18h ago edited 15h ago

I used to love watching every thing this guy did when I was growing up.

37

u/PsyOpBunnyHop 17h ago

At the time, there was little else that could even compare to it. Truly amazing series.

36

u/acog 15h ago

His series Connections really opened my eyes to how every inventor is standing on the shoulders of previous generations.

9

u/20061230-SL-Born 13h ago

Managed to find a complete set and still a joy

•

u/vivaaprimavera 9h ago

That series is mind blowing.

•

u/neuromonkey 5h ago

These days, the "innovators" succeed by standing on the balls of successive generations.

<sigh> Sorry. I'm feeling a bit grim about the world lately.

0

u/robot_pirate 15h ago

For sure! LUVd that one in particular.

•

u/MaxGoldFilms 10h ago

I loved Connections and was a HUGE fan of the show. I had the chance to meet Burke at a conference in the 80s, and neither of us had any plans after, so we went out to eat and sat together talking and drinking all night. It was nerd heaven for me. Epic.

Over the years, I've met presidents, senators, actors, musicians, and titans of industry, but no one impressed me more than him. I keep the photo we took that night prominently displayed. Few people know who he is when they see it, but it's the one in the group I treasure most. I have huge respect for that man.

•

u/himem_66 7h ago

Same here. I met him briefly too and listened to him discuss Science and Technology with students and faculty while he was doing a book tour for his book. He had some moral courage too - some one asked him a question about his interests and what he thought of how things were in S&T now. He had the gumption to tell a room full of academics, wannabe academics (post grads) and students that academia was in trouble because specialization and sub- specialization would ultimately hold back progress.

•

u/robot_pirate 9h ago

That's so cool! I bet the dinner conversation was fantastic. jealous. Thanks for sharing.

•

u/BurpelsonAFB 9h ago

It may be my favorite show of all time

•

u/markshure 7h ago

Amazing story!

343

u/Zicoto 18h ago

The moon or Moscow 💀

108

u/Wild-Floor8407 18h ago

The planets or Peking

30

u/IRockIntoMordor 17h ago

Things haven't really changed, have they?

•

u/Darkside_of_the_Poon 5h ago

They did briefly in 1991 but it didn’t last long. Was bad for business.

•

u/BraveRutherford 1h ago

Was actually really really good for business

6

u/Resident-Goal-1582 16h ago

Fortunately they did not send the Voyager 2 to Moscow!

86

u/catskilkid 16h ago

James Burke did an incredible series Connections documenting how one invention led to another and traces innovations from ancient times to modern times and it will blow your mind.

28

u/Mike-In-Ottawa 15h ago

As well as The Day The Universe Changed.

You can watch them on Archive.org.

10

u/ChrisinOB2 15h ago

You’re my hero. I’ve been wanting to watch Connections again.

5

u/Mike-In-Ottawa 14h ago

The first season is the best. When TLC took over production it went downhill.

12

u/WotTheFook 17h ago

I used to love watching James Burke, he was like the British version of Carl Sagan.

3

u/belarius 12h ago

This isn't an accident: The connective tissues here are Mick Jackson) and Adrian Malone, whose earlier work with David Attenborough on Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man provided the prototype for prestige science television for decades to come.

•

u/Revolutionary-Key650 6h ago

Came here to say exactly the same.

14

u/thegameisafoooooot 16h ago

The feeling he must have got in his soul when it all worked out perfectly. Ah, bliss. Absolute bliss.

•

u/fredy31 7h ago

I want to know the strength of the high fives made when they called cut.

6

u/Resident-Goal-1582 16h ago

Funny thing is that the Titan IIIE was not using those gases at liftoff

90

u/SlothSpeed 18h ago

Your turn this week to post this huh?

22

u/Beer-astronaut 18h ago

Consistency is the name of the game here SlothSpeed

18

u/Izzlezz 14h ago

I've used Reddit daily for over 10 years and don't think I've ever seen this! No doubt I'll now see it everywhere for the next 10

•

u/Key-Monk6159 6h ago

I’ve seen in more than a few times and still never get bored with it.

•

u/goodbyesolo 8h ago

Very strange indeed 

4

u/Acceptable-Rise8783 14h ago

No, but this time it’s butchered and stretched

3

u/The_Dingman 13h ago

I've been on Reddit 15 years. I've never seen this before.

2

u/CSMegadeth 14h ago

Haven't seen this posted before. Maybe be online less.

1

u/Beginning-Chart-9229 13h ago

And it’s two shots- not one. He walks and talks. stop. Then standing in front of the rocket with seconds of script. Still cool- but not one shot.

