Bill's Weekly News Pick

Final 24 -- Biography - Thursday, January 4, 2007 - 10:00 p.m. (EST)

2007-01-02T20:10:00.000-05:00

It's always a bit strange to lose someone in the public eye, especially when they are young. We constantly see them in images that show them happy and alive -- adding irony to what we know is the final chapter to come. Final 24 is a new six-part series on Biography that, each week, tells us the story of a different subject's final 24 hours of life. This isn't The Twilight Zone, so it's not going to change the outcome, but maybe it will shed new light on some tragic farewells.

Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning) -- HBO - Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 6:30 p.m. (EST)

2006-11-27T23:25:00.000-05:00

Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning) is really a documentary film about a South African school dedicated to saving children lost to sexual and drug abuse. Schools like this don't just happen, of course. The technique used here is to have the students themselves dramatize their plight -- the brainchild of the school's founder, activist "Mama Jackey." And what makes this film even more powerful than its subject is its maker -- a 16-year-old named William Ebersol.

Man, Moment, Machine -- History Channel - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - 10:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-10-15T21:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit it -- I'm still a bit of a NASA junkie. It goes back to remembering the early days of Mercury and Apollo a/k/a the heyday of spaceflight, when we actually knew the astronauts' names. Yes, I was a space geek, and so I remember that April morning when Apollo 13 blasted off on still another visit to the moon - the second since Apollo 11 less than a year earlier. I was 14 and remember to this day Walter Cronkite's words as the rocket rose into the sky, "It's a beauty. It's another beauty." At least it WAS until 178,000 miles later, when an explosion nearly ended the astronauts' lives and began an odyssey of scientists desperately trying to return the three explorers to Earth. In this season premiere of Man, Moment, Machine, we get to relive the anxious days that brought the astronauts home safe and sound.

Moyers on America -- PBS - Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-10-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

When Bill Moyers is on, you need to be ready to listen. No, you need to be ready to LISTEN. Moyers violates all the contemporary rules in his specials. They aren't glitzy. And not only is HE not glitzy, he's not particularly energetic either. Instead, Moyers is thoughtful, deliberate and - the usual word attributed to him - cerebral. In this mini-series of three parts, the former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson looks at crime, God and the Internet. It's not guns, gays and God, but everybody knows he's a liberal, so who's surprised? In this first installment, Moyers looks at political corruption through the Jack Abramoff scandal, Congressional ethics, lobbyists and attempts to fix what's broken.

Genius: A Dr. Sanjay Gupta Primetime Special -- CNN - Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 10:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-09-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

Our views of the geniuses among us range from awe to skepticism. Little wonder when we have so little exposure to the most gifted of the gifted. In this CNN documentary, Genius: A Dr. Sanjay Gupta Primetime Special, the network's senior medical correspondent explores what genius really means...and how exclusive the club really is. We are introduced to "prodigious savants," such as the young autistic boy, unable as an infant to tolerate noises or music of almost any kind, who suddenly exhibited a prodigious ability to play the piano. Before he was 10 years old, he was an accomplished pianist and selling CDs. We also hear of so-called "acquired savants," who through some injury become enabled of incredible talents. We meet one young man who, after being struck in the head, is suddenly able to recall details of almost any day in his past. Name a date, and he can tell you the day of the week, the weather and details of what he did that day. The special does not resolve the nature vs. nurture debate, other than to conclude that a combination of both seems necessary. It tantalizes all of us, though, to wonder if we all have the ability somewhere within to display the same kind of genius we have generally attributed to only a few others.

Koppel on Discovery: The Price of Security - Discovery - Sunday, September 10, 2006 - 8:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-09-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

Just one more sign that September is the REAL New Year -- not only do we welcome back Katie Couric in a new role, but Ted Koppel, late of Nightline, returns as well on a new network. In Koppel: The Price of Security, the brainy former ABC anchor/reporter takes a three-hour look at security in the U.S. in the post-9/11 era. The first half is a documentary examining many of the changes that have taken place, with the second placing Koppel in his now-familiar Town Hall format. Expect an evening that's about as cerebral as TV gets.

Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers -- CBS - Friday, September 1, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-08-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

Dan Rather being honored by CBS might sound a bit like Osama Bin Laden commemorating September 11th. But the fact is that, prior to the Recent Unpleasantness that led to Rather's departure from the Public Eye, he had a distinguished if controversial history of more than 40 years at CBS dating back to the era of the Kennedy assassination. Now, as Rather leaves for the obscure channel HDNet run by his friend Mark Cuban, his former colleagues are throwing a going-away party called Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers. Expect some great clips and reflections on Rather's 56-year career. Don't expect to hear from Kenneth.

In The Footsteps of Bin Laden -- CNN - Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-08-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

As the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks approaches, expect to see a number of TV specials (as well as theatrical features) recalling the devastation wrought on that day by Islamic militants. One special this week stands out from the pack, in part because it is reported by the excellent Christiane Amanpour, but also because of its direct subject -- the evil mastermind of the worst domestic attack in United States history -- Osama Bin Laden. CNN Presents: In The Footsteps of Bin Laden examines Bin Laden's transformation from quiet, wealthy but religious schoolboy into radical jihadist. This two-hour special (which will be rebroadcast on Saturday, August 26 and Sunday, August 27) employs the words of those who know this elusive man best -- those who knew and lived with him, as well as the journalists who covered him. One particularly interesting segment features CNN Producer Peter Bergen, Reporter Peter Arnett and others describing the network's groundbreaking interview with the then-not-well-known Bin Laden back in 1997. In an ABC interview with Reporter John Miller the following year, Miller says Bin Laden told him, "I predict a black day for the United States, after which the United States will never be the same."

American Masters: Edward R. Murrow -- PBS - Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-07-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

Just one week after PBS' American Masters series used a profile of Walter Cronkite to make us reflect on we went from a network news anchor being the most trusted man in America to how they are perceived today, this week they do it again (with a rerun from 1990). Many people today only know the name Edward R. Murrow from the hit movie Good Night and Good Luck, his signature signoff (his version of "And that's the way it is."). As on-the-money as David Strathairn's cinematic portrayal was, now you can see the real thing. American Masters' 90-minute profile of Edward R. Murrow takes us from his astounding reporting in World War II (still the standard by which others are measured) to the fearless way he dispatched domestic bully Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This kind of tell-it-as-you-see-it reporting is hard to imagine today -- rather than a Bill O'Reilly or Chris Matthews, you'd first have to imagine a national campaign so pervasive (as was the 1950s Communist witchhunt) that almost no one dared speak out even as hundreds of people were being ruined by rumor and innuendo. There is one sad parallel to today, however. Both Murrow and Cronkite spent their later years feeling to some extent betrayed by the network to which they had given so much. The legacy continues.

Walter Cronkite: Witness to History -- PBS - Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-07-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

One way TV news definitely suffers today is in the quality of broadcast signoffs. In the 1960s, we had "And THAT'S the way it is," on CBS at the same time we had "Good night David. Good night Chet" on NBC. And today's signoffs? Never mind. The CBS signoff was uttered nightly by the man widely known at the time as "the most trusted man in America," Walter Cronkite (imagine ANY media professional today earning that title). After about 20 years in the anchor chair, Cronkite retired from the daily grind in 1981 and passed the mantel on to Dan Rather. Now, 25 years later, PBS's American Masters series salutes Uncle Walter with this 90-minute special. While it is worth recalling Cronkite's shocked but professional reporting of the news that President Kennedy had in fact died of his bullet wounds in Dallas, and the dignified way in which he reported from the floor of the 1964 Democratic National Convention even after being ignominiously yanked from the anchor booth over fear of competition from the Huntley-Brinkley team, it would not be fair to say that Cronkite's broadcasting was without political overtones. President Lyndon Johnson, in fact, is said to have lamented that he had lost the support of the American public on Vietnam after Cronkite openly criticized the war following a visit to Southeast Asia during the Tet Offensive of 1968. That Cronkite was able to retain and even embellish his reputation for trust after such a public rebuke of the President says much for the regard in which he was held. Watch and remember (or learn).

