I don’t know why I’m going down a James Burke rabbit hole at 3am and watching his programmes, he was someone you trusted when you were growing up, plus that great voice. It’s hard to trust any media in the current times. Thank you James for your great work🫡
Hard to believe this has so few views. I remember when this first aired on PBS back in the early 80s, I guess. It was wonderful then, and still is now.
People today simply want dopamine hits on their social media and aren't smart enough to appreciate how magnificent these James Burke hosted shows were. Loved them as a kid during the 80's watching them on PBS.
The Connections series is under-appreciated. undervalued, and underutilized! It should be: 1. Remastered with improved visual information; 2. Relaunched; 3. Used as starting point for new ConnectedHistory Wiki; 4. Integrated into Middle School and High School History and Science Curriculum; 5. Added to with new episodes incorporating 40± years of new historical discoveries; 6. Celebrated!
I remember watching this show on The Learning Channel when it was actually about learning & not exploiting little people. Loved it! And would love to see the show relaunched w/new episodes. Fascinating stuff.
This is how it should be done. When documentaries just started, straight in with content. Today there would a 2 minute intro telling the viewer what was 'coming up'. Then the program would have numerous recaps, further 'coming up' and finally an end summing up. A 53 min program with just 30 mins of content.
Did you notice it was made by the BBC and an all British crew?. Where do those other kinds of documentary arise from?. Is it maybe "the shallow lands across the Ocean" ?.
I once had the good fortune to interview James Burke just prior to the debut of his series The Day the Universe Changed. A very nice, friendly, intelligent gentleman. His various series on PBS made science so much more accessible and understandable. I miss seeing him on TV.
When my daughter was very young, she asked "How did they make things before they had things?" - a very insightful question about technology. James Burke answers that question with simple elegance.
This series was aired by PBS stations many years ago. I never missed a single episode. The entire series is as fresh and instructive now as it was then. Thank you for making these episodes available.
The connection of narration, visuals, music and background sound is a work of art here. Also, I don't think any of the narration is done in a studio - it's all him on location, edited together flawlessly. I love that sometimes he has to change the volume of his voice, to be heard above the ambient sound [from machinery or whatever] happening on location. This show has all the compelling elements of a drama that glue you to the screen. And to top it off.... a cliffhanger at the end. I had seen all these 40+ years ago, and I'm happy to watch them all again.
It's amazing how informative and educational these shows still are. Honestly, except for the clothes and hairstyles and lack of cell phones it's almost hard to tell they're over 40 years old! I wish we had more content like this on television now.
One thing that struck me was those few moments when someone has the old style telephone handset to their ear and were able to talk to someone else far away. Only rarely can someone do that today (2024). Cellular networks and mobile phones? Lose power for a period of time and the only people you can talk to are those within walking distance. The recent supply chain disruptions have emphasized how globally interdependent we are.
For those who may not know. The budget on these programmes must have been substantial. I was a camera crew back in the day at the BBC, just looking at this shows how large a budget it would have needed. So sad that today you won’t find anything like these wonderfully crafted programmes ever again.
Back in the 70's travel was still special so one assumes BBC threw money at travel to show people these places, like David Attenborough. Educational, not propaganda as now.
One episode shows a house, wasn't sure it was UK or US at first.. But i think it was a new build at somewhere like Milton Keynes that looked a bit American for the US audience.
thanks for that insight - given the couple of comments i read -> before i even watch this - i must state that this is likely one of the few exceptions of what good i may have missed - since i stopped watching TV in 1980 - the same time that personal computers became available ...
From the time when documentaries did not need to rely on hype, CGI nor dramatic re-enactments in order to inform, educate and entertain. Masterful stuff, indeed.
I had tne good fortune to hear him speak in Portland some 30s years ago, where among other topics he spoke of climate changes in ways that we have ultimately seen come to fruition. One of my favorite shows.
An amazing show! And actually James Burke still going strong in 2023 as I just watched his new Connections show on Curiosity Stream. It’s 6 hour long episodes and in each he picks some near future device, like a ‘nano fabricator’ that can make anything, and charts a path through history of how we arrive at it
I just watched the first 1.5 episodes of the 2023 series. "Alexa, find James Burke". It's probably a combination of lower budget and that Burke is 45 years older now, but it wasn't nearly as good as the earlier stuff, in my opinion. A lot of valueless CGI trying to dress it up. The 'connections' were often tenuous at best, and sensational, like Napoleon's toothpick.
@@joevannucci1392 sure you can pick a lot of paths to arrive at his final destination but it’s a well done show and I learned something from each episode while being entertained. I didn’t realize he was 87, he certainly doesn’t look or act like it in the show, more like 70, maybe they used some tech in post to help 😎
@@StreetComp I didn't realize he was 87. Jeez... Objectively, I stand by my first episode observations, but with this in mind, I'm glad he produced it at all!
