With strong additions to the schedule for the fall season, local PBS affiliates WTTW-Ch. 11 and WYCC-Ch. 20, and Northwest Indiana’s WYIN-Ch. 56 may be batting a thousand with their viewers.
And heeere’s the pitch:
“Baseball,” the new documentary from the Civil War series’ producer Ken Burns, is the lead-off hitter in the fall line-up for WTTW and WYIN starting Sunday and Sept. 26 respectively. The series examines the history of the game and how it links Americans as a people.
“In a way, `Baseball’ is sort of a follow-up to the Civil War series,” Burns said in a telephone interview. “`Baseball’ is a way to find out about people the Civil War made. It’s a wonderful way to see our national story.”
The series consists of nine installments, called innings. It covers all aspects of the history of the game, from its official emergence as a national sport in 1845 to the present.
Each inning also thoroughly covers the progression of the sport in the under-emphasized but equally athletic Negro Leagues, and the women who struggled for recognition in the sport.
“Baseball has always been connected to time, family, memory and the home,” Burns said. “It’s the background music to America. It’s a way of cherishing all of our greatest memories and moments.”
If you forget to tape the series, the set of nine tapes will be available for purchase Friday for $179.98.
In addition to “Baseball,” new historical documentaries, stimulating science and nature shows, and colorful educational programs for both parents and children are on tap for WTTW.
“Our station continues to appeal to a wide variety of audiences,” said Anders Yocom, vice president, broadcasting for WTTW. “One hour we may be appealing to people who like paleontology and dinosaurs, the next hour we may feature beautiful concerts, then there will be political programming … all kinds of things.”
WTTW may be the biggest of the three PBS affiliates, but WYCC and WYIN have established their own niches in the public television arena.
WYIN serves the south suburbs of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. The station’s strongest feature is its emphasis on local college and high school sports in addition to PBS programming.
And believe it or not, one of the station’s most popular series is re-worked, re-edited re-runs of “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
“We will primarily continue in the same direction we’ve gone in for the past couple of years,” said Richard Parker, general manager of WYIN-Ch. 56. “There is a strong need in Northwest Indiana and the south suburbs for good local programming. We’re more interested in what’s going on around here.”
WYCC-Ch. 20 takes the enriching programming that PBS offers one step further by making television a venue for adult education.
“We have a specific mission,” said Cynthia Zeiden, director of broadcast information for WYCC-Ch. 20. “We are offering something that’s affordable and realistic at a local level. I have no fear of losing our viewers.”
WYCC is owned by the City Colleges of Chicago and offers college credit through telecourses. But instead of shows featuring an absent-minded professor droning incessantly in front of a blackboard, viewers see the same stimulating programs one sees on other PBS stations.
The difference? The shows are paired with study guides and accompanying books, making them classes instead of mere television shows.
Though only about 7,000 people are registered to earn credit through the station’s programming, Zeiden said WYCC-Ch. 20 reaches about 500,000 households, or 1 million people, according to the latest estimates from Arbitron.
What’s more, “we’re working towards… classes that allow viewers to earn an associate degree via television,” said Zeiden. “That will bring us even closer to our viewers.”
WYCC-Ch. 20’s best offering is a 15-part foreign film series entitled “The World of Cinema,” part of the Fine Arts 104 telecourse and a must-see for foreign film fanatics. Films from France, Italy, India, Russia, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Mexico and Sweden compose the course.
The series features works by legendary filmmakers, including such masterpieces of the macabre as F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” and Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” and “I Vitelloni,” from the immortal Federico Fellini.
The foreign film series began Sept. 7 and is scheduled to run every Wednesday evening, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. with reruns Sundays from 7 to 9 p.m.
The 10-hour series “Millenium: Tribal Wisdom and The World” also will make its premiere on Channel 20 this fall. The series tells the stories of 11 people in tribal cultures and shows how we view life, how we answer questions and face dillemmas common to all of us as human beings.
“Storytime,” a series that teaches children to love reading, also premieres on WYCC-Ch. 20 this fall. “Storytime” is targeted at children from 3 to 7, and features celebrities reading selections from children’s literature.
