# CBS pulls plug on Boston Pops 4th Fireworks



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Ok, I guess making money is important, but I'm irked about this July 4 fireworks gala loses its national pop:



> For the first time in more than 20 years, the July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular will not be televised nationally after the CBS Television Network declined to renew a contract with the show's producers.
> 
> Instead, the performance will only appear locally on WBZ-TV, pushed out of the national market, a local organizer says, by a competing fireworks show in New York City.....
> 
> Ratings have flagged in recent years, he said. The broadcast company believes it will make more money showing reruns of its regular programming, [David Mugar, the show's executive producer] said.


We always watched "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS and then the Boston Pops. Come on CBS, consider it a public service. Do you really make that much more with a rerun of "Elementary"????

I've already sent an irate email to KPIX, our local CBS station which is a CBS owned-and-operated.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Arthur Fiedler would have been very sad....


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Boston has been bordering on a second tier show for a while. It is very hard (and stupid expensive) to go up against the DC music production and Macy's fireworks displays.


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## Jaspear (May 16, 2004)

At one time, this was aired on A&E, which provided the whole three hour broadcast. The producers need to go that route again, either with A&E or another cable network.


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## say-what (Dec 14, 2006)

That's sad. I always preferred the Boston Pops 4th to the overproduced Macys/NY show


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## Dude111 (Aug 6, 2010)

Sad but not surprising..... Things are getting worse and worse!!


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## Maruuk (Dec 5, 2007)

Best music, most creative fireworks by far, and most charming environment by a mile. The old realtime A&E coverage was wonderful, and wasn't there extensive realtime PBS coverage before that? The CBS show has been a travesty cramming everything into a commercial-fest non-realtime 42 minutes. And they even kept the show in SD long after HD had taken over. Ridiculous.

The only thing I won't miss is the radical turn to the Right the evening took with an almost Fascistic military worship tone and too many generic country pop slingers representing mostly Confederate values. But they did have the occasional quality act.

And the Pops themselves were fun and you can not beat those fireworks with a stick. Especially in HD which they FINALLY got around to providing just a few years ago.

Truly, things are getting worse and worse. Little gems of unique quality like the Boston Pops 4th are getting ground into dust by bland, lowest common denominator network corporatism. The Capitol 4th from Washington is nothing but a horrific firestorm of political military/industrial propaganda wrapped in ******* rubbish. Which leaves NY to sell us the military drivel line, but the triple-tier fireworks are okay. It's just so monstrous and corporate-funded that it's sort of like Macy's Santa spending Christmas with you instead of your dad. There's no soul in Soho, the East River gives me a shiver.


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## SPACEMAKER (Dec 11, 2007)

I think watching fireworks on TV is about as lame as it gets. I honestly do not understand the appeal.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

phrelin said:


> Ok, I guess making money is important, but I'm irked about this July 4 fireworks gala loses its national pop:
> 
> We always watched "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS and then the Boston Pops. Come on CBS, consider it a public service. Do you really make that much more with a rerun of "Elementary"????
> 
> I've already sent an irate email to KPIX, our local CBS station which is a CBS owned-and-operated.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

This is why I don't watch network TV Network now.


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## Dude111 (Aug 6, 2010)

Why bother right?

Almost everything they show now is garbage!


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Dude111 said:


> Why bother right?
> 
> Almost everything they show now is garbage!


Network TV isn't was it was in the 50's and 60's.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Paul Secic said:


> Network TV isn't was it was in the 50's and 60's.


Neither am I. :sure:


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Much to my surprise, tomorrow CBS is not only bringing back the "Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular" but they are bringing it back as a two hour show! I guess I'll have to send an email to CBS and the local station saying thanks!


