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
Who's on Masterpiece Classic?
The afternoon program preview session capped off the second day of PBS Showcase. The big news was that David Tennant (Doctor Who, Masterpiece's "Casanova") will be hosting the fall season of Masterpiece Contemporary.
More about new and returning PBS series after the jump!
Headlining Masterpiece's run of modern dramas will be William Hurt starring in "Endgame," regarding the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
Masterpiece Classic will be back in early 2010 with follow-ups to "Cranford" (featuring Dame Judi Dench) and "Sharpe" (with Sean Bean). There also will be remakes of Jane Austen's "Emma," and "The 39 Steps."
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will host a series called Faces of America. Like his previous African-American Lives, it 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.
Frontline will explore the transformative nature of online culture in "Digital Nation" when it returns in October.
A second series of Pioneers of Television will look at the iconic personalities who shaped our TV culture. Four episodes will profile those who broke new ground in the genres of science-fiction, kids' shows, westerns and prime-time dramas.
Nature will present several spectacular new animal documentaries. "Moment of Impact" will use high-speed photography and computer animation to detail the complicated series of skeletal and muscular movements that occur when predator meets prey. "Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions" will be the third chapter in the lives of wild horses, while "Born Wild: The First Day of Life" will depict birth in the animal world. Ill-tempered grizzlies will fight over scarce resources in "Fortress of the Bears," and "Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom" will track the powerful carnivore that inspired the comic-book superhero.
I'll give you the scoop on the final programming preview session tomorrow!
back to the main {blog_title} page
Post a comment on this entry: