The New "Cosmos"

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the astronomer who is now explaining the "Cosmos" to the lay audience in the revived television series of that name.


Ah, the fond memories that name brings back. Of the original Carl Sagan series, I mean of course, which in 1980 became the most widely watched television series in the history of US public television.


Sagan's Cosmos also coincided with something called Battle of the Network Stars, the sort of thing that today would be called "reality programming." It was a series of sporting or pseudo-sporting events involving established personalities. In the 1980 season, the ABC team included Scott Baio, CBS's team included Gregory Harrison, and NBC's, Pamela Helmsley. If those don't sound like top tier stars to you: the feeling is natural. These were TV personalities who could use the additional exposure that the silly games would get them.


All of this is simply an excuse to go a little further down memory lane and recall a brilliant SCTIV spoof on Battle, called Battle of the PBS Stars. One of the teams was captained by William F. Buckley (Firing Line was still on the air in those days) and the other was captained by, you guessed it, Carl Sagan.


Series regular Dave Thomas played Sagan, with special emphasis on the pronunciation of the letter "b" as in "billion."


At one point there is a football game between the two teams, and Buckley's team nrings in some heavy-hitting ringers. They run head-on into Sagan, and then you see a doll presumably filled with helium and representing Sagan floating up into the sky.


I believe it was Eugene Levy who, as host Howard Cosell, delivered the punchline as 'Sagan' disappeared from sight. He told us we shouldn't be sad about Sagan's loss, because now "he's up in the cosmos, where he always wanted to be."


I'm working from memory here, because I'm too lazy to look these things up, so that account may not be entirely accurate. Still ... Neil Tyson is treading on sacred ground. Best of luck to him.