TV Worth Blogging
by David Thiel, Program Director for WILL-TV
An insider's view of public television programming and the issues that help determine what and how you watch
Arrest of PBS Host Sparks Controversy
As a public television program director, it's not the sort of headline you want to see: a notable PBS host arrested. But when the person in question is Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent African-American scholar, the story becomes larger and stranger. And that was before President Obama weighed in.
Gates, named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997, is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard. His work for PBS includes America Beyond the Color Line, African-American Lives and, most recently, Looking for Lincoln. Next year he'll present Faces of America, which will use geneology and DNA research to chart the unknown backgrounds of twelve well-known Americans including Yo-Yo Ma, Eva Longoria, Kristi Yamaguchi and Stephen Colbert.
But the incident that made Gates the talk of cable news occurred last week, when the professor was arrested on his porch in Cambridge. Confronted with a stuck door after returning home from a China trip, he forced his way into the house. A worker at a nearby business mistook the break-in as an illegal act and contacted police.
What happened next is still under debate, but it's safe to say that Gates was unhappy about being confronted by officers in his own home. (I know that I would feel much the same.) Despite having shown identification, he was arrested for "exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior."
The charges were eventually dropped, but it was too late: the arrest has become an example of alleged racial profiling. President Obama addressed the incident in last evening's primetime press conference, saying "The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."
Reasonable people might disagree whether the officers acted appropriately to what was, at first glance, a legitimate police call, or whether Gates took his understandable anger too far. But hauling a high-profile Harvard professor out of own his home in handcuffs probably wasn't the brightest move.
PBS Scores Dozens of Emmy Nominations
This week, PBS was recognized with 67 Emmy nominations by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Twenty-six were for so-called "primetime" programs, with another 41 in news and documentary categories. Top honorees included the Masterpiece presentation of "Little Dorrit" with 11 nods, and the documentary series P.O.V. with ten.
Outstanding Miniseries nominee "Dorrit" led the pack among those PBS shows cited in the Primetime Emmy Nominations announced Thursday, July 16. Tom Courtenay and Andy Serkis were recognized for their work as Supporting Actors in that production.
PBS picked up three nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie: Kenneth Branagh for "Wallander" (Masterpiece Mystery!), Kevin Kline for "Cyrano de Bergerac" and Sir Ian McKellen for "King Lear" (both from Great Performances).
Other major primetime nominees were Antiques Roadshow for Outstanding Reality Program; and American Experience and American Masters for Outstanding Nonfiction Series. Outstanding Special Class Programs included George Carlin: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, and Great Performances for "Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008."
On Tuesday, July 14, NATAS announced its News and Documentary Emmy nominees, and PBS was the undisputed leader with 41, nearly twice as many as second-place CBS. Adding to the ten for P.O.V. were seven for Frontline and Frontline/World, and four for Nova. Other news and documentary series series singled out included Bill Moyers' Journal, Independent Lens, Nature, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Now on PBS, Secrets of the Dead, Wide Angle and Worldfocus.
Molly Sugden Dies
Molly Sugden, best known to WILL-TV viewers as "Mrs. Slocombe" on the long-running British comedy Are You Being Served?, has died at age 86, according to BBC News. She is the second AYBS? cast member to pass away this year, the first being Wendy Richard, who played "Miss Brahms."
Sugden was introduced to WILL-TV's audience in June 1989 when the series enjoyed its local premiere. With her signature multi-hued hair, Sugden's character was a mainstay of our schedule throughout the '90s until we rested AYBS? in December 2001. The comedy returned last year when it was selected by viewers during our annual Britcom Vote.
Her reign as a queen of TV comedy lasted much longer in Britain, beginning with a 1962 series entitled Hugh and I. She continued to make televised appearances into the early 2000s.
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