Atlantic Intracoastal Highway -- The History Channel - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-07-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

A lot of attention has been paid in the last year to the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system in the U.S. Now a program that highlights the history of an interstate transportation system that predates the highway system by many years, and is largely natural to boot. The History Channel highlights the 3,000-mile long Atantic Intracoastal Waterway in this special that explains its history as both a natural and manmade commercial and recreational waterway extending down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

CNN Presents -- CNN - Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 7:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-07-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

Remember TWA Flight 800 - the doomed plane that exploded shortly after taking off from JFK Airport ten years ago? Your answer is probably yes. Remember exactly what caused it to explode and crash? Your answer is probably no. Chances are you remember that there was some controversy over the possibility that a terrorist missile (or even an accidentally fired domestic one) destroyed the plane.

The eventual verdict from the National Transportation Safety Board was less sinister...but perhaps scarier. The agency said the center fuel tank exploded as a result of an electrical short circuit. Scarier yet, the NTSB said other older planes still flying were in similar danger of exploding.

This tenth anniversary documentary called No Survivors -- Why TWA 800 Could Happen Again examines the NTSB's conclusion, the conspiracy theories and, perhaps most poignant, the ongoing nightmares of the victims' families who still suspect the government knows more than it is saying.

Oh, and those aging fuel tanks? The FAA is still trying to get the airlines to install safety equipment to prevent other such explosions. According to CNN executive producer Mark Nelson, "The industry says it's too expensive and unnecessary."

American Eats -- The History Channel - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 10 p.m. (EDT)

2006-06-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

We may not have the most respected cuisine in the world, but there's a lot of interesting history even behind what many consider "junk food." Like...well, pizza for instance. American Eats is a new series on The History Channel, and the series kicks off with a look at pizza. This should be interesting -- we all know pizza as Italian, but what you see in Italy doesn't look anything like what Pizza Hut serves. Other gut-busting entries (entrees?) will follow in subsequent weeks.

Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer -- HBO - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10 p.m. (EDT)

2006-04-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

One thing about historical turning points -- you often don't realize their significance until years later. During my first year of college, one of those really hyped events was aging male tennis star Bobby Riggs challenging Billie Jean King to a famous "battle of the sexes" match. This was no mere male vs. female grudge match. Riggs was a generation older than King; his challenge of King and pre-match bluster were designed to send a clear message that "boys can beat girls with their hands tied behind their backs." King, on the other hand, carried herself with dignity and let her playing speak for her. It says a lot that, although I watched the match in a packed room at an all-male school, I have no memory of trash talk about women or King specifically once the match was done and Riggs was humbled. I recall instead a kind of hushed respect for what King had done to silence the old blowhard. There are certainly lots of milestones in the women's movement, but I have to believe that moment in late 1973 represented a deeper change -- that no longer would it be considered in any way valid to suggest that merely being a man constitutes any kind of superiority over women. From that point on, preppy male college students took on renewed respect for their female counterparts.

Ok, scratch that last sentence. This match was but one small part of Billie Jean King's incredible legacy to be celebrated in Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer." King was the first female athlete to win more than $100,000 in prize money in a single season. Six years before Bobby Riggs, she was named Outstanding Female Athlete of the World. And later, Life magazine named her one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century. This special celebrates all of these accomplishments and more. This is not one of those cases where the term "pioneer" is overused.