James Burke, Raymond Baxter, Maggie Philbin, and others, presented a series on the BBC called Tomorrow's World. a series that inspired generations to think!
I just missed seeing Baxter, was doing a book signing in a hanger just feet away, i didn't know. Couple of months later passed away. I would have got him to sign my log book.
Just stumbled across this, and it brought back a flood of memories watching this on PBS in the late 70s and early 80s and how it spurred an entirely new way for me to understand the world around us. Not many people these days are adept at critical thinking nor able to perceive nor understand how everything in our world is interconnected in so many ways. Sad to say that the technological advancements that have come from then to today has had the unfortunate effect of turning the movie "Idiocracy" from a satire to a documentary in the 21st Century.
given the couple of comments i read -> before i even watch this - i must state that this is likely one of the few exceptions of what good i may have missed - since i stopped watching TV in 1980 - the same time that personal computers became available ...
I was in 7th or 8th grade when Connections first aired in the US on PBS (in the years before objectivity was de-prioritized in favor of the omission of inconvenient data) and it riveted me. It's such a well presented trip through history. I benefited from watching it tremendously. I have a 17 year old daughter who is enamored with science and particularly with astronomy. I'm hoping she'll love Connections as much as I do.
Sadly nothing on tv in the 21st century is nearly as good 😢. Btw: if u google if the 1965 power outage hit Maine, it says “no”. I lived in Central Maine at that time and we lost power on that date and just after 5, just as this doc says
@@oobrocks Is that because you don't watch BBC where you live or because you just don't rate the BBC programmes you have seen? For now I'll just example the Planet Earth III broadcast this year.
This was and continues to be one of the touchstones of my life. I still think of it and reference it frequently. I have worked in many different fields and careers in my now 79 years. And although seemingly unrelated fields there were skills that were transferable from one job to another. Much like the connections in this series. There have been a couple of similar programs since but none better than this.
I began prepping after watching this decades ago. A little more canned or dry food in the pantry, but mostly blankets to stay warm, a way to make sure I had water for drinking and cooking. Plus growing plants, container planting. I lived in apartments until late 1990's. Once, during a storm induced blackout, i enjoyed the quiet, reading by fireplace and candles. A gas water heater meant I had hot water for bathing. After 3-1/2 days of peace and quiet, no commute, no worries, just calm restful time and a few chores, city life came back in it's full fury. Ditto when the lockdown happened.
I've been thinking about this series for quite some time since I first saw it and never took the time to research it again.. I'm so happy I have found it again.. I would love to see this redone with updated connections to 2022 👍
This is more than just eerie, it's difficult to look at this and not feel that there was some sort of preprogramming going on. The people whom made it are certainly the kind of people who could have had insider knowledge.
I watched when first broadcast as a kid, along with many other good docs of the time (70's and 80's) from the likes of Horizon, First Tuesday, Your Life in Their Hands, Cosmos, QED etc. But 'Connections' always stood out because of the way James got in your face as the viewer (like that teacher at school who said you at the back!) and did his best to challenge the way you thought.
Omg does that ring true today. With so much information at everyone’s fingertips and yet we are becoming stupider. Kids all pass school without having to actually pass etc. why can’t people see what is happening
I watched this show as a young man. It was one of the few educational shows that was informative, entertaining, and well done (on par with NOVA) and was largely responsible for the piquing of my curiosity, which has never waned.
We were very lucky at my college in Sacramento California, he came and did a speaking engagement for us, feel very lucky to have met him and see him live.
A great show that was needed then and is sorely needed now. I only wish that we had teachers like James when I was in high school or college. I actually met this wonderful man after a lecture and chatted with him for about thirty minutes or so. Best conversation I have ever had with another human being.
Watching this again as adult, it really holds up. The writing is brilliant. Production and recreations (based on real people!) are story-telling and journalism at their best. The long monologues work bc of the set pieces like in the example of the zombie apocalypse highway landscape he walks through. Plus he's great on TV. Genius show.
The Scandinavian flight number (911) is eerie with the images of the towers. Going to take the free trial at CuriosityStream for the 2023 season 🎉❤. History teachers should just play his shows and then have the students branch off and find other connections. Wonderful to see these are still in the ether. Thanks
In spite of his Whiggish view of history, Burke’s The Day the Universe Changed led me study (and eventually teach) the history of science at the university level, where I learned the meaning of such phrases as “the Whiggish view of history”. A genuinely magnificent series by a great man.
I watched this show every time it was on I was hooked. What always blew my mind was how much research would of have been needed to create each episode. I always wondered how many people worked to make the connections .
Mr Burke on Terra Firma and Dr Sagan in the stars! Presenters with engaging personalities and amazing topics! Ageless and just as relevant then as now. Accessible for nearly any age, maybe10 and up. I think Connections should shown to school children. I can’t wait for the New Series on Nov.9! I was very lucky when I found the Connections companion book in a thrift store a few years after watching the series. Thanks, Tim for showing these! I hope you can get the rest of them
Thoroughly agree. And, I envy your copy of the "Connections" companion book! I was only ever to run across a copy of "The Day the Universe Changed" about 30 years ago. Also a good read. Mr. Burke is just awesome in his projects and presentations.