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

It may not happen at all in the future.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/07/03/boston-pops-fireworks-spectacular-uncertain-future-david-mugar-sponsorship/


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> It may not happen at all in the future.
> 
> http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/07/03/boston-pops-fireworks-spectacular-uncertain-future-david-mugar-sponsorship/


It's a sad state of affairs for our nation that sponsors for 4th celebrations can't be found because there's not enough profit in it. I'm pretty sure that Macy's doesn't make anything off the sponsorship of the New York display, but at least they still do it.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Sigh.

Well from the point of view of producing a quality show specifically to celebrate the meaning of the Fourth of July, "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS had no serious competition. The performers and their music were outstanding and appropriate. The tribute to the 100th birthday of the National Park Service was inspiring.

From a general entertainment standpoint NBC's "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular" was fine.

On the other hand, IMHO it would have been ok if CBS had not bothered to bring us "Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular."

It ...I don't know... was generally not well produced and was just a shadow of what the show was like ten years ago. And while Demi Lovato has an outstanding voice (I'm not even going to mention Jonas), even her strong "Purple Rain" somehow seemed wrong and her costume was odd for the particular event, particularly with the Boston Pops in the background.










Sometimes broadcast television fails the target audience. There are times when young people need to understand that "the fireworks" are not just a cool part of an entertainment package that looks and feels like any other pop star concert. I know, I know, I'm old - but it was the 240th celebration of what happened in July 1776.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

I can only commment on the second hour of the Boston show. We were all outside, watching people blow up the neighborhood. :grin: When the show finally got to the fireworks, the music was, to say the least, inappropriate for the Fourth. You'd think they could have played Sousa marches and other patriotic music instead of pop music that didn't fit in. My regret is that I didn't think to record the Macy's and Capitol shows. :bang Did they play the Stars and Stripes Forever? If so, we missed it. That was always a highlight of the broadcast. As to the musical part that we did see, it wasn't up to the eequality of previous broadcasts. Keith Lockhart is good, but cant match Fiedler or John Williams.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Cholly said:


> My regret is that I didn't think to record the Macy's and Capitol shows. :bang Did they play the Stars and Stripes Forever? If so, we missed it. That was always a highlight of the broadcast. As to the musical part that we did see, it wasn't up to the eequality of previous broadcasts. Keith Lockhart is good, but cant match Fiedler or John Williams.


If you have a previous recording, then you already have part of what PBS showed on the 4th.



> PBS used old fireworks footage during 'live' Fourth of July show
> 
> PBS admitted to using archival footage to show fireworks bursting in clear skies during its "live" Fourth of July broadcast in cloudy Washington, DC - claiming the deception was the "patriotic" thing to do.
> The network confessed Monday night to splicing footage together after viewers noticed the differences in weather during the station's annual "A Capital Fourth" broadcast, which airs live from the West Lawn of the US Capitol.


http://nypost.com/2016/07/05/pbs-used-old-fireworks-footage-during-live-fourth-of-july-show/


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

phrelin said:


> It's a sad state of affairs for our nation that sponsors for 4th celebrations can't be found because there's not enough profit in it. I'm pretty sure that Macy's doesn't make anything off the sponsorship of the New York display, but at least they still do it.


I kind of wish they did more in Cincinnati. Maybe not necessarily to the NYC level of fireworks or Thanksgiving Parade, but they don't have a whole lot of visibility here.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

trh said:


> If you have a previous recording, then you already have part of what PBS showed on the 4th.
> 
> http://nypost.com/2016/07/05/pbs-used-old-fireworks-footage-during-live-fourth-of-july-show/


I wondered about that. You'd see the fireworks from one direction and they were almost complete obscured by low cloud cover and then all of a sudden from another direction they were bright and clear. I don't really care about the fireworks as part of the show - it's just ambiance, an illusion.

I do like a good fireworks show in person, but...



dpeters11 said:


> I kind of wish they did more in Cincinnati. Maybe not necessarily to the NYC level of fireworks or Thanksgiving Parade, but they don't have a whole lot of visibility here.


...it just seems like locally things just aren't what they used to be.











