TSOTAL(The Summer of This Amercan Life) - Episode 1: New Beginnings

Your Radio Playhouse (which eventually becomes This American Life) starts weak compared against the tapestry of TAL as a whole. In the first episode Ira calls Joe Franklin (who many consider to be the father of the modern talk show format), and his mother and father for advice, which is fairly entertaining in a “look behind the curtain” fashion. The meat of the show is a spiritually touching story of a man who decides to live his life as if he were to die in 6 months, and a man wrongfully imprisoned who brought his dream of being a professional musician to reality when his conviction is overturned — split between these great pieces is a rambling, emotionally disconnected pseudo-script based on the true story of a man finding out his HIV status.

In it’s entirety this episode is lacking, but Act One and Act Four really set the stage for classic TAL content.

Rating: 2 out of 5