@@gyrene_asea4133 I have TDTUC on my shelves somewhere... I distinctly recall setting it aside when my spouse was on a cleaning purge a few years ago. Now where did I put it....
I Loved The Day The Universe Changed by Burke, I even got the book that went with it, but Connections was good, too! These series showed how development was both linear AND nonlinear. How ideas in one area or field end up influencing and causing change in other areas or fields.
Amazing show I had almost forget about. It plays different now with him walking into the WTC, getting on the elevator, and even on the roof. He is saying how dependent we all are of the things around us while standing inside a building that was destroyed by the very transpiration method that makes the world such a smaller place today. He could have never known how events there made the black out in New York childs play.
I never noticed that he introduces information theory at the very beginning of the series by saying “this thing in my hand (paraphrase) essentially makes this show possible” thanks Claude Shannon.
I saw this when it came out, during my college days. As an electronics engineer, I have this in mind all the time. A CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) can kill all power on the planet, and the satellites, too. Not a happy thought!
I too watched this with my father in the 70's (as a teenager) and have never forgotten any of the James Burke's programs. Before TH-cam, and if living outside the US, you couldn't buy a VHS or later on a DVD for years. I think it was only a decade or so ago I got my hands on the box sets of all shows.
Best.series.ever. I'm so lucky my parents lived this & got me hooked on this when I was a kid & set a great foundation for learning & curiosity ever since!
James Burke's Connections was so important to me that I bought the series on DVD. Little did I realize that some day I would be watching it on my phone, and the DVD player would be gathering dust in the basement.
Ah, but James might say to hold on to that DVD player because you never know if all the telecom companies and internet systems go down...forever (sort of like what happened yesterday with CrowdStrike. The only major airline not affected was Southwest because they're still running Windows 3.1). Personally, I don't like watching anything on my smartphone.
Best to ditch that telephone device, they are taking over peoples souls. I am sick of seeing folk wondering around with their heads buried in them meanwhile the world is going to pot because of the corrupt government and the 1% "elite"
This, along with Bronowski’s “Ascent Of Man”, was an epic educational documentary series. One of the only series that makes one stop and think, “What if?”.
Loved this show. In school we were taught who invented what but this show put it all into perspective and made people aware that nothing is invented or discovered in a vacuum. All inventions were the result or development of previous inventions and knowledge.
When this series first aired, it captivated people. James Burke predicted the future we live in today. The question is could people live without technology going back to the plow and working with their bare hands for their very survival? Some could.
Connections was a groundbreaking series. You learn so much without even realizing it, because it's such a great story he's telling that you're just captivated and absorbed by it.
This series was fire. My favorite was that connected the development of a packet watch by pre-empire British clocksmiths with the subsequent domination of the planet with a globe-spanning empire.
How is that for weird? "...Scandivian nine eleven..." 911. 9/11. -With the World Trade Center as a set. In the 80's. Can I get a whoa? I think the Universe is getting tired, and dysfunctional.
This was 1978 and they did all these preprogramming drops. It's difficult to not think that someone involved with this had some sort of knowledge about what was going to happen in 23 years.
So glad I found this ..or the algorithm suggested it 😂 thanks for uploading this documentary series , itself being an important slice of our technological history 👍
This particular episode was one of the most unsettling, even terrifying, documentaries of all time (until a more recent one about not only our dependence on fossil fuels, but how alleged "green" energy isn't so green after all.....)
20 years ago, I watched my VHS copies of _Connections_ that I had taped off PBS in the late '80s? early '90s? and my gf at the time [who wasn't a fan of documentaries of any type] agreed that they were fascinating & asked if I had more after the 1st episode. That was a good day... Of course, you'd never convince a Millennial or Zoomer to still and watch these, they're "too old:" don't forget their byword: "That's sooo last week!.." 🙄
I’m so glad things like hospitals have back up generators know. There was a huge back out when my wife had a hart attack. The power went out. The equipment went to battery back up then the backup generator fired up No issues at all
Before the feds shut down public access after 9/11 (to arguably negative net effect), one used to be able to visit American dams (and many other places) and go inside many of them to view the turbines and various other inner workings.
I fondly remember these episodes. Came out in ‘78. I grew up in New York so the World Trade Center was going up throughout my childhood. And this was the first episode. Wouldn’t think that some 20 years later they’d be gone. Ironically when they refer to an airliner making its approach its Scandinavian airlines… flight 911!
Um... This episode opens with James Burke at the Twin Towers in New York, and then he proceeds to talk about a flight into Kennedy Airport... flight 911. From a segment filmed sometime in 1978. On a show called "Connections." Perhaps everything is far more connected than we realize. I wonder if his segment on the Blackout and off-grid survival inspired anyone watching this when it first aired to get into doomsday prepping. It got quite dark there for a moment, figuratively, and I was almost expecting him to go on to educate the viewers about the fundamentals of surviving an apocalypse. I mean, he kind of did, but not as thoroughly as one would expect given the subject matter.
