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"The Beast" was one of the greatest TV series you've never seen. Broadcast in the summer of 2001 - just three months before the World Trade Center attacks - it showed America grappling with the media's role in a changing world.

Frank Langella played Jackson Burns, the head of a 24-hour television news channel launching a radical experiment in transparency. From a cutting-edge studio, they'll also broadcast 24-hour footage of the channel's entire staff! They'll "feed the beast" - becoming the programming for an audience that's always hungry for news. This original premise led to some surprisingly exciting situations while subtly suggesting questions about modern journalism.

"Harry" is the mysterious figure filming them all, and he's not allowed to intervene. He communicates through remote text messages, in one episode telling a story with implications for them all. If U.S. soldiers were about to be ambushed, should a U.S. reporter intervene, or simply record the event? Harry's question isn't a hypothetical; he knows an armed gunman has arrived in the studio. But he also knows that he's not allowed to intervene.

The energy of a televised newsroom was only the beginning, since more tension came from the high-stakes crimes they'd investigate. (One episode actually asked whether a foreign dictator was stockpiling chemical weapons.) The journalists investigated unsolved crimes and crooked elections, and once even insisted that an execution be televised. There were thoughtful speeches about the media's role in informing a society - but the show also recognized how intriguing society's power structure could be.

Everything about the show was original, including the way it was filmed. Each episode would include webcam footage as well as in-studio footage, besides the dramatic scenes in the main stories. The show was directed by Mimi Leder, who'd previously won two Emmys for her work on ER, and writer Jeff Pinker went on to write episodes of "Lost." The plot could've been seen as hokey, but the well-written characters gave a personal stake to each episode.

As a summer replacement series, this show was eventually cancelled. But it offered an entertaining glimpse at one way the news media could've evolved. The world has changed since the show was first broadcast. But in some ways, that makes it even more interesting.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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