This modern world is fast-paced, frenetic, furious and fearsome. Contem­porary events are dramatic and pathetic, thus perfect for exploi­tation as enter­tainment. Yet most big dramatic produc­tions require weeks or months of lead-time, so that when a produc­tion reaches the stage or airwaves, the events chronicled have passed into history, or history itself may have ended.

Yet there are two dramatic media than can respond immed­iately to gruesome and news­worthy events, delayed only by the time it takes to write and perform the scripts: radio produc­tions, and tele­vised soap-operas. The former (radio drama) is ignored in major post-civil­ized nations; the latter (TV drama) is a dominant cultural force in much of the world.

Here is the genesis of AS THE WORLD BURNS, a current-events soap opera.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "El Farto" <elfarto@elfarto.com.ar>
>
> >http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/31/42821.html
> >An UFO-related incident that occurred four years ago poses a
> >troubling question whether any kind of cooperation is possible
> >between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and extraterrestrials.
> >
> >We are all doomed, the Greys changed sides, and now the NWO is out
> >of the picture! Prepare yourself for mandatory anal probing!!!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ric Carter" <ric@sonic.net>

> Some folks look forward to that, of course.  But there are stories
> http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=28094 told that
> Russia shot down the Challenger space shuttle with a beam weapon,
> that the Columbia showed signs of the same sort of attack, and
> that Russia will give Iraq that weapon to shoot down US jets and
> cruise missiles.  So if the ETs don't provide Saddam a superweapon,
> the Russkies will.  Bush's 'coalition' is rather focked, eh?
>
> Of course, US agents may have gotten to the ETs first and bribed
> them to PRETEND to cooperate with Saddam, when actually they'll
> turn on him in the heat of battle and administer one of those now-
> famous probes.  Or maybe the ETs are just having fun, and will soon
> probe EVERYBODY.  With no NWO to interfere, they can do anything.
>
> Or it could be that Saddam's ETs are Greys, locked in mortal combat
> with Bush's ETs, da Reptilioids, for whom he is doing everything he
> can to promote global warming (to provide da Reps with a comfortable
> environment) and the spread of McFood (to provide da Reps with fat,
> juicy peopleburgers). In which case, the Grays will be the salvation
> of humanity, and all right-thinking people should rally behind them.
>
> Damn, this certainly is complicated!  Which side is worse?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Admin" <admin@kay-net.com>

Perhaps one or more Script writers should be busy working on this
angle for next years shows?

Dale

----------------------------
From: "Ric Carter" <ric@sonic.net>
To: "SkeptiChat list" <skeptichat@lists.sonic.net>
Subject: Re: [SC] Is Hussein Owner of Crashed UFO?
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 10:06:53 -0800

Sure, except that we might NOT have that much time, because if
the ETs or Russians or Iraqis zap the coalition as soon as the
hostilities commence next month -- or vice-versa -- then fast-
moving events will outrun the drawn-out TV production cycle.  

Except for the daily soap operas, of course.  Quick, here's a 
pitch for a hot one: AS THE WORLD BURNS!  

THE SET: a simple office lounge, interchangeable for all scenes.
The room has some bookcases framing two wall spaces, one one of
which is a picture window (the image in there shows the scene's
location); the other wall space contains some small framed items
and a flag signaling the location of the scene: US, UK, UN, Iraq,
Russia, spaceship, etc.  Put opaque doors on the bookcases and a
trestle table with chairs in the middle, and the set becomes a
conference room where various leaders, staffers and consultants
dramatically discuss the current crisis.  Remove those doors and
replace the trestle table with coffee tables, and the set is now
the lounge where underlings play out their complex relationships.

CHARACTERS: the usual stock cast.  Fill in the blanks yourself.

THE STORY: recurrent world crises, with interventions by one or
more groups of ETs.  And each human and alien faction contains
renegades and traitors, so nobody can be trusted.  Thus all the
plotlines are suffused with "everybody could be lying," a grim
cynicism that raises stress levels and keeps everybody taught.
And every now and then, something blows up.  Literally.  

HIGH CONCEPT: in brief, the show is a live-action DOONESBURY 
strip that isn't funny. (Except maybe some ETs are funny, like
the teenage Reptilioid girl who's always trying to sneak super-
weapons to a cute human boy in some faction her elders oppose.)

Maybe there isn't enough material here for an entire daily soap.  
Maybe it'll just have to be a recurrent SATURDAY NIGHT LIFE skit.
Whatever.  Talk to my agent.

*** permission is explicitly granted to forward this email message
*** SkeptiChat 1.01.02.05 *** http://www.sonic.net/~ric/vsub.htm

Note: the above was not at all influenced by any pre-existing material entitled AS THE WORLD BURNS — not songs by KREATOR or NECRONOMIC or SACRIFICE or DOGWOOD or BOLT THROWER, nor by any other band nor band nor album nor book nor program of that name. I imagine that ALL the above creations, plus any I may have missed, were inspired by a certain long-running televised soap opera, eh? Couldn't just be a string of coincidences...

PS: A sidebar to ATWB could consist of streaming news bulletins. If realized in HTML it could be structured as a blog called NewsBreak: As The World Burns, comprised (for example) of the warnews bulletins and warblog extracts I've been emailing to InTheShadows. Like I want to continue that exercise.. And I'd somehow misremembered the name of another popular soap opera (mistaking it for a famous play) and thus considered a similar sidebar / blog to be called WarNews: All My Guns. My mistake. So sue me. If you're so smart, write your own damn stuff. Go ahead, I'll sit here and watch.