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
Greetings from Baltimore! Day One
I'm currently in Baltimore attending the annual PBS Showcase conference, where public TV station personnel meet to mingle with PBS executives, as well as producers of series that will be airing soon on screens nationwide. Keep reading for the highlights of the first day, including some big announcements!
The morning kicked off with a breakfast hosted by Sesame Workshop, producers of Sesame Street and The Electric Company. The magical Muppet Abby Cadabby made an in-person appearance to poke fun at Sesame Workshop President Gary Knell and to introduce clips from the new season. Celebrity guests will include Michelle Obama, Ricky Gervais and Adam Sandler. The cast of the new Electric Company also showed up to perform several songs from the show and to demonstrate the skills of Shock, the human beat box. Electric Company will expand to five days a week beginning this fall.
PBS President Paula Kerger began the first session by expressing a renewed commitment to performing arts and professional journalism. She also announced that the Ford Foundation has contributed $1 million to EDCAR, the Education Digital Content Asset Repository, which will make the collected educational content of the public TV system available online for educators.
Jim Lehrer made a surprise appearance to dispel rumors that he will be retiring from the Newshour. He also announced the fifth iteration of the long-running series. (Bonus points if you can name the other four!) Beginning in September, the show will be redubbed the PBS Newshour, and will have a modified format designed to incorporate the entire news team. There'll be two anchors (Jim Lehrer and a rotating group of co-anchors) in the studio, as well as more original reporting from the field.
A quick overview of programming early in the production process included such intriguing titles as The Story of China (with historian Michael Wood), Fashion in America, Superheroes: Comic Books in America, The War Within (regarding Latino participation in America's wars), The South and a tasty special named Breakfast Anytime. Comedian Lewis Black will appear in a new project called In Search of Happiness.
Previews of prime-time shows which will air on WILL within the year included Antiques Roadshow, which will return with 18 new episodes and a new segment called "Antiques' Most Wanted," profiling stolen works of art. The Botany of Desire looks to be a breathtakingly beautiful look at the plant world from the plants' point of view. American Experience will present "Earth Days" for the 40th anniversary of our recognition of the fragility of our environment. Patrick Stewart will star as Macbeth in an upcoming Great Performances episode.
Filmmaker Ken Burns capped off the first day's previews with a look not only at his National Parks series, coming in September, but at a sequel to Baseball entitled The 10th Inning (2010) and a look back at our misguided attempt at Prohibition (premiering Winter 2011).
Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
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