I still feel the effect this very episode had on me as a kid, how everything harks back to something very few of us realize, or would know what to do with. When he finally points out the plow in the barn attic - it hits hard that so many people rely on something invented so long ago, and all along how it's been modified and improved, but still a plow. James Burke is the best at making the Connections for us.
Connections is a whole series. Not sure how many episodes overall, but at least three seasons. Burke also produced The Day The Universe Changed. Video series, and a book. Just as good as Connections.
if you watch any one of the 'Connections" programs and you find yourself asking, "Why do I need to know all (or any of) this stuff?" neither I nor James Burke can answer your question intelligently. If on the other hand, you feel that you can't wait for the next segment, you have a rich intellectual life and you are likely never to be bored in your life. These are not How-To manuals: rather they are mind-chargers, akin to batteries: good for your soul, but probably not useful around the water coolers. Thanks, James Burke: My soul rejoiced!
I don’t know why I’m going down a James Burke rabbit hole at 3am and watching his programmes, he was someone you trusted when you were growing up, plus that great voice. It’s hard to trust any media in the current times. Thank you James for your great work🫡
He was full of capitalist shit!
I relate to that sentiment exactly.
Predictive programming !
4am here, just found my new obsession for the next week!
@@aidy6000 Cool 🙂🇬🇧
Hard to believe this has so few views. I remember when this first aired on PBS back in the early 80s, I guess. It was wonderful then, and still is now.
A great series. I'll download every episode.
People today simply want dopamine hits on their social media and aren't smart enough to appreciate how magnificent these James Burke hosted shows were. Loved them as a kid during the 80's watching them on PBS.
@@tomservo5347 Just wondering, would you have been 'smart enough' at that age, if you had social media to distract you?
“Hard to believe this has so few views.”
Remember: Reality happens only to OTHER people. Besides, having to think is work-think I will skip it!
I have the DVD set I got about 15 years ago. Classic! 👍
The series by James Burke changed my whole outlook & understanding of historical events.
It's very much, Still applicable today!
I would use parts of the series to illustrate the unintended outcomes of change to my History classes.
Me too.
This and Cosmos shaped my thinking immensely.
But we have Neils deGrasse Tyson telling us how the universe does.
Could you please give me some more detail on how this influenced you.
The Connections series is under-appreciated. undervalued, and underutilized! It should be:
1. Remastered with improved visual information;
2. Relaunched;
3. Used as starting point for new ConnectedHistory Wiki;
4. Integrated into Middle School and High School History and Science Curriculum;
5. Added to with new episodes incorporating 40± years of new historical discoveries;
6. Celebrated!
Agreed! Dr Burke is still alive. I think he should be compelled to re film it all with modern cameras, lighting etc!
Yes, but learning and understanding are no longer goals of our societies.
He is continuing the show.
I remember watching this show on The Learning Channel when it was actually about learning & not exploiting little people. Loved it! And would love to see the show relaunched w/new episodes. Fascinating stuff.
@@sylvanaire it's being relaunched! (how'd you do that?!)
Produced for the BBC and broadcast in the UK in 1978 and in the US in 1979.
I was impressed with this series when it first aired and I still am. Quality programming is timeless.
This is how it should be done. When documentaries just started, straight in with content. Today there would a 2 minute intro telling the viewer what was 'coming up'. Then the program would have numerous recaps, further 'coming up' and finally an end summing up. A 53 min program with just 30 mins of content.
Part of that, I think, is the difference between the BBC being publicly funded and American television relying on commercials for revenue.
Most younger people wouldn’t have the attention span or interest to watch it.
Did you notice it was made by the BBC and an all British crew?. Where do those other kinds of documentary arise from?. Is it maybe "the shallow lands across the Ocean" ?.
I once had the good fortune to interview James Burke just prior to the debut of his series The Day the Universe Changed. A very nice, friendly, intelligent gentleman. His various series on PBS made science so much more accessible and understandable. I miss seeing him on TV.
When my daughter was very young, she asked "How did they make things before they had things?" - a very insightful question about technology. James Burke answers that question with simple elegance.
This series was aired by PBS stations many years ago. I never missed a single episode. The entire series is as fresh and instructive now as it was then. Thank you for making these episodes available.
1st broadcast on the BBC in 1978 and in America the following year.
The connection of narration, visuals, music and background sound is a work of art here. Also, I don't think any of the narration is done in a studio - it's all him on location, edited together flawlessly. I love that sometimes he has to change the volume of his voice, to be heard above the ambient sound [from machinery or whatever] happening on location. This show has all the compelling elements of a drama that glue you to the screen. And to top it off.... a cliffhanger at the end. I had seen all these 40+ years ago, and I'm happy to watch them all again.