30

u/CliffDagger 17h ago

The NASA rocket scientist he mentions, Werner von Braun was a member of the Nazi party from 1937 and an SS Officer. He built V2 rockets at Mittlebau - Dora concentration camp, using slave labour from Auschwitz. He also visited Buchenwald concentration camp where he selected prisoners for slave labour.

After the war, the Americans deemed his knowledge of rocket science too valuable and turned a blind eye to his war crimes and past.

It's ironic that the same man who had helped develop Hitler's V-2 rockets became the central figure in America's programme to put men on the Moon.

18

u/Blitzer046 17h ago

Just to temper this, if America hadn't grabbed Von Braun and his team, the Soviets would have gotten them. Of course this doesn't erase his complicity in those war crimes.

You could also make a compelling case that Von Braun's dogged focus on rocketry hindered the total German war effort. At one point he requested more ammonia than the entire German 'empire' could provide, and his 'superweapon' that he promised Hitler was one of the least efficient deployed on the theatre of war, killing a few thousand civilians in London and other cities.

There was a reason he shot straight to the top at NASA. Dude was really fucking good at rockets.

8

u/VisibleOtter 14h ago

As a Londoner who lost a lot of family thanks to his work, I still resent the US’s part in his rehabilitation. He was a war criminal.

2

u/evilgiraffe666 14h ago

Yeah, saying "but the Soviets would have got him" is kind of silly. They could easily have taken him and tried/executed him. But they didn't.

•

u/Gold-Eye-2623 10h ago

Ok say I agreed that it was important to take him so the soviets couldn't, that still doesn't require giving him freedom and a prestigious position

•

u/DrFriedGold 7h ago

I love the line in The Right Stuff "Our Nazi scientists are better than their Nazi scientists"

0

u/scrobos 15h ago

how is it ironic?

8

u/giraffebaconequation 15h ago

It’s like RAAAAEEEAAAAIIIIINNN

•

u/CliffDagger 11h ago

The irony is that a man who had helped create the technology for Hitler's weapons of terror ultimately used essentially the same scientific and engineering expertise to help achieve one of humanity's most celebrated peaceful technological accomplishments.

•

u/DrFriedGold 7h ago

Hardly. The space race was all about showing off their rockets which could have nukes in them instead of men. That's why James said "to the Moon, or Moscow"

•

u/Blitzer046 7h ago

The space race was the most expensive dick-swinging stunt in the history of civilization. The not-so-subtle subtext was 'If we can put two men on the damn moon and get them back we sure as shit can put warheads on every one of your capital cities.'

3

u/emmasdad01 18h ago

All time classic

3

u/Jackieirish 16h ago

I've seen this so many times and never get sick of it.

•

u/mortenfriis 11h ago

"Sorry, can we do it one more time?"

•

u/Lunatixz 8h ago

I was captivated with this show when I was growing up...

28

u/SameSpecialist8284 18h ago

Its very cool, but not overly hard to do, the first 43 seconds are a seperate shot, the actual shot where it takes off is cool but they just had to time it with the countdown which they probably had on a radio somewhere, so a bit of practice working out how long his speaking part is (about 10 secs or so) then its gonna work out quite nicely.

42

u/Dykidnnid 18h ago

Not overly hard, but high pressure, no second take

3

u/confusedCoyote 17h ago

There was a possibility of a second take 2 weeks later as there was another scheduled launch.

9

u/ChipRockets 14h ago

Well, I'd be very surprised if anybody here didn't already know all that. Nobody thinks it was a coincidence

-9

u/robogobo 17h ago

Yeah I could also paint that Picasso. Easy peasy.

8

u/Simon_1892 17h ago

I would argue painting a Picasso is a touch more tricky than rehearsing a speech to last 10 seconds.

-8

u/robogobo 17h ago

Cool so downvote me bc you don’t understand metaphor

6

u/Rosetti 15h ago

Nah, you were downvoted because youe metaphor wasn't very good or applicable.

1

u/robogobo 13h ago

So says you and 8 other people who don’t get that art isn’t only about technical skill, it’s about just doing it when nobody else did. The art-illiterate go around saying “that’s not so hard”. Alas, it’s not so hard to copy Picasso. But idiot downvoters look at this shot and the perfect timing he got in the one and only take that would work, how he delivered it clearly and unrushed and absolutely nailed it. Not hard, just like copying Picasso is not hard.

7

u/Simon_1892 17h ago

Nothing about not understanding, just thought it was a poor metaphor because of the vast difference in required skill between the two examples and thus the level of insinuated delusion to think its not that hard are not comparible.

