Customer Reviews

ABC News Specials The New Millennium Highlights (2 DVD set)

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I really enjoyed watching "ABC 2000 Today." For 26 hours, Peter Jennings anchored and Roger Goodman directed what the BBC called "the most ambitious live TV broadcast ever." I watched ABC's original broadcast and really enjoyed it. I also realized that "ABC 2000" is also "ABC 2000 Today" because ABC, BBC, and other international broadcasters (like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)) pooled their expertise with the BBC and helped the BBC with their coverage.

This DVD condenses the 24 hours into 2 1/2 hours of highlights.

"ABC 2000 Today" is a good memento not just for now, but for many years to come not only because it's the only time in our lifetimes will we ever see a new year like this-seeing a new year dawn, a new century, and a new millennium-but also see an ambitious live TV broadcast like this-operation involving around 60 satellite paths, several thousand kilometers of fiber optic cable, and over 2,000 cameras, according to the BBC. Because of this, we saw every event, not just the fireworks displays, but also commentary, guests, and others talking to Mr. Jennings about the millennium.

I think that ABC and PBS both blended their coverage together because of this broadcast group. There are 2 people outside of ABC we should be grateful for: Dick Clark for being part of "ABC 2000 Today," so that he could his traditional New Year's Eve countdown in Times Square, which was televised around the world, even on the BBC (CBC had a taped playback of the Times Square celebration because they televised simultaneous celebrations in Toronto, Hull, Quebec, and Ottawa), and Zvi Dor-Ner, an executive producer at PBS affilliate WGBH-TV in Boston, which co-produced the BBC's coverage, for having the vision for 2000 Today. ABC is also grateful that the BBC New York bureau helped them with their coverage

Peter, Roger, Dick, and Zvi: Nice job you all did that day. You helped produce the millennium as it could be only brought to us by the world's most watched news service.

If we did this New Year's for 30 or 40 years, we'll never have another New Year's like we had for the year 2000.