Thank you internet for giving me access to these beauties. I cannot believe the number of views. This video is manna from heaven.
It's amazing how informative and educational these shows still are. Honestly, except for the clothes and hairstyles and lack of cell phones it's almost hard to tell they're over 40 years old! I wish we had more content like this on television now.
One thing that struck me was those few moments when someone has the old style telephone handset to their ear and were able to talk to someone else far away.
Only rarely can someone do that today (2024). Cellular networks and mobile phones? Lose power for a period of time and the only people you can talk to are those within walking distance.
The recent supply chain disruptions have emphasized how globally interdependent we are.
This is right up there with Cosmos and Ascent of Man. I'm looking forward to watching it again after many years.
One of the best documentaries of all time. Life changing, even.
For those who may not know. The budget on these programmes must have been substantial. I was a camera crew back in the day at the BBC, just looking at this shows how large a budget it would have needed. So sad that today you won’t find anything like these wonderfully crafted programmes ever again.
@mollyfilms what factors drove up the cost, as you see it? Travel? Or something technical? Idle curiosity from one who knows nothing...
Back in the 70's travel was still special so one assumes BBC threw money at travel to show people these places, like David Attenborough. Educational, not propaganda as now.
One episode shows a house, wasn't sure it was UK or US at first.. But i think it was a new build at somewhere like Milton Keynes that looked a bit American for the US audience.
Totally random comment :
Your name reminds me of Robocop! LoL! 😁
"Can you fly, Bobby?"
"Clarence, NO!"
thanks for that insight - given the couple of comments i read ->
before i even watch this - i must state that this is likely one of the few exceptions of what good i may have missed - since i stopped watching TV in 1980 - the same time that personal computers became available ...
From the time when documentaries did not need to rely on hype, CGI nor dramatic re-enactments in order to inform, educate and entertain.
Masterful stuff, indeed.
This entire episode is a single dramatic reenactment.
.........and the three to four presenters needed, repeated what they said every ten minutes
i know the feeling. these days i'm yelling at the TV for them "to get on with it!"
I liked Horizon. Arte comes out with great documentaries today. There is great stuff on u tube too.
VIVA CHRISTO REY 🤴
I had tne good fortune to hear him speak in Portland some 30s years ago, where among other topics he spoke of climate changes in ways that we have ultimately seen come to fruition. One of my favorite shows.
An amazing show! And actually James Burke still going strong in 2023 as I just watched his new Connections show on Curiosity Stream. It’s 6 hour long episodes and in each he picks some near future device, like a ‘nano fabricator’ that can make anything, and charts a path through history of how we arrive at it
Thank you - I will look that up
I just watched the first 1.5 episodes of the 2023 series. "Alexa, find James Burke".
It's probably a combination of lower budget and that Burke is 45 years older now, but it wasn't nearly as good as the earlier stuff, in my opinion. A lot of valueless CGI trying to dress it up. The 'connections' were often tenuous at best, and sensational, like Napoleon's toothpick.
In 18 days he'll turn 87.
@@joevannucci1392 sure you can pick a lot of paths to arrive at his final destination but it’s a well done show and I learned something from each episode while being entertained. I didn’t realize he was 87, he certainly doesn’t look or act like it in the show, more like 70, maybe they used some tech in post to help 😎
@@StreetComp I didn't realize he was 87. Jeez... Objectively, I stand by my first episode observations, but with this in mind, I'm glad he produced it at all!
James Burke, Raymond Baxter, Maggie Philbin, and others, presented a series on the BBC called Tomorrow's World. a series that inspired generations to think!
Especially Raymond and William Woollard, both ex RAF pilots. Had authority, not some tiktok dicks.
I just missed seeing Baxter, was doing a book signing in a hanger just feet away, i didn't know. Couple of months later passed away. I would have got him to sign my log book.
Just stumbled across this, and it brought back a flood of memories watching this on PBS in the late 70s and early 80s and how it spurred an entirely new way for me to understand the world around us. Not many people these days are adept at critical thinking nor able to perceive nor understand how everything in our world is interconnected in so many ways. Sad to say that the technological advancements that have come from then to today has had the unfortunate effect of turning the movie "Idiocracy" from a satire to a documentary in the 21st Century.
Why has television just got worse in the 40 years since this was made? Come back Mr B! 👍👏👏👏
given the couple of comments i read ->
before i even watch this - i must state that this is likely one of the few exceptions of what good i may have missed - since i stopped watching TV in 1980 - the same time that personal computers became available ...
One of the greatest series ever made.
I was in 7th or 8th grade when Connections first aired in the US on PBS (in the years before objectivity was de-prioritized in favor of the omission of inconvenient data) and it riveted me. It's such a well presented trip through history. I benefited from watching it tremendously. I have a 17 year old daughter who is enamored with science and particularly with astronomy. I'm hoping she'll love Connections as much as I do.
