Even with hundreds of cable channels to choose from today, the likelihood of running into a show like this is slim.
The New York Times reviews a new DVD collection of Leonard Bernstein's 1950s un-lectures about music on the TV magazine Omnibus. And, quoted above, the reviewer Allan Kozinn makes the understatement of the year. Not only is it unlikely that you'd find a show cracking into the mysteries of music, you'll find quite a few options misleading you about music. Year upon year of celebrities lip-synching to auto-tuned, compressed pop recordings and the incessant American Idol drum beat of "follow your dreams" to some kind of vaguely imagined stardom has put our national conversation about music the art form and human nourishment in a box on a shelf in a dark closet. If Bernstein were here, he'd be chagrinned. And then he'd start explaining to whomever would listen.
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