Cholly said:


> I can only commment on the second hour of the Boston show. We were all outside, watching people blow up the neighborhood. :grin: When the show finally got to the fireworks, the music was, to say the least, inappropriate for the Fourth. You'd think they could have played Sousa marches and other patriotic music instead of pop music that didn't fit in. My regret is that I didn't think to record the Macy's and Capitol shows. :bang Did they play the Stars and Stripes Forever? If so, we missed it. That was always a highlight of the broadcast. As to the musical part that we did see, it wasn't up to the eequality of previous broadcasts. Keith Lockhart is good, but cant match Fiedler or John Williams.


"A Capitol Fourth" did a whole Sousa thing which is always inspiring and this year's show I thought was very, very good. You can *stream it on PBS*.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Fireworks were fun when I was young and "everybody" would show up to the high school football field for the show. The next town down the road wasn't so close that there was competition.

I have moved ... now I am closer to more fireworks shows and it seems like there are several every night for a week. The market has been saturated.

The other influence has been the legalization (in Indiana) of larger fireworks for home use. A few years ago one could legally use ground fireworks and a few people set off "out of state" fireworks illegally or with a special permit. Now it seems "everyone" is creating their own aerial displays. A couple weeks of that and I am ready for the fireworks to end.

They just are not as special as they once were.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

phrelin said:


> On the other hand, IMHO it would have been ok if CBS had not bothered to bring us "Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular."


Well, then I guess it wasn't that much of a disaster when DTV just had up the "Don't call us" technical difficulties placard for my local Augusta, GA CBS outlet that night ...


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

James Long said:


> Fireworks were fun when I was young and "everybody" would show up to the high school football field for the show. The next town down the road wasn't so close that there was competition.
> 
> I have moved ... now I am closer to more fireworks shows and it seems like there are several every night for a week. The market has been saturated.
> 
> ...


As you might expect, these days here in California fireworks displays are limited while wildfires are seemingly widespread. It was the other way around from when I was a kid.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

I never saw anything but the PBS show until this year, when I watched a little bit of the Macy's one. Never knew anyone else had one until now. Of course it helps that my town always does their fireworks show on Saturday, regardless of when the 4th actually falls, so most years we can see a live show one night, and watch the concert another.


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## Delroy E Walleye (Jun 9, 2012)

We used to watch the Pops back in the Johnny Williams days on A&E. If I recall it was hosted by Perkins & Graves (the Biography dudes).

It seemed to me that annual broadcast had deteriorated over the years from what it once was. I don't regret having missed this one, especially since another member of the household had seen it and couldn't recommend it.

I did watch both the PBS _Capitol_ and Macy's _Spectacular_. They were ok, I guess. Had to FF through certain parts, though.

I've also wondered if any of the fireworks displays were supposed to be actually "synced" to any music. I've never in my life seen any fireworks - live or recorded music, in person or on TV - that pulled this off with any effect. It's been tried for decades. However, the Macy's had three positions over the river that were definitely synced to one another visually with identical displays and that was kind of cool...


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Delroy E Walleye said:


> I've also wondered if any of the fireworks displays were supposed to be actually "synced" to any music. I've never in my life seen any fireworks - live or recorded music, in person or on TV - that pulled this off with any effect. It's been tried for decades.


Watch one of Disney World fireworks displays.


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## Delroy E Walleye (Jun 9, 2012)

trh said:


> Watch one of Disney World fireworks displays.


Well, I'd bet if anyone could actually successfully pull it off, it'd be Disney, for sure. Plus, there's likely not quite as much "acreage" to cover from a long distance which should make the effect more instantaneous and a little easier to time correctly.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Delroy E Walleye said:


> Well, I'd bet if anyone could actually successfully pull it off, it'd be Disney, for sure. Plus, there's likely not quite as much "acreage" to cover from a long distance which should make the effect more instantaneous and a little easier to time correctly.


If I understand correctly, it is a small World, after all.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I've heard it's a _Mickey Mouse_ operation.


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