WVIZ/PBS Monthly Program Highlights

All programs and times subject to change.

July 2009

AMERICAN MASTERS presents “Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes” (Weds 7/1, 8-930pm). With his “Prairie Home Companion,” Keillor became our national philosopher, filling the empty shoes of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, through his running commentary about the human condition and the social politic. With biting wit, a quirky perspective and an uncanny ability to home in on the pulse of America, Keillor’s themes and characters are somehow familiar to us all. For more than a year, AMERICAN MASTERS followed this great raconteur - and his motley crew of actors, musicians and technical staff - as he criss-crossed the country, broadcasting, recording and revealing himself.

INSIDE investigates the science, action and behind-the-scenes challenges of mega-events.  Have you ever wondered what it’s like to perform in front of one million people ... drive a car at 400 miles per hour ... or blast into outer space? Find out firsthand as PBS deconstructs some of the most logistically difficult events on earth.

A CAPITOL FOURTH (Sat 7/4, 8-930pm) airs live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The star-spangled party features special performances by some of the country’s best-known and award-winning musical artists in performance with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Erich Kunzel.

THE DREXEL INTERVIEW (Sundays, 10:30-11pm) profiles a wide range of people, from a poet to a husband-wife architect team to a TV producer.  Subjects include Derrick Pitts, Chuck Barris and Gerald Stern.

TIME TEAM AMERICA (Weds 7/8, 15, 22, 29, 8-9pm) puts viewers in the trenches to experience archaeology as it happens. Each episode unleashes a group of archaeologists, landscape specialists, scientists, historians and other experts onto an American archeological dig site. For three days, viewers follow the team as they work to solve the mysteries of the site with state of the art technology, visualization techniques and good old-fashioned archaeology. Viewers eavesdrop on conversations between experts, see artifacts emerge from the ground and watch over the shoulders of archaeologists to experience the thrill of archaeology without ever having to pick up a trowel.

UNNATURAL CAUSES: IS INEQUALITY MAKING US SICK? (Sun 7/12 & 19, 3-4pm; Sun 7/26, 3-5pm) is a four-part series that, for the first time on television, sounds the alarm about glaring socio-economic and racial inequities in health and searches for their causes. UNNATURAL CAUSES looks at what’s making us sick in the first place, investigating startling new findings that suggest there is much more to poor health than bad habits, inadequate health care or unlucky genes. The series circles in on a slow killer in plain view: the social circumstances in which we are born, live and work that can affect our risk for disease as surely as germs and viruses.

WIDE ANGLE returns to the summer schedule on Weds 7/15, 10-11pm.  WIDE ANGLE was created in 2001 as a response to the lack of in-depth international news coverage in the United States. Seven years later, WIDE ANGLE is the only program exclusively dedicated to international current affairs documentaries. For each broadcast, producers and journalists from around the globe report on an event, issue or trend through the eyes of the people who are living it day to day.

DIABETES: THE CONSTANT SHADOW, produced by ideastream ®, premieres Thurs 7/23, 8-8:30pm (repeats Sun 7/26, 5-5:30pm and 10:30-110pm; Mon 7/27, 7:30-8:00pm). Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. with nearly 24 million Americans - both children and adults - afflicted with this severe, chronic disease.  Follow the stories of local adults and children who cope daily with the constant shadow.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW “Fame and Fortune” (Mon 7/27, 8-9pm) spotlights celebrities, big-shots and headliners through objects connected to their lives. “Fame and Fortune” features a stellar lineup of appraisals that give new meaning to the term “face value.” Highlights include the first mask ever worn by Clayton Moore, in 1951,as television’s Lone Ranger; a collection of photos and memorabilia documenting Marilyn Monroe’s progression from 14-year-old Norma Jean Baker to screen siren; an eye-popping collection of memorabilia from the Ramones punk band, preserved by a friend of DeeDee Ramone; James Dean’s 1948 high school junior yearbook, signed with his name and nickname, “Rack”; signed souvenir photos of Wild West legends Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill; a reproduction plaster cast of the 1860 life mask of Abraham Lincoln, found in an attic; and a rare, mint-condition vintage set of Beatles nodder dolls, in their original box.