Easter Encore Documentaries -- CNN - Saturday and Sunday, April 15 - 16, 2006 (See specials and times below)

2006-04-13T21:12:00.000-05:00

On March 29th, we recommended a program called The Last Days of Pope John Paul II. Now, on Easter Eve, CNN is rebroadcasting this documentary on the recent Pontiff who is apparently on the fast track to sainthood. This two-hour special is set for airing on both Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. (EDT).
A second special for the holiday weekend is The Mystery of Jesus, which promises an examination of Jesus' life, including the promise of a look at some of his life's "unanswered questions." You'll have to watch to see if the special includes answers to those questions as well. This special airs on Saturday only at 11 p.m. (EDT).
Finally, The Two Marys: The Madonna and the Magdalene to some extent plays on the popularity of author Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code to offer a revealing glimpse of two crucial figures in Christianity. It airs on Saturday at 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. and Sunday at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. (all EDT).

Three rare serious looks at religious issues offering more than hidden eggs and chocolate bunnies for Easter weekend.

Frontline: The Tank Man -- PBS - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EDT)

2006-04-10T15:22:00.000-05:00

Anyone who is at least 25 years old and who questions the power that one individual can have should remember back to a June morning in 1989. There, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, a column of tanks moved through as a show of force against thousands of demonstrators. Suddenly, a lone figure, a man in a white shirt stood before the tanks, blocking their way. They could have squashed him like a bug with no problem...but they didn't. They stopped, and the lead tank attempted to maneuver around the man. Always facing them, the man moved with the tank each time it tried to evade him. He forced the mighty power of this most populous nation on earth to confront him...to look in his face.

This "tank man's" stand has become the most enduring image of Tiananmen Square, and one of the most enduring for 20th century freedom. Now Frontline explores who this man was, what he did, what happened to him and what he meant for China in "The Tank Man." This documentary is an important look at modern-day schizophrenic China -- engaging in some free-market reforms while still quashing dissent.

CNN Presents -- CNN - Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 7 & 10 p.m., 1 a.m. (EST)

2006-03-29T00:04:00.000-05:00

Here it is, already a year since the death of the beloved Pope John Paul II -- a man who, despite being criticized for traditional views on many social issues, was bold in speaking out against totalitarianism and in defense of human rights. A man who is unquestionably on the fast track to official sainthood. In this installment of CNN Presents called The Last Days of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who served as the Pope's private secretary starting years before his elevation, talks about the late pontiff and his legacy.

Big Storm: The Lyndie England Story -- Sundance - Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 9 p.m. (EST)

2006-03-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

It wasn't the U.S. military's finest hour, nor was it Lyndie England's -- the young Army Reservist from West Virginia who was captured on film grinning as Iraqi inmates were abused and humiliated at Abu Ghraib prison. A lot of people have wondered how Pfc. England allowed herself to take part in such a degrading exercise. Don't expect to fully understand once you've seen this special, but this depiction of her story may at least shed some light. Big Storm: The Lyndie England Story is Sundance's way of observing the third anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq.

Conspiracy Theories -- Discovery - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 10:00 p.m. (EST)

2006-02-28T00:05:00.000-05:00

Now HERE'S a show that's made for us Boomers -- all of us who will never let JFK rest in peace, the NTSB do its job in reconstructing air disasters, or Elvis leave the building. Anytime there's an outcome we don't like, there MUST be a conspiracy behind it. Of course, as they say, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. If conspiracies never occurred, we wouldn't have a word for it. So now, Discovery gives us an investigative series that examines some of the more controversial (not to say credible) alleged conspiracies. The opener takes a look once again at the 1947 crash of an alien spaceship (well of course it was) near Roswell, New Mexico. Finally, we'll find out what really happened. Well, I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure we will. Really.

