Moogan Master Site
THE GROUND STATION
"THE GROUND STATION" IS AN ANTHOLOGY SERIES THAT RAIDS THE LEGENDARY FOX MOVIETONE NEWS ARCHIVES TO CREATE EXTREMELY COOL CONTENT THAT REVELS IN HISTORY!
SOME SHOWS WILL CELEBRATE THE ARCHIVES THEMSELVES WITH THEMATIC EPISODES THAT HIGHLIGHT SOME BITS OF CONTENT THAT MAY HAVE GONE UNSEEN SINCE THEY WERE FIRST SHOWN IN THEATERS.
IN OTHERS, THE ASSETS WILL PLAY A MORE TRADITIONAL DOCUMENTARY ROLE, SUPPORTING A SPECIFIC NARRATIVE.
RANGING IN LENGTHS FROM AS LONG AS ONE HOUR TO QUICK THIRTY SECOND SHOTS, "THE GROUND STATION" WILL CURATE BLISTERINGLY DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING WITH THE ETHOS THAT "CONTEXT IS KING." OR QUEEN. OR BRUTAL DICTATOR. "THE GROUND STATION" IS...
The Lure of History. The Lore of History.
"It always amuses historians and philosophers to pick out the tiny things, the sharp agate points, on which the ponderous balance of destiny turns..."
Sir Winston Churchill
The Episodes
WHEN THE TIGERS BROKE FREE
(60 MINUTES)
2nd Lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters of the Royal Fusiliers, Company Z, was killed fighting the Nazis in Anzio, Italy on February 17, 1944.
His son, Roger, was five months old when Waters was killed. Roger Waters would become the creative mind behind Pink Floyd and, with his band, would write a song about his dad's death called, "When The Tigers Broke Free".
If you're not well-versed in your Floyd, you can listen to the entire song below while weeping quietly at your desk.
In this hour-long special, Waters will confront his own very personal stake in history and discuss how the trauma of global conflict and the years of post-war austerity provided the life-blood on both sides of the pond that would herald the angry birth of Rock.
"When the Tigers Broke Free" will cover the whole of the Battle of Anzio including Waters' assertion that poor decision-making contributed to his dad's death.
He’ll also engage with The Archive as we discuss the power of propaganda, his hatred of the foreign policy of The West and his deep, complicated love for the United States, his adopted home.
HOVER OVER MEDIA & CLICK ON MUSIC NOTE TO PLAY
Los Angeles Crime: The Onion Field
KIDNAPPED FROM THE HEART OF HOLLYWOOD AND TAKEN ON A TWO-HOUR TERROR RIDE INTO THE LOW DESERT, THE FATES OF TWO LAPD COPS REST IN THE HANDS OF A PAIR OF STICK-UP MEN...AND A CASE FROM THIRTY YEARS PRIOR.
LAPD Officer Ian Campbell
The corner of Gower & Carlos from where the officers were kidnapped.
Police reenactment of the murder of Officer Ian Campbell in an onion field in Bakersfield, CA.
LAPD Officer Ian Campbell
BY NIGHT'S END, OFFICER IAN CAMPBELL WOULD LIE DEAD IN AN ONION FIELD. HIS PARTNER OF NINE DAYS, KARL HETTINGER WOULD ESCAPE HIS WOULD-BE KILLERS, BUT NOT THE TRAUMA OF THAT NIGHT WHICH WOULD DOG HIM TO AN EARLY GRAVE.
"LOS ANGELES CRIME: THE ONION FIELD CASE" WILL USE DECADES OF ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE TO RETELL THE TALE WHILE CONNECTING IT TO ONE OF THE NATION'S MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMES FROM A GENERATION BEFORE:
"HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THE 'LITTLE LINDBERGH' LAW?" THAT'S WHAT GUNMAN GREGORY POWELL ASKED IAN CAMPBELL RIGHT BEFORE SHOOTING THE OFFICER IN THE FACE.
THIRTY-ONE YEARS EARLIER, ALMOST TO THE DAY, A KIDNAPPER SNATCHED THE CHILD OF FAMED AVIATOR CHARLES LINDBERGH FROM HIS CRIB.
THE ARCHIVE WILL CREATE CONTEXT FOR THE WORDS POWELL SPOKE THAT SEALED THE OFFICER'S FATE AND RADICALLY ALTERED HIS PARTNER'S LIFE.
ON THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KIDNAPPING AND MURDER OF CHARLES LINDBERGH, JR AND THE EVE OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE "ONION FIELD" CASE, "THE GROUND STATION" EXPLORES THE DEADLY CONNECTION BETWEEN THEM AND HOW IGNORANCE OF HISTORY COST ONE GOOD COP HIS LIFE.
Ichi-go ichi-e is the Japanese concept of keeping precious the unrepeatable nature of moment.
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And few things seal a moment in amber like an eyewitness account.
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PRESENCE is built around that concept and will amplify the voices of those who were there.
"WE'VE GOT TO GET AWAY BEFORE THE PLANE EXPLODES!"
JULY 12, 1949 - A Standard Airlines C-46 with 48 souls aboard bound for Burbank, California emerges from a fog and slams into a mountain. Thirteen survived.
The brunette in that clip is Caren Marsh-Doll. She was Judy Garland's stand-in on "The Wizard of Oz." We'll talk to her about her experience. Because she's 104.
"OH, THE HUMANITY!"
