The finality of the demise of Current TV can be seen by its final webpage sendoff.
I came home for lunch early today, in order to witness firsthand the transition from Current to Al Jazeera America. I thought it was going to be some kind of big-time, fireworks-firing sendoff.
Nope. It was much more sublime than that.
The last program to air was, appropriately, the always-excellent Vanguard series. The episode dealt with Oxycontin, and the pill mills in Florida pushing the stuff under false pretenses. Mariana Van Zeller was the last Current personality to be seen on the air. The last five minutes of the network's existence showed one of the network's classic VC2 (Viewer Created Content) videos, this one about a skydiver who jumps off of bridges and mountaintops. The thrill was always evident in his voice, and came through the screen with the first-person footage of his death defying drops. But he always had his parachute, and it always opened on time, allowing him to drop to safety.
What a metaphor for this network. It started as a big risk, with a risky, edgy, and innovative initial programming premise of predominantly viewer-submitted video "pods" (even many of the commercials were viewer-produced). The pods were hit-and-miss in quality, but the best of them contained a feel and a perspective that is unattainable with the polished emissions of what the network became in its later years (not to mention every place else on the TV dial). I can still remember the pods about Burning Man, about life and travel in other countries, and a host of other subjects. I can only imagine how many careers those pods must have started or enhanced. I remember the guests in those early years - Joss Stone, Crowded House, and other musical acts were often guest hosts for their pod shows. The network, in its early years, was a free-wheeling affair, and appropriately, based out of San Francisco. My hope now, is that whoever owns this programming (probably Al Jazeera) will have archived it and allow it to be used on a "tribute" site, perhaps as a link to the existing Al Jazeera web presence. That would be an appropriate tribute to what I think was the most innovative, fresh, and exciting channel I have ever seen on TV. It took the big leap. It took it's viewers through the thrill of an eight-year free fall. The parachute (Al Jazeera) opened, and we're all back on the ground, safe.
The final 30 seconds of the VC2 pod are winding down. The "sponge" has just wiped off the VC2 logo "spraypainted" on the top left of the screen. The old Current logo seems to grow in size on the bottom-right of the screen as the pod progress indicator on the bottom left is at full. The skydiver has landed in safety. Without going dark, the next images seen are that of the gold ribbons winding their way across America, eventually to wind their way up and twist into the logo of Al Jazeera.
Thank you to Joel Hyatt and Vice President Al Gore for taking that initial leap.
Goodbye, Current. You will be missed.
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