Wake-Up Call: Forward into the past

It's 1959 all over again tonight on KBDI, the public television station that airs Colorado Inside Out, a roundtable devoted to covering current events every week -- except the week of July 4. That's when the talented crew moves the show to a historic period and then prays the panelists...

By Patricia Calhoun

July 3, 2009

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It's 1959 all over again tonight on KBDI, the public television station that airs Colorado Inside Out, a roundtable devoted to covering current events every week -- except the week of July 4. That's when the talented crew moves the show to a historic period and then prays the panelists can come up with some coherent discussion.

It didn't work when we went back to 1968: Then-host Peter Boyles called me and fellow panelist Dani Newsum "sluts" and we laughed for ten minutes. We did better last July, when the roundtable was transported to 1858, the year that Dernver was founded. That show has been nominated for a regional Emmy; last year, a show set in the '20s was an Emmy runner-up.

This time, patient co-producer Larry Patchett has set the show in 1959, when the Cold War was hot and Denver was booming. Watch the fireworks tonight at 8 p.m. on Channel 12.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

Contact: Patricia Calhoun

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