Space Shuttle: Countdown to Comeback -- Discovery Channel - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST)

2006-02-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, we all have our favorite things -- for Julie Andrews, it was raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. One of mine is the space program. I remember as a 6 year old watching John Glenn blast into space in the Friendship 7 spacecraft. I followed the spacewalks and the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve quoting of the Bible while circling the moon. I even made my own scrapbook of the Apollo 11 moon landing in the summer of '69, when I was 14. Imagine my joy when I had the opportunity a few years ago to escort Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, for an entire day. But I also remember at age 11 hearing about the horrific fire aboard what was supposed to be Apollo 1 that killed 3 astronauts. Then there was the Challenger disaster in 1986. And just three years ago, the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated on re-entry, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. The struggle of NASA to recover from that latest disaster and bring the space shuttle program back is the subject of Space Shuttle: Countdown to Comeback, an account of the very real struggle to convince the world (and those who held the purse strings in Congress) that we should fly again. Sometimes, the drama on the ground is as compelling as outer space.

Love & Marriage - Real Journeys -- MSNBC - Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 7:00 p.m. (EST)

2006-02-06T23:12:00.000-05:00

So what's three hours when you're dealing with something as important as love? While this MSNBC documentary is called Love & Marriage, that's not necessarily traditional marriage. The filmmaker follows four couples for a year to see how they react to all the joys and challenges of their lives, and one of the four couples is gay. This was likely a therapeutic project for Fredric Golding, who made this mara-doc. He made it not long after his own marriage ended.

African American Lives -- PBS - Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST)

2006-01-29T23:39:00.000-05:00

In a lot of ways, this kickoff to Black History Month takes the classic miniseries Roots one step further. In this two-part special that concludes next Wednesday, Feb. 8, interviews and genealogical records are used to trace the ancestry of eight well-known black Americans. Then, DNA testing is used to try and pinpoint their African roots.

Final Report -- National Geographic Channel - Premieres Thursday, January 26, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST)

2006-01-21T23:38:00.000-05:00

One of the ironies of the modern television age is that, while we have far more channels and time devoted to news than ever before, less of that time is devoted to real analysis. This new series Final Report on the National Geographic Channel is most definitely NOT trying to be first; in fact, the back-to-back first episodes of this series each deal with dated material -- the D.C. Sniper investigation at 9:00, followed by the Waco confrontation/conflagration at 10:00. This is the kind of thoughtful chronology you get only after the news has digested for awhile, something that might be nice to see for a change.
This will most certainly not solve the problem of "more news yet less analysis." We're still not seeing groundbreaking documentaries with the impact of "Harvest of Shame" or "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson." But at least here we can get a good view of what's already happened.

"Country Boys" (Frontline) -- PBS - Monday, January 9 - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST - may vary)

2006-01-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

Coming of age stories have a way of drawing people in, perhaps because it is a time both perplexing and universal. When carefully documented, it can also be a time of great honesty, which explains the potential of Frontline's latest offering Country Boys. Documentary filmmaker David Sutherland makes us work for this one - it airs for a total of six hours over three consecutive nights. But the reward is to understand, by looking at the lives of two teenage friends, what life is like in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Through them, we come to see what is universal to all of us, and what is unique about this time and their place. The timing is all the more appropriate in view of last week's news reports that brought so much tragedy and heroism to our living rooms from the coal mines of another Appalachian state - West Virginia (see Bill's Journal 1/08/06).

Weekends with Maury and Connie -- MSNBC - Premieres Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 10 a.m. (EST)

2006-01-03T23:52:00.000-05:00

How will 20 years of marriage impact the ability of two newspeople to work together? Will their diverse careers combine to create an interesting commentary on the week's news? Perhaps more importantly, at 10:00 Saturday morning, will anyone care?? This week brings us the debut of Weekends with Maury and Connie -- he the Springer-lite talk show host, former host of A Current Affair and golfing partner (Mo-man?) of the President -- she the former star of Los Angeles local news, then uneasy rider with Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, and later fallen star after urging Newt Gingrich's mother to call Hillary Clinton a bitch on national TV ("C'mon, just between you and me."). Will the color of their individual careers combine to create a dynamic synergy here? Maybe, but it still depends on whether you're willing to confront it all at 10 Saturday morning.