May 6, 1937 - The German airship Hindenburg explodes while attempting to dock in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
The footage is among the most famous of the 20th Century.
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The traumatic survivor stories are less well-known. Score another win for The Archive.
"POV: SHATNER/MANSON"
The Manson Family Murders of August 1969. The savagery visited on Sharon Tate and her pals in Benedict Canyon, and on Rosemary and Leno LaBianca in Los Feliz, shocked the celebrity class of L.A. as well as the city and country at large.
William Shatner, freshly unemployed after "Star Trek" was cancelled, looks back on that cruel, twisted summer that put an appropriately grim end-note to a particularly vicious decade.
PRODUCER'S NOTE: GETTING SHATNER'S TAKE ON THE MANSON MURDERS ISN'T A STUNT. THE GUY'S LENS IS UNIQUE AND I WANT TO GET THIS IN THE BANK WHILE HE'S STILL WITH US. MIXED TAKES LIKE "SHATNER/MANSON" ARE GOING TO GIVE THIS SHOW DANGEROUS ENERGY.
CAUSE: AN ELEMENT THAT GIVES RISE TO ACTION
EFFECT: THE RESULT OR CONSEQUENCE OF THAT ACTION
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These vignettes breathe new life into
The Archives with dead-on, often funny commentary and context for some of the major and minor events of the last century. When there happened to be a camera around.
WHEN YOU ROB A BANK BUT ITS CINEMA!
HOW TO FIGHT BANDITS IN MALAYA!
After the Second World War, a new fear gripped America that what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki could happen in South Bend and Skokie. ENTER THE SPOTTERS...
THE BRIDGE IS FINE. IT'S JUST FINE.
COLLABORATE WITH NAZIS, GET A NEW HAIRCUT!
FACIST FORMER JAILER VISITS THE OLD OFFICE
MORE GOLD FROM THE ARCHIVES
MYTH & LEGEND
BIGFOOT, NESSIE, THE JERSEY DEVIL, PICK YOUR REGIONAL MONSTER. INVEST IN CRYPTO...CRYPTOZOOLOGY.
CELEBS OF THE ARCHIVES
GOOD OLD-FASHIONED PROPAGANDA WASN'T JUST FOR WAR. CELEBRITIES ARE ALL OVER THE ARCHIVE, WHETHER THEY SERVED IN UNIFORM, PUT IN FACE TIME FOR A GOOD CAUSE, OR, YOU KNOW, COMMITTED CRIMES! FILM LEGEND LEONARD MALTIN WILL CONNECT THE DOTS OF WHERE HOLLYWOOD MEETS HISTORY.
AND THE ARCHIVE PROBABLY CONTAINS AS MUCH OLD-SCHOOL RACISM AND SEXISM AS YOU'D GUESS. BUT WE'RE NOT ERASING ANY OF THAT. WE'LL THROW CONTEXT AT IT INSTEAD.
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GO AHEAD - HOVER TO THE RIGHT AND LISTEN TO THIS KNUCKLEHEAD.
The Styles
The styles will depend on the story being told. The only hard-and-fast rule is fidelity to the rules of journalism and measured context over censorship. Everything else - EVERYTHING - is open to a fresh approach with space for radical storytelling.
Wherever possible, music will be pulled from deep within The Archive. It's a cost-saving measure, but also a production challenge the results of which will enrich the fabric of the content we're creating.
Unless we're in on the joke, "The Ground Station" will never use live actor recreations. Instead, we will lean into graphics as well as exciting AI tech to generate powerful new interpretations of events in support of existing archival. (Such examples are included above.)
Why Now?
"THE GROUND STATION" AND THE SHOWS THAT WILL FALL UNDER ITS AEGIS ARE JUST A TEASE AT WHAT'S POSSIBLE WHEN MINING THE RICHES OF THE ARCHIVE. EVERY TRIP INTO THE ARCHIVE GENERATED THE IDEAS IN THIS DOCUMENT. THERE ARE LITERALLY - AND I KNOW THAT'S JUST A WORD KIDS MISUSE - BUT THERE ARE LITERALLY A DOZEN SHOW IDEAS THAT I CAME UP WITH WHILE PRODUCING THIS PITCH DECK THAT I HAVEN'T INCLUDED.
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MY SMALL TEAM AND I (VEAL TEAM 6?) COULD SPEND YEARS IN HERE AND NOT MAKE A DENT IN WHAT'S WAITING TO BE REDISCOVERED.
PRESTIGE PROGRAMMING AND THE ASSETS ARE ALREADY PAID FOR.
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IN THE HANDS OF A PASSIONATE AND IMAGINATIVE TEAM DEDICATED TO THE CELEBRATION OF HISTORY, "THE GROUND STATION" WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF MATERIAL. FROM PROVIDING FRESH CONTEXT FOR CLASSIC FOOTAGE TO PRESENTING RICHES NOT SEEN IN DECADES, WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE A HOME FOR THE MODERN HISTORY LOVER UNLIKE ANY THAT'S COME BEFORE. THAT'S NOT HYPE.
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HISTORY ISN'T DULL. IT'S EVERYTHING. IT'S A HORROR SHOW. IT'S DELIVERANCE. IT'S FUNNY AS HELL. IT'S A CAUTIONARY TALE. IT'S A TESTAMENT. IT'S A WEAPON. IT'S WHO WE ARE WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT.
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AND "THE GROUND STATION" IS THE PORTAL. FOR ALL OF IT.