As we gear up for another exciting, action-packed week of PBS programming I’d just like to put forth the following disclaimer: my jokes are not funny. They’re not. I try to make them funny, but the funny just doesn’t often come. Don’t read each individual joke as an individual joke. You have to read the entire thing to truly get the flavor of the piece. And all the other PBS programming pieces, they have a certain feel to them that is moderately amusing, taken as a whole of course. If you don’t find them amusing it’s simply because you haven’t read every single word, or every single word enough times.

Sunday, January 21:

8:00 - 9:30PM

Nature - “The Queen of Trees”. I don’t know what, or who, exactly the queen is. However, I’m betting it’s a wasp and that this whole deal has to do with co-evolution. I wonder if that makes a tree the queen of wasps a tree. Or maybe the queen of people apple pie, and the queen of apple pie buttery goodness and then the queen of buttery goodness people. It’s a quandary.

9:00PM - 11:00PM

Masterpiece Theatre - “Jane Eyre”.  Part one of two in this new-to-you (it has aired in England but not here in the U.S.) four-hour version of Jane Eyre, the classic novel by Charlotte Brontë. Don’t ask me which Brontë sister that is, I get them confused. I just know it’s not the brother, he was a man. That would make him king of buttery goodness.

And, if that's not enough about this little particular program for you, check out the full review here. 

Monday, January 22:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Antiques Roadshow - “Philadelphia (Hour One)”. I am hoping someone brings in the Liberty Bell — that, or the Rocky Balboa statue. Seriously, how much fun would that be, watching the appraisers take a look at the Liberty Bell, see the huge crack in it and deem it worth about $100? Good times. 

9:00 - 11:00PM

American Experience - “John and Abigail Adams”. And now I’m about a half-second away from belting out tunes from 1776. Aw, to heck with it, here goes… EVERYONE: Sit down, John! Sit down, John! For God’s sake, John, sit down! I say vote yes! Vote yes! Vote yes for independency! Sit down, John!

Tuesday, January 23:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Nova - “Arctic Passage ‘Ice Survivors’”. Following last week’s episode where the British fail to make a successful journey, this week Nova picks up with Roald Amundsen of Norway trying to navigate the Northwest Passage. It's gotta be the fjords. 

9:00 - 10:00PM

Frontline - “The Cell Next Door”. I thought this was going to be a science thing, you know, cells and bacteria and communication and the like. Not so much. Frontline is going inside a Muslim terrorist cell accused of actions in Atlanta and Toronto.