Click here for a downloadable
WVIZ/PBS program schedule (PDF)

January 2008
All programs and times subject to change.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We present a special day of programming as follows:

GREAT PERFORMANCES “Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2006” (Tues 1/1, 1pm).  GREAT PERFORMANCES returns to Carnegie Hall's famed stage for its 2006 gala opening night concert. This celebration features the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of director Franz Welser-Most for an evening of favorites from the Golden Age of Viennese music.

GREAT PERFORMANCES “From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2008” (Tues 1/1, 230pm and 8pm).  Hosted by Walter Cronkite, this year's celebration features Georges Pretre as guest conductor leading the renowned Vienna Philharmonic in a selection of buoyant Strauss Family waltzes. The program also features performances by the Vienna State Opera Ballet.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET “The Magic Flute” (Tues 1/1, 4pm).  Celebrated director Julie Taymor, who brought The Lion King to Broadway, casts her spell on Mozart's The Magic Flute. Dancing bears, flying birds, even a giant serpent are all brought vividly to life through Taymor's ingenious use of puppetry.

PIONEERS OF TELEVISION is a new four-part series that examines the people who left their imprint on television during the early days of the medium.  Using never-before-seen images and showcasing timeless clips, the documentary examines the entertainers that provided the classic scenes that still amuse us today.

Episode one, “Sitcoms” (Weds 1-2, 8pm) profiles the legends and shows that pioneered the sitcom format, including “I Love Lucy,” “The Honeymooners,” “Make Room for Daddy,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Episode two, “Late Night” (Weds 1/9, 8pm) profiles the talent and shows that pioneered the late night format, including Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson.

Episode three, “Variety” (Weds 1/16, 8pm) profiles the stars and shows that established the variety show format, including Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town,” Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Smothers Brothers” and “Laugh-in.”

Episode four, “Game Shows” (Weds 1/23, 8pm) traces one of broadcasting’s strongest genres from it’s beginnings in radio through the late 1960’s.  Bob Barker talks about his earliest work and Merv Griffin details his creation of "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy."

ANDREW JACKSON: GOOD, EVIL AND THE PRESIDENCY (Weds 1-2, 9pm) examines Jackson’s tumultuous presidency, from his abuse of power to veto, to his opposition against the Second Bank of the United States, to his battles with South Carolina to keep high protective tariffs.

A few new series join our Saturday line-up of how-to and travel programming beginning January 5:

THE COMPLETE PEPIN (Saturdays, 1030am).  Viewers will learn the basics of everything from choosing and maintaining essential cooking equipment, to easy and fun ways to embellish your dishes.

BAKE, DECORATE, CELEBRATE! (Saturdays, 1230pm).  Viewers will see a different theme is featured weekly including everything from kids’ birthdays and garden parties to simple tiered cakes, cookies and cupcakes.

PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE (Saturdays, 6pm).  Seasoned travelers Julie Conover and Mark Jennings take viewers to beautiful and exotic locations around the world for off-the-beaten path excursions.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (Mondays, 8pm) begins its 12th season in Baltimore, MD.  Other stops this season include Orlando, FL and San Antonio, TX.

THE JEWISH AMERICANS is a new 6-hour series about the struggle of a tiny minority to make its way into the American mainstream. 

Episode one “They Came to Stay/A World of Their Own” (Weds 1/9, 9-11pm; repeats Sun 1/13, 6-8pm) examines the beginnings of Jews in America.  In the 1700’s, a small number of Jews came to America, struggling to hold fast to their faith and heritage while becoming part of the emerging nation.

Episode two “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times” (Weds 1/16, 9-11pm; repeats Sun 1/20, 6-8pm) examines the anti-Semitism Jewish Americans found while trying to enter the mainstream of American life.

Episode three “Home” (Weds 1/23, 9-11pm; repeats Sun 1/27, 6-8pm) examines the Jewish presence after World War II.

A 30-min ideas special “Higher Education in Ohio” airs on Thursday 1/10 at 10pm.

MASTERPIECE (formerly known as MASTERPIECE THEATRE) premieres the first episode in The Complete Jane Austen with “Persuasion” (Sun 1/13, 9pm).  Sally Hawkins (Little Britain) appears as Anne Elliot, destined for spinsterhood at age 27 after being persuaded eight years earlier to refuse the proposal of dashing Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones, Casanova). Then chance brings them together again, but now he is now rich and free to play the field among eligible young beauties.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE returns to the schedule with “Oswald’s Ghost” (Mon 1/14, 9pm).  The assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, left a psychic wound on America. Few Americans, then or now, accept that a lone, inconsequential gunman could bring down a president and alter history. Using rarely seen archival footage and interviews with key participants, the program takes a fresh look at Kennedy's assassination, the public's reaction to the tragedy, and the government investigations that instead of calming fears lead to a widespread loss of trust in the institutions that govern our society.

MASTERPIECE “Northanger Abbey” (Sun 1/20, 9pm) is the second installment in this season’s The Complete Jane Austen.  In this gentle parody of gothic fiction, Felicity Jones (Meadowlands) plays romance addict Catherine Morland. Invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most lurid fantasies, she forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney (JJ Feild, The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton), but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Lobotomist” (Mon 1/21, 9pm) profiles a neurologist named Walter J. Freeman.  The lobotomy was hailed by The New York Times as a "surgery of the soul" and "history making," a groundbreaking medical procedure that promised hope to the most distressed families and desolate mentally ill patients.  Championed by a young and ambitious neurologist, what began as an operation of last resort was soon being performed at some 50 state asylums, often with devastating results. Only a decade after his rise to fame, Freeman was decried as a moral monster and the lobotomy as one of the most barbaric mistakes of modern medicine.

TRIBUTE TO THE TEACHERS OF AMERICA (Mon 