Sadly nothing on tv in the 21st century is nearly as good 😢. Btw: if u google if the 1965 power outage hit Maine, it says “no”. I lived in Central Maine at that time and we lost power on that date and just after 5, just as this doc says
In the 21st century the BBC is still responsible for some of the best natural history programmes.
I haven’t seen them
@@oobrocks
Is that because you don't watch BBC where you live or because you just don't rate the BBC programmes you have seen?
For now I'll just example the Planet Earth III broadcast this year.
I only have ant
This was and continues to be one of the touchstones of my life. I still think of it and reference it frequently. I have worked in many different fields and careers in my now 79 years. And although seemingly unrelated fields there were skills that were transferable from one job to another. Much like the connections in this series. There have been a couple of similar programs since but none better than this.
It's amazing how, as he walks through the World Trade Center, how different our lives are because of what isn't there...
And how different they are because of what is. Think of how much more technology dependent we are today compared to 45 years ago.
And the odd coincidence that it was Scandinavia Flight 911 involved in that 1965 blackout.
Erie: I had made the same "Connection" but you beat me to it@@joes9954
@@joes9954I noticed that too. Coincidence? Yup, of course.
@@joes9954flying into JFK, New York too
This guy just changed my life. By simply giving me answers and making me think.
I had a class in college where the book “Connections” was the textbook. It was a first year class and was perfect for a freshman engineering student.
Good to know how ridiculously vulnerable we rely are.
This was 45 years ago. There's billions more of us now and we are more vulnerable than ever.
Best documentary series ever hands down
I loved this series. This is when BBC was serious.
A little too serious. At 8:50 there's predictive programming about 9/11 in terms of airplanes and an earlier tour of the world trade center!
Some of the news stories on their website these days read like they're written by 15 year olds
Like PBS in the U. S. They both are nothing more than political operatives for leftists politics.
Awesome series, I remember watching it when it first aired on PBS. I always loved how the show went full circle and ended at the beginning.
Show goes full circle ... I'd forgotten that but just you mentioning it brought it back.
One of the best TV series ever.
I began prepping after watching this decades ago. A little more canned or dry food in the pantry, but mostly blankets to stay warm, a way to make sure I had water for drinking and cooking. Plus growing plants, container planting. I lived in apartments until late 1990's. Once, during a storm induced blackout, i enjoyed the quiet, reading by fireplace and candles. A gas water heater meant I had hot water for bathing. After 3-1/2 days of peace and quiet, no commute, no worries, just calm restful time and a few chores, city life came back in it's full fury. Ditto when the lockdown happened.
The sound track and the darkness made it feel like the Terminator was going to show up at any moment. 😎
I've been thinking about this series for quite some time since I first saw it and never took the time to research it again.. I'm so happy I have found it again.. I would love to see this redone with updated connections to 2022 👍
Seeing the World Trade Center was eerie. Hearing 9-11 over and over in relation to a possible airline disaster....that hit me.
Noticed that...spooky...and it was an airplane...
Reminds me of that tragedy...
I knew it
World trade center
This is more than just eerie, it's difficult to look at this and not feel that there was some sort of preprogramming going on. The people whom made it are certainly the kind of people who could have had insider knowledge.
reminds me of that tragedy... oh yeah 911
I watched when first broadcast as a kid, along with many other good docs of the time (70's and 80's) from the likes of Horizon, First Tuesday, Your Life in Their Hands, Cosmos, QED etc. But 'Connections' always stood out because of the way James got in your face as the viewer (like that teacher at school who said you at the back!) and did his best to challenge the way you thought.
'Never before have so many people understood so little about so much.'
Omg does that ring true today. With so much information at everyone’s fingertips and yet we are becoming stupider. Kids all pass school without having to actually pass etc. why can’t people see what is happening
@@mandyk4988 Because they don't want to.
I watched this show as a young man. It was one of the few educational shows that was informative, entertaining, and well done (on par with NOVA) and was largely responsible for the piquing of my curiosity, which has never waned.
A couple of hours over a pint or two with Mr. Burke would be the of a semester at college.
We were very lucky at my college in Sacramento California, he came and did a speaking engagement for us, feel very lucky to have met him and see him live.
A great show that was needed then and is sorely needed now. I only wish that we had teachers like James when I was in high school or college. I actually met this wonderful man after a lecture and chatted with him for about thirty minutes or so. Best conversation I have ever had with another human being.
Watching this again as adult, it really holds up. The writing is brilliant. Production and recreations (based on real people!) are story-telling and journalism at their best. The long monologues work bc of the set pieces like in the example of the zombie apocalypse highway landscape he walks through. Plus he's great on TV. Genius show.
The Scandinavian flight number (911) is eerie with the images of the towers. Going to take the free trial at CuriosityStream for the 2023 season 🎉❤. History teachers should just play his shows and then have the students branch off and find other connections. Wonderful to see these are still in the ether. Thanks
In spite of his Whiggish view of history, Burke’s The Day the Universe Changed led me study (and eventually teach) the history of science at the university level, where I learned the meaning of such phrases as “the Whiggish view of history”. A genuinely magnificent series by a great man.
