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''Eyewitness'' is a British nature and science
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
produced by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and
DK Vision.
The series is based on the bestselling series of ''
Eyewitness Books'' by Dorling Kindersley, which still continues to this day.
Guy Michelmore
Guy Michelmore is an English film and television composer and former television news presenter.
Early life
Michelmore is the son of BBC presenters Cliff Michelmore and Jean Metcalfe. His mother Jean was the presenter of ''Family Favourites'' an ...
composed the series' opening and ending themes, as well as the score for each individual episode of Season 1, with Guy Dagul writing the score for each individual episode of Seasons 2 and 3, respectively. Dagul's scores for season 3 also incorporated stock music tracks and cues by Dick DeBenedictis.
Format
Eyewitness, like most other shows of its kind, is a documentary series. Each half-hour episode focuses on a single subject in the field of
natural science, such as the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
or the various functions of the
human body, similar in form to the book series on which it was based, with most being based, in part or in whole, off of existing book titles at the time, with few exceptions (though some titles, such as Planets and Natural Disaster, the series finale, started off as episodes and were made into books years later). Combining fact with fiction, the series takes place in the fictional "Eyewitness Museum", a
CGI science museum
A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in ...
made to replicate, enhance, and expand upon the much-imitated white and empty signature visual style of the books that made them so successful in the first place. Various galleries within the museum are always featured and change constantly with each season and episode and stock footage, which is usually seen through large windows or other depressions in the walls of the museum is also shown regularly. The original book series has ben renowned for its striking visual style involving objects specially photographed against a plain white background, and the accompanying TV series brings this to life through video and audio. In addition, almost every episode features a "Hero". The Hero is an animal, character, or object which drives the action of the episode and is continually referred back to throughout. These include the rooster-shaped
weathervane
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
from ''Weather'', Legs the
claymation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
''
Tyrannosaurus
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...
'' from ''Dinosaur'', the shape-shifting paper
boat
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inl ...
from ''Pond and River'', the
hyena from ''Monster'', the
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
from ''Fish'', the
crab from ''Seashore'', the
cockroach
Cockroaches (or roaches) are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are we ...
from ''Prehistoric Life'', the robotic human
mime artist
A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a theatrical medium ...
from ''Human Machine'', Smedley the living human skeleton from ''Skeleton'', Connell from ''Dog'', and the
husky
Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...
and
king penguin
The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...
from ''Arctic and Antarctic''.
The original British version of the series was narrated by the late
Andrew Sachs
Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...
for its entire run, while the US version was narrated by
Martin Sheen
Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...
for the first two seasons. However, Sachs took over narrating both versions (with separate accents provided for each country) for the third and final season. The series producer was
Bill Butt
Bill Butt is a British filmmaker, artist/designer, television director, writer and producer. Butt produced the '' Eyewitness'' television series during the 1990s and has directed music videos and designed album covers.
History
Butt was lighting en ...
for the first season, Briget Sneyd and sometimes Richard Thomson whenever Sneyd had to serve as editor for the second season, and Martin Mortimore for the third season.
In the US, the series aired in primetime on PBS nationwide. When the series was released onto VHS following the original run of each season, the US version of episodes from the first two seasons featured brief behind-the-scenes "making of" clips, each lasting five minutes after the main program, with the UK version having this feature for episodes of the third and final season. In 2003, eight episodes of the series were released onto interactive
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
s that featured interactive links to brief clips from other episodes of the series during the main program. The UK narration was kept in the American releases of these interactive DVDs, which were distributed by the Library Video Company through its Schlessinger Media division. A few years later, continuing well into the early 2010’s, a larger number of episodes were released onto DVD in the US. The US narration was included on these releases, as well as the first special as a bonus feature.
There are also four ''Eyewitness Virtual Reality'' software titles based on the series: "Cat", "Bird", "Dinosaur Hunter", and "Earth Quest". One of these, "Shark", although seen on the elevator console, was never made.
Eyewitness has also been dubbed into other languages for broadcast internationally, including Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Indonesian, and Finnish, among others.
Episodes
Season 1 (1994)
Season 2 (1996)
Season 3 (1997)
Specials
# The Making of Eyewitness - November 7, 1994 (US only)
# The Making of Eyewitness 2 - December 16, 1996 (US only)
# The Making of Eyewitness 3 - December 15, 1997 (UK only)
Reception
It has won several awards, including at least two Emmys:
* 1994
Parent's Choice Award
The Parents' Choice Award was an award presented by the non-profit Parents' Choice Foundation to recognize "the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels." It was considered a "pres ...
(for ''Jungle'')
* 1996
NEA Award
* 1996 1997 and 1998
Golden Gate Awards
*
Chicago International Children's Film Festival
In 1983, Facets Multi-Media founded the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), the first competitive festival of films for children in the U.S. The impetus for the Festival came from a need to introduce new, culturally diverse fil ...
Excellence in Children's Media
References
External links
*
* {{YouTube, channel=UCEBTfxJ13zkpZVbZTF3aukg, title=''Eyewitness''
''Eyewitness'' DVDfrom Schlessinger Media, a division of
Library Video Company (US version)
British non-fiction television series
Nature educational television series
Science education television series
Astronomy education television series
Emmy Award-winning programs
1990s British documentary television series
1994 British television series debuts
1997 British television series endings
1990s American documentary television series
1994 American television series debuts
1997 American television series endings
BBC television documentaries
PBS original programming
English-language television shows