PBS Primetime Programming for The Week of March 16
Published March 14, 2008
9:00 – 10:00PM
Frontline – "Secret History of the Credit Card". Oh, the credit card. He's a sly one. He has a secret history. This special originally aired over three years ago, at a time when, according to the synopsis, the average family in this country had 10 credit cards and personal bankruptcies were at an all time high. Think it's any better now? I don't (though I don't think having credit cards is inherently evil).
10:00 – 11:00PM
Independent Lens – "Iron Ladies of Liberia". I'm actually a little curious about this one. You see, it's about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first freely elected female head of state of Liberia. But, in my mind, that would make this about the "Iron Lady" not "Ladies." Right?
Wednesday, March 19:
8:00 - 8:30PM
PBS Previews – "Carrier". PBS isn't going to show you Carrier, they're just going to show you a preview of it (it airs at the end of April and beginning of May). They're going to tantalize you. They're going to intrigue you. They're going to tell you about some of the people on the USS Nimitz.
8:30 - 9:00PM
Ribbon of Sand. Things change. It's the way of the world. It just happens. Things change. Get used to it. In this documentary Meryl Streep tells us all about how things change off the coast of North Carolina, in North Carolina's Outer Banks, to be specific. The sand shifts, the beautiful islands that exist now may not exist in the future. Things change.
9:00 – 11:00PM
Great Performances – “Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Chicago”. Mr. Clapton - Eric, if you will - and some buds (B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Jeff Beck, and Buddy Guy) play in Chicago. Even Bill Murray is there. I hope he tells some jokes.
Thursday, March 20:
8:00 - 11:00PM
Live From Lincoln Center – "New York City Opera: Madam Butterfly". Get this, the New York City Opera is going to be doing Giacomo Puccini's Madam Butterfly. How awesome is that? I mean, I'm quite sure they've done it before, and quite sure they'll do it again, but it's still something. It's the New York City Opera. It's Giacomo Puccini. It's Madam Butterfly.
Friday, March 21:
8:00 - 8:30PM
Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal #4738. Another whole week has gone by and good old Gwen Ifill and National Journal are here to fill us in. For the record, I like to pretend the National Journal is a sidekick, like Robin to Batman, Starsky to Hutch, or chocolate sauce to chocolate ice cream.
- PBS Primetime Programming for The Week of March 16
- Published: March 14, 2008
- Type: News
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: News, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: PBS in Primetime
- Writer: Josh Lasser
- Josh Lasser's BC Writer page
- Josh Lasser's personal site
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Commercial TV has been unwatcheable for several years, and PBS has become the only source of decent, adult TV. Commercial TV now inserts as much as 25 minutes of ads into every hour of elapsed time. That's why some of your familiar favorites have become even more thin and uninteresting: 5 minutes more of plot had to be excised to allow for the ads.
But alas! Now PBS management is determined to make PBS compete with the commercial networks. This is a very stupid move. What's the point? To trick people into watching watered down program content augmented with sugar and made simple-minded? To increase PBS budgets so that the execs get bigger pay?
Now PBS is getting worse with it's ads and programming pabulum. The commercial pitches are as annoying as on the commercial nets. The "Pledge Drives" are much more frequent and are parodies of the annual auctions and pledge drives that used to drive the budget of the stations.
One of the few refuges is PBS KIDS which consistently turns out programs that adults should watch in hopes of becoming as smart as a 5th grader.
Soon, the discriminating viewer will be forced to either abandon TV altogether and/or convert to Pure Pirate Programming by harvesting their own materials from the wealth of good stuff that's available somewhere, if you know how and where to look.
Of course, one of the consequences of the iron grip of the network corporate monopolies on broadcasting is that it's impossible for a small individual or group to broadcast their own community TV. In spite of the fact that the cost of TV broadcasting has dropped to very little, and the conversion of huge amounts of analog TV to digital has freed up enough spectrum to accomodate almost everyone who would want to broadcast a non-commercial signal.
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Thanks! I actually have been turning to the PBS over the last month since network TV has been so droll, so I love this summary. I keep forgetting what night Antiques Roadshow is on. I'm thrilled to see someone acknowledging PBS programming.
Austin City Limits has been on my TIVO for two years now and that Allison Krause and Union Station one is a repeat. It's pretty good, but you're right, Kathleen Edwards seemed out of place. They should have given Union Station the whole hour. I've been dying for some new shows. They haven't aired a new one since that fantastic Crowded House hour in January. It's still by far the best music show on TV.