Premieres for other PBS stations are listed below:
Another strong offering on WTTW (premiering at 1 p.m. Sunday) is Daniel Wilson’s “The Hermitage: A Russian Odyssey,” a documentary 15 years in the making. The film features the elaborate Russian museum, one of most respected in art circles but least recognized by the masses. The Hermitage is home to numerous Picassos, Matisses, and more Rembrandts than any other art museum in the world.
The three one-hour installments examine the museum through a historical perspective from the reign of Catherine the Great, who established the collection and acquired many of the great works it now holds, to the fall of communism.
Also joining PBS line-up of familiar shows is “FDR,” a new four-hour mini-series for “The American Experience”, now entering its seventh season. “FDR” examines the life and times of one of the nation’s most enigmatic presidents, who brought the country through the difficulties of The Great Depression and World War II. It also examines the accomplishments of his wife, Eleanor, who used her position to work for change in the country.
Moving from one royal family to another, “The Windsors” examines the triumphs and troubles of the British royal family. From the reign of George V to the fall of Fergie, the four hour-long episodes should appeal to anglophiles and tabloid fans alike.
Public television continues to live up to its reputation of bringing the world to viewers with specials that offer breathtaking glimpses into the lands and lives of people far removed from their living rooms.
Two new National Geographic specials feature the lush cultures and lands of Asia. “China Beyond the Clouds,” is a four-hour documentary looking at the culture of the southwestern region of China through the eyes of three local families. “The Great Indian Railway” steams its way through India via the locomotive system, portraying the diversity of the land and its people in a two hour, a 38,000 mile journey.
Another cultural series takes to the high seas: “Nomads of the Wind” explores the beautiful South Seas and the people that call the region home. The five-part series traces the history of the islands from pre-human settlement through the arrival of European explorers and pirates, their exploitation of resources and the spread of disease through contact.
“Future Quest,” a new addition to PBS’ science programming, is a weekly series examining where science and techonology is going and what it these advances will mean to humankind.
The show will be fast-moving and feature lots of special effects to appeal to “a younger, hip audience in order to get them interested in science,” Yocom said.
To get young children hooked on science, PBS recruits “Bill Nye The Science Guy” and “The Magic School Bus” to add to its spectacular science shows.
Nye is a teacher, comedian, scientist and author who demonstrates science through real-world activities. The show’s features including “Follow Along At Home Experiments,” music videos and special effects help to make learning about science fun.
“The Magic School Bus,” based on a series of children’s books, disguises learning in a fully animated television show, a first for PBS.
The show features Ms. Frizzle (voice by actress Lily Tomlin), a science teacher who takes her dispassionate students on inventive field trips to stimulate their interest in science. Other celebrities will also be making cameo appearances.
Finally, “Think Twice” brings everything together in a half-hour game show, produced by WGBH, Boston. Contestants compete in teams of two in a test of their knowledge, imagination and intuition on subjects ranging from science and history to popular culture.
Of course, PBS fans won’t want to miss new episodes of their favorite shows.
“Masterpiece Theater” enters its 24th season on WTTW with four films in the fall. First, Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson stars in “The Blue Boy,” an adaptation of a Scottish legend of a woman haunted by the vision of a boy who died a century earlier.
“The Rector’s Wife,” a three-part series based on the novel by Joanna Trollope, is the story of a woman who defies her husband and church by taking a job at a supermarket and sparking the interests of three men.
Another film, “Dandelion Dead,” is a three-part series based on one of the most famous murder trials in British history. Herbert Armstrong, the main character, is a solicitor in a small market town in the ’20s who faces conflict on the home front with his wife, at work with a business rival, and outdoors with the dandelions that have taken over his lawn. “Dr. Finlay, II” rounds out the lineup. The six-part series follows the good doctor and his colleagues as they tend to a village in Scotland in the aftermath of World War II.
“American Playhouse” comes back with “Ethan Frome.” Liam Neeson, the star of “Schindler’s List,” and “True Romance’s” Patricia Arquette will star in the production.
The “Mystery!” series returns this fall with six new adventures starring Georges Simenon’s Inspector Jules Maigret, followed by four new exploits from Agatha Christie’s Belgian super-sleuth Poirot.
As always, WTTW brings new installments of “Chicago Tonight With John Callaway” as well as late night lunacy with “Wild Chicago” and cutting edge entertainment on “Image Union.”
