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Xbox’s First TV Series Will Examine the ‘E.T.’ Video Game Debacle of 1983 — Including Excavating Millions of the Games From a Landfill

Dec 19, 2013  •  Post A Comment

The first television series for Xbox is set to debut in 2014, and the show will be a documentary series examining a subject near and dear to the hearts of many gamers: the "E.T." video game debacle of 1983, USA Today reports.

The series, which is reportedly set to begin shooting in January, will look at a massive trash dump of "E.T." Atari video game cartridges, the story notes.

"As part of the production, the landfill in which millions of unsold ‘E.T. the Extraterrestrial’ video game cartridges were buried in Alamogordo, Mexico, will be excavated," the story reports. "Lightbox, the production company of producer Simon Chinn (‘Searching for Sugar Man’ and ‘Man on Wire’) and Jonathan Chinn (FX’s ’30 Days’ and PBS’s ‘American High’), will be on the scene to document that for the series."

The project falls under the purview of veteran TV exec Nancy Tellem, the former CBS Network Television Entertainment Group president went to Microsoft in September 2012 to oversee the new Xbox Entertainment Studio.

Said Tellem: "Jonathan and Simon Chinn are the perfect team to spearhead this series for Xbox. They are consummate storytellers and they plan to match their creative sensibility with the best talent in the industry. These stories will expose how the digital revolution created a global democracy of information, entertainment and commerce, and how it impacts our lives every day."

The series will also cover the rise of Atari, the report notes, adding: "The series will air exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox 360 in 2014 and will be available globally in all markets where Xbox Live is supported."

The story also notes: "Microsoft previously announced its plans to begin production of original programming earlier this year — including a new Steven Spielberg-executive produced TV series based on the Halo video games along with the unveiling of the Xbox One."

ET Atari game.jpg

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