How was it that It's a Wonderful Life went from a local TV free-for-all to only airing during the holidays on NBC for most of the past three decades?  In search of the answer, the podcast unearths a never-before-told story that up-ends many of the broadly-held assumptions and reveals much about the Potter-dominated state of modern media.  Generally, once a piece of art falls into the public domain, it stays there forever.  Not so with Wonderful Life, now claimed by Paramount Global and long the exclusive television domain of Comcast’s NBC Universal.  What happened in 1993 to take “the People’s movie" back?  What does it tell us about the effects of a broader corporate trend towards consolidation and monopoly that was the dominant strategy of iconic villain Henry F. Potter?  SaveGeorgeBailey.com

How was it that It's a Wonderful Life went from a local TV free-for-all to only airing during the holidays on NBC for most of the past three decades?  In search of the answer, the podcast unearths a never-before-told story that up-ends many of the broadly-held assumptions and reveals much about the Potter-dominated state of modern media.  Generally, once a piece of art falls into the public domain, it stays there forever.  Not so with Wonderful Life, now claimed by Paramount Global and long the exclusive television domain of Comcast’s NBC Universal.  What happened in 1993 to take “the People’s movie" back?  What does it tell us about the effects of a broader corporate trend towards consolidation and monopoly that was the dominant strategy of iconic villain Henry F. Potter?  SaveGeorgeBailey.com

George Bailey Was Never Born, a one-of-a-kind podcast experience, takes a definitive look at It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the most popular movies of all time, the story of Americans’ decades-long love affair with this cultural institution and how it may offer a light down the path we walk today, all 10 episodes available Nov 21, 2023. Created by Kurt Engfehr, the editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d’Or-winning documentaries, and Ray Nowosielski, 2022 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast, the series is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories.  Narrated by a familiar angel, he takes listeners back and forth between the part of the multiverse where the events of Wonderful Life really happened and our own, one where George Bailey was never born! SaveGeorgeBailey.com

George Bailey Was Never Born, a one-of-a-kind podcast experience, takes a definitive look at It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the most popular movies of all time, the story of Americans’ decades-long love affair with this cultural institution and how it may offer a light down the path we walk today, all 10 episodes available Nov 21, 2023. Created by Kurt Engfehr, the editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d’Or-winning documentaries, and Ray Nowosielski, 2022 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast, the series is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories.  Narrated by a familiar angel, he takes listeners back and forth between the part of the multiverse where the events of Wonderful Life really happened and our own, one where George Bailey was never born! SaveGeorgeBailey.com

George Bailey Was Never Born

Part 04: The Corporations' Movie (1993 to 2023)

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/2c840d56-0201-43d0-bea1-b0c100393c24/transcript

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