Hi, can you suggests books on an alternative view of history? Thanks, cheers.
I watched this show every time it was on I was hooked. What always blew my mind was how much research would of have been needed to create each episode. I always wondered how many people worked to make the connections .
Mr Burke on Terra Firma and Dr Sagan in the stars! Presenters with engaging personalities and amazing topics! Ageless and just as relevant then as now. Accessible for nearly any age, maybe10 and up. I think Connections should shown to school children. I can’t wait for the New Series on Nov.9! I was very lucky when I found the Connections companion book in a thrift store a few years after watching the series. Thanks, Tim for showing these! I hope you can get the rest of them
Thoroughly agree. And, I envy your copy of the "Connections" companion book! I was only ever to run across a copy of "The Day the Universe Changed" about 30 years ago. Also a good read. Mr. Burke is just awesome in his projects and presentations.
@@gyrene_asea4133 I have TDTUC on my shelves somewhere... I distinctly recall setting it aside when my spouse was on a cleaning purge a few years ago. Now where did I put it....
I Loved The Day The Universe Changed by Burke, I even got the book that went with it, but Connections was good, too! These series showed how development was both linear AND nonlinear. How ideas in one area or field end up influencing and causing change in other areas or fields.
Amazing show I had almost forget about. It plays different now with him walking into the WTC, getting on the elevator, and even on the roof. He is saying how dependent we all are of the things around us while standing inside a building that was destroyed by the very transpiration method that makes the world such a smaller place today.
He could have never known how events there made the black out in New York childs play.
One of the best shows ever made.
I have been thinking about this episode regularly for 40 years
watched it on the BBC when i was in my 20's Loved it and now 40 years later its just as fascinating
I never noticed that he introduces information theory at the very beginning of the series by saying “this thing in my hand (paraphrase) essentially makes this show possible” thanks Claude Shannon.
I saw this when it came out, during my college days. As an electronics engineer, I have this in mind all the time. A CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) can kill all power on the planet, and the satellites, too. Not a happy thought!
I too watched this with my father in the 70's (as a teenager) and have never forgotten any of the James Burke's programs. Before TH-cam, and if living outside the US, you couldn't buy a VHS or later on a DVD for years. I think it was only a decade or so ago I got my hands on the box sets of all shows.
Best.series.ever. I'm so lucky my parents lived this & got me hooked on this when I was a kid & set a great foundation for learning & curiosity ever since!
James Burke's Connections was so important to me that I bought the series on DVD. Little did I realize that some day I would be watching it on my phone, and the DVD player would be gathering dust in the basement.
I'm sure James could somehow make a Connections episode out of your situation!👍
Ah, but James might say to hold on to that DVD player because you never know if all the telecom companies and internet systems go down...forever (sort of like what happened yesterday with CrowdStrike. The only major airline not affected was Southwest because they're still running Windows 3.1).
Personally, I don't like watching anything on my smartphone.
Best to ditch that telephone device, they are taking over peoples souls. I am sick of seeing folk wondering around with their heads buried in them meanwhile the world is going to pot because of the corrupt government and the 1% "elite"
Awesome blast from the past!
I loved this show!
Loved this show makes more sense n every school class should have to watch entire series and after each episode write an essay on it
This, along with Bronowski’s “Ascent Of Man”, was an epic educational documentary series. One of the only series that makes one stop and think, “What if?”.
Great show. I grew up watching this.
Carl Sagan got his idea for Cosmos from James Burke.
I loved this program!!!
Loved this show. In school we were taught who invented what but this show put it all into perspective and made people aware that nothing is invented or discovered in a vacuum. All inventions were the result or development of previous inventions and knowledge.
I saw this series when it aired. Brilliant!!
I would agree, this was a brilliant series !
When this series first aired, it captivated people. James Burke predicted the future we live in today. The question is could people live without technology going back to the plow and working with their bare hands for their very survival? Some could.
Connections was a groundbreaking series. You learn so much without even realizing it, because it's such a great story he's telling that you're just captivated and absorbed by it.
This series was fire. My favorite was that connected the development of a packet watch by pre-empire British clocksmiths with the subsequent domination of the planet with a globe-spanning empire.
How is that for weird? "...Scandivian nine eleven..." 911. 9/11. -With the World Trade Center as a set. In the 80's. Can I get a whoa? I think the Universe is getting tired, and dysfunctional.
This was 1978 and they did all these preprogramming drops. It's difficult to not think that someone involved with this had some sort of knowledge about what was going to happen in 23 years.
The date of the blackout was 11/9 also. In the UK they write dates backwards so 9/11, 9th Nov.
Ever noticed that the plane started at 9:11 and had the video have connections with arabic
I so wish they would re-ignite this series. Connections updated for the modern age would/could be so fantastic!
