Now, I don’t usually do media reviews here, but, for one thing, this post is not a media review, and for another thing, “This American Life” doesn’t count: it’s a show I love, it gets little attention outside of the public radio sphere (where it gets a lot), and it is very significantly changing. The show is moving from Chicago to New York, and they are now doing a TV show on Showtime, starting March 22, not so far away.

So, are they “selling out,” or are they bringing a really different kind of TV show to a whole different audience?

Here’s a tiny article in New York magazine going over the basics, concentrating on the move to New York.

I’ll admit that I was kind of wary of the whole idea, even though there are shows I’ve liked on Showtime. One aspect of this change is, for me, that I have always loved the sort of old-time radio aspect of the show, where you have some very good storyteller laying out the facts of the story for you, and you have to do the imagining of what’s going on.

Another aspect of it that I love is Ira Glass himself. I’m aware that some people find him sort of annoying and nerdy, but I’ve always been impressed at his ability to make what must be a very hard production process seem so much more like a natural conversation. I would hate to see that go away because the power of the images on TV could take over the power of the story.

Well, after looking at the promo bits on Showtime and this animation from Chris Ware, it at least feels right–the images feel like an illustration of the story, rather than the story itself. I can’t really speak for Ira Glass and his crew, but as a fan of the radio show, it’s what I would want.

Update: The show is now available on Showtime’s site for people who live in the US, and it seems that the show’s own site has been changed.