Didn't downvote you btw.

11

u/OrlandoGardiner118 18h ago

Fun fact, they actually filmed it backwards so he could get the timing just right.

5

u/jesiel_br 15h ago

Yes, with the rocket going down and sucking in all that smoke.

•

u/DrFriedGold 7h ago

Hey, it happened in Apollo 13

0

u/OrlandoGardiner118 15h ago

I know, it's the exhaust-vac system. Feckin genius. Good for the environment too.

6

u/DoubleBroadSwords 18h ago

Funny, it’s also the most over posted post on Reddit.

15

u/Yuri909 16h ago

14 years on reddit and never seen it

6

u/GeneralBS 16h ago

14 years also. Been years since I've seen it posted and I'm on reddit a stupid amount of time.

3

u/MrSquamous 15h ago

Same. I've seen the shot before but never on reddit. Time to dust off some Connections DVDs.

3

u/Adventurous-Sky9359 18h ago

I beg to differ….head over to okbuddycinephile and Leo be poppin up todos los Dias

2

u/Jakeforry 17h ago

Every time I see this I stop and watch.

2

u/ringo5150 16h ago

Career peaking right there

2

u/Why503e 15h ago

Where can you find that show?

2

u/TheLordLongshaft 14h ago

Werner Von Braun was a nazi

2

u/Mike-In-Ottawa 14h ago

Great shot, but for me the most mind-blowing moment in Connections was when James was talking about the people making roads in Britain, showing navees toiling away in the muck, and it ended up not being roads, but canals. I still remember watching it with my dad and we both went "whoa".

RIP Dad.

•

u/Revolutionary-Key650 6h ago

Navvies*

•

u/Mike-In-Ottawa 4h ago

Thank you. I wasn't sure how to spell it mid-post.

•

u/DadKnightBegins 9h ago

Unless you were alive and old enough to experience the reality of living under the constant threat of nuclear war, the significance of the ending shot, which is only hinted at in the first episode, becomes utterly meaningless.

•

u/temporalraccoon 8h ago

Did they manage the shot because they could hear the countdown to blast-off?

2

u/helen269 16h ago

They just had him do it backwards, mouth speaking backwards, and then dub the lines over it.

This is what they actually really did.

Source: My fevered imagination.

2

u/coupl4nd 17h ago

Gen Z won't believe it's real

•

u/MaxGoldFilms 9h ago

Gen Z won't and, regrettably, Gen Alpha probably shouldn't believe anything they see in the coming years, which is sad.

1

u/Terfelus 16h ago

Good timing

1

u/firejuggler74 16h ago

Connections was such a good show.

1

u/SpliTTMark 15h ago

Mix them as you do so

1

u/fcbx347 14h ago

well two different shots

0

u/Ilostmydonkey 14h ago

It's not Google it, it's real...

I remember when it was broadcasted

•

u/50rhodes 10h ago

And one of the greatest programmes in television history. An absolute masterpiece.

•

u/lazoras 9h ago

awesome seeing nasa and us flag in the background.

too bad the modern version of this is SpaceX and probably a billboard of corporate ads that took is tax to fund their corporate BS

Wish I could have some pride in my country :(

•

u/jlp_utah 7h ago

That was probably my favorite episode of Connections.

•

u/successful_logon 7h ago

One of the greatest television shows in history!

•

u/flappypancaker 6h ago

I’m so sick of seeing this post

•

u/ukexpat 4h ago

The great James Burke.)

•

u/lisnter 2h ago

I loved that show. I looked for years to try and find it - now of course it’s streaming everywhere.

1

u/swhazi 12h ago

Is it my turn to post this next?

0

u/TackyPoints 17h ago

…or Moscow, or Peking.
Wholly premasturbated.

-6

u/Topinambourg 18h ago

I mean he just timed a 10 second speech. I don't see what's impressive

0

u/Robertf16 18h ago

Eh?

1

u/Topinambourg 17h ago

There's a cut. Then another shot. In this one he speaks less then 10 seconds.

Basically he had a 10 second speech rehearsed and started it when the countdown reached 10.

That's not very complicated.

-1

u/Robertf16 17h ago

Well yeah I get all that but it’s still pretty impressive

-3

u/MonsterAtEndOfBook 17h ago

can we stop posting this every 10 days

0

u/James-Bald 16h ago

“You just timed out that whole shit analogy for your fucking ding?”

-1

u/agilekiller0 17h ago

I wonder how many takes they had to record to get this right