Never seen it on TV but my local small town library had the series on vhs. I watched them all in 2 weeks.
So glad I found this ..or the algorithm suggested it 😂 thanks for uploading this documentary series , itself being an important slice of our technological history 👍
James Burke "Connections" , Carl Sagan "Cosmos" and Jacob Bronowski "The Ascent of Man" , the three best science series ever produced.
This particular episode was one of the most unsettling, even terrifying, documentaries of all time (until a more recent one about not only our dependence on fossil fuels, but how alleged "green" energy isn't so green after all.....)
Thanks for posting this series by James Burke. Never heard of him but these are really cool
20 years ago, I watched my VHS copies of _Connections_ that I had taped off PBS in the late '80s? early '90s? and my gf at the time [who wasn't a fan of documentaries of any type] agreed that they were fascinating & asked if I had more after the 1st episode. That was a good day...
Of course, you'd never convince a Millennial or Zoomer to still and watch these, they're "too old:" don't forget their byword: "That's sooo last week!.." 🙄
I remember being shown this in high school, in the 80s.
They knew all along. Loved Radio 4, FM reception all but gone😡.
I’m so glad things like hospitals have back up generators know. There was a huge back out when my wife had a hart attack. The power went out. The equipment went to battery back up then the backup generator fired up No issues at all
Before the feds shut down public access after 9/11 (to arguably negative net effect), one used to be able to visit American dams (and many other places) and go inside many of them to view the turbines and various other inner workings.
I haven’t seen this in decades I ranked it up there with the original cosmos as one of my favorite shows when I was a kid
This is the kind of stuff millennials really need to watch 😮💨
And Gen z and so on, but they’ll be too busy on social media
Millennials are in their forties 🤣✌️
??
@@Digital_Nomad_Media How so?
Dream on. They are to stupid and shallow.
I fondly remember these episodes. Came out in ‘78. I grew up in New York so the World Trade Center was going up throughout my childhood. And this was the first episode. Wouldn’t think that some 20 years later they’d be gone. Ironically when they refer to an airliner making its approach its Scandinavian airlines… flight 911!
I geeked out on this show when I was a kid, couldn’t wait for each episode and the connections they presented
Smoking on an airplane!!!! I'm old enough to just remember that, but young enough to never had smoked on a plane 🤣🥰👍
remembering people smoking in the doctors!
Um... This episode opens with James Burke at the Twin Towers in New York, and then he proceeds to talk about a flight into Kennedy Airport... flight 911. From a segment filmed sometime in 1978. On a show called "Connections." Perhaps everything is far more connected than we realize.
I wonder if his segment on the Blackout and off-grid survival inspired anyone watching this when it first aired to get into doomsday prepping. It got quite dark there for a moment, figuratively, and I was almost expecting him to go on to educate the viewers about the fundamentals of surviving an apocalypse. I mean, he kind of did, but not as thoroughly as one would expect given the subject matter.
Research "Predictive Programming". VERY eye-opening. In the world of mass media, there are NO COINCIDENCES.
I remember this guy changed my universe, and the thing he did on the history of climate from the future was really hip.
Loved this back then, as now. Thanks
I’ve been wanting to go off grid since I was very young. City life is awful
One of the best series of all time.
Yes!
I am so glad that Carl didn't lose it.
I still feel the effect this very episode had on me as a kid, how everything harks back to something very few of us realize, or would know what to do with. When he finally points out the plow in the barn attic - it hits hard that so many people rely on something invented so long ago, and all along how it's been modified and improved, but still a plow. James Burke is the best at making the Connections for us.
That farm, in Lyme Connecticut, still looks very much the same. And I think the same family still owns it.
Or did a few years ago at least.
Lyme....! ? !...how close to PLUM ISLAND..?
The longest journey starts with one step.
This show is a fair bit older than me but I am really liking it, I am hoping to find new shows with similar premise
Connections is a whole series. Not sure how many episodes overall, but at least three seasons.
Burke also produced The Day The Universe Changed. Video series, and a book. Just as good as Connections.
This is where solar or wind power generated by each household makes our society stronger.
if you watch any one of the 'Connections" programs and you find yourself asking, "Why do I need to know all (or any of) this stuff?" neither I nor James Burke can answer your question intelligently. If on the other hand, you feel that you can't wait for the next segment, you have a rich intellectual life and you are likely never to be bored in your life. These are not How-To manuals: rather they are mind-chargers, akin to batteries: good for your soul, but probably not useful around the water coolers. Thanks, James Burke: My soul rejoiced!
Don’t forget his follow up series called The Day the Universe Changed!
Good to see this here.
I have 3 full series of Connections I downloaded a few years ago. :-)
Mobile phones and Social media wasn’t even here then. Today everyone would crumble in a day if they couldn’t go online, well not everyone but lots
The companion book for this series is amazing. The Day the Universe Changed and its companion book are equally enjoyable