I love This American Life. The particular show mentioned is good. Ira Glass said that the show really hits its stride around half way into the season. The radio crew and the TV crew gelled by then and things ran pretty smoothly.

Also take a look at:

http://www.slate.com/id/2162192

It's an act from one of their future episodes.

@David: I wish there was some way to just make your comments disappear. Like some sort of mute or auto-skip when going through the database.

Actually, to be super pedantic, neither PBS nor NPR produces the This American Life radio show. It's done by PRI, Public Radio International. Ira Glass says that at the beginning of each show.

"NPR is actually who creates/distributes This American Life"

Actually it is distributed by Public Radio International, which is a distinct seperate entity than National Public Radio. It starts to get confusing, however, because a lot of the PRI programs are played on local NPR stations across the country.

NPR radio show? snoooze.

I am going to have to disagree with David. As a long time fan of TAL's radio program, having a visual version of the show is very cool. I love that they kept the same format to the show, having an intro piece and then going to acts. The stories they chose for the first episode were moving, and is it me? or is the whole "bull featured at the Republican Nat. Convention get cloned" a bit ironic...

Great job TVS for reporting on the show, and great job Ira Glass for successfully introducing a new format for TAL. That said, please continue focusing on the radio show, as good as a TV version can be... sometimes there is no replacement for the mind's eye.

First NPR is actually who creates/distributes This American Life, not PBS. Second, listening to several interviews that Ira did about this first episode, he felt that there were several key moments in the story that were great "radio material" but just didn't work on film. For instance one of the witnesses to the attack that was interviewed gave a great retelling of the story, very emotional and very interesting, but he said that her physical appearance was jarring and didn't make for a good television moment that would have otherwise made a great radio moment.

Anyway, I'm excited about this show none-the-less, I love NPR and have always love This American Life.

It's not that good of a show, weird cloning thing was hust odd and the "prank" guys I didn't care about.