The Olympic spirit can live on ... if you let it.

“War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” (Edwin Starr)

That’s what I thought on Saturday night while watching prime time Olympic coverage on NBC. Tom Brokow, who continues to milk his authorship of “The Greatest Generation”, narrated what felt like an endless feature on Great Britain’s role in World War II. As the images of clashing armies and Adolph Hitler flashed across the screen, I winced. From a TV producer’s perspective, it was in bad taste and bad timing. As a global citizen, it felt toxic.

Up until then, the 2012 London Summer Olympics had a minimum of politicization. I enjoyed NBC’s coverage, which has focused on the peaceful human drama and competition between the world’s most fabulous athletes. It has been a glorious and sometimes exhilarating experience to witness 10,000 gladiators from more than 200 National Olympic Committees running, swimming, vaulting, jumping, diving, volleying, dribbling, shooting, serving, spiking, acing, riding, rowing, punching and medaling without international incident.

The Olympics can make you feel like the world is a better place than it seems most days. A stage where battlers hug their rivals and acknowledge world-class performances, even when the other guy or gal wins.

Maybe the truth is that we live in a mostly good world. But when we become obsessed with following violence, strife and political division, we lose sight of what’s typical. Aberration becomes average. Dysfunction seems mainstream. Perception is reality.

Most people are working hard to succeed and not terrorizing or harming their neighbors. Each of us struggles to triumph in his or her own little way in life. And every once in a while, we break a world record, even if it’s only in our little world.

In the weeks and months to come, I’ll be thinking back on the 2012 Summer Olympiad. When ships bump each other in the Straits of Hormuz, when politicians lob mud bombs in the endless American elections, and when economists predict financial catastrophe, I’ll try to remember the remarkable global unity and the power of positive energy that is the spirit of the Olympics.

Local matters

While the world tunes into the Academy Awards to see who waltzes away with Oscar, I’d like to take just a minute to focus attention on the local scene. Not Michigan’s movie industry, but Detroit TV.

 As a product of the Motor City’s television industry from 1979-87, I have to confess it’s painful today to tune into Detroit’s ABC, CBS, NBS and FOX affiliates. These stations’s are skeletons of their former organizations and are generally dedicated to police blotter, scandal, weather and sports. The news departments are actually sharing footage to save costs as budgets dwindle to keep pace with declining audiences. Local programming is virtually extinct, unless it’s a paid infomercial by ahealthcare system or a telethon, with airtime bought by the charity raising funds.

 And then there’s “Let It Rip” on FOX in Detroit. It’s a low budget, bare knuckles, smash mouth gab-a-lot where the smooth and professional veteran news anchor, Huel Perkins, hosts localnewsmakers and commentators on the hottest topics, usually local. His corner man and cohost, attorney, Charlie Langton, sparred late Friday night with the co-founders of Detroit 300 -- a grass roots, community group that works the city’s streets to make them safer. They were deconstructing last week’s murder of a nine-month old boy, shot in in a gang-related incident when assailants used an assault weapon to indiscriminately pepper his home with rapid gunfire.

 The conversation was intelligent, detailing the battle to quell vicious street violence in a town where citizens are reluctant to cooperate with cops. Detroit 300 was calling on resident’s to take back their community by reporting criminals and gang bangers who are crossing the line, to kill grandmothers and babies.

 The production values were simple, but the topic was universally compelling. These ingredients are essential to successful communications and any worthwhile program. There was no screaming and shouting; just an unvarnished yet civilized exploration of an inner-city paradox. A lifestyle where neighbors are afraid of the bad guys and afraid to get caught informing the cops. It’s the most community service I’ve seen from a local TV station in years.

I’m going to be dropping in on “Let It Rip” when I can on Sunday nights at 6:30 p.m. or on demand at myfoxdetroit.com.

 It’s easy to get caught up in the drama of the world torn by war and strife, the struggle for independence, the toxic tragedy of divided nations, including our own, and the spectacular sacrifice that achieves world championships in sports. But few things on television will have more impact on your life than genuine issues in your neighborhood, county or state. In some cases, these are matters of life and death.

 There’s a void among local media created by collapsing budgets chasing a bottomline business strategy over a cliff. The void is waiting for a financial commitment that repays viewers, listeners and readers for their loyal following.

 It’s called meaningful, regular local programming and reporting about things that matter at your kitchen table. I say, let it rip.

"A Bite of the Apple" - Season One

Have you ever watched an episode of your favorite TV series and wished you didn’t have to wait a week or even a day to see the next one? Of course you have.

And in the future, you may get your wish.

Netflix, the Web-based subscription service for viewing movies and TV shows has become a content developer. In fact, they have two original series, and viewers can access an entire season all at once via the Internet. That’s right. No waiting until next week. Watch every episode of a brand new show on the day it debuts.

“Lilyhammer” is the Netflix hit that is now Norway’s most popular TV series. In fact, it’s already the most watched show in Norwegian television history.

It features Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Van Zandt also played the mobster “Silvio” in HBO’s blockbuster hit series “The Sopranos”. A million Norwegians watched the first episode of his new show, in which he plays a New York mob boss in witness protection, hiding out in Lillehammer, Norway. His character, Frank Tagliano, chose the snowy destination based on watching the 1994 Winter Olympics broadcast from there. Now he’s an unemployed, immigrant gangster far from his territory in the big apple. If you’re a “Soprano’s” fan, you can imagine the fun.

Although a Norwegian production company produced the show for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, Netflix helped finance it. And Americans will only see it via the Web, not over the air or on cable. But with Netflix, you can stream it to you big screen.

Hulu, another Internet-based TV entertainment source recently announced its own original series. And YouTube has paid Jay-Z and Madonna to develop YouTube video channels with fresh, unique content.

It only makes sense. If you can deliver entertainment via the Web or some other method, then why pay tolls to cable companies and satellite services. That’s obviously why Comcast bought NBC. They’re only hope for long-term survival is to create their own, exclusive content that people want to watch.

Now here’s an exciting twist to consider. Apple made news this week talking about plans to build on its Apple TV product. It’s an affordable ($200) device that allows you to stream video content from the Internet to your television. Or for that matter, it will mirror you iPad, iPod or iPhone and connect those devises to you big screen, too. So a movie you have on your phone can be viewed wirelessly on the flat screen in your living room or wherever. Apple TV can also connect you to all the content you’ve stored on the iCloud, so you have access to all the assets you own.

Up until now, Apple has made a bundle selling other people’s creative properties via iTunes, where people buy movies, music, TV shows and other entertainment to play on their various pods and pads. But, it’s only a matter of time until we’ll buy  electronic art directly from the artists or their producers.

I wonder if Apple’s next step is to begin generating its own original entertainment to sell with Apple TV. Imagine they hire Ken Burns to produce a documentary series on Steve Jobs and the evolution of his company. Maybe Ron Howard directs a movie based on Jobs’ life. If Mark Zuckerberg gets “The Social Network”, a movie celebrating the launch of Facebook, Jobs deserves an epic drama on the scale of the “Star Wars” trilogy.

At $500 a share for its stock, Apple certainly has the cash to go into the entertainment business. If they’re as good at it as they have been at re-inventing computing and communications, we’ll soon forget about traditional TV.

And if “Jobs” becomes a series, I’ll bet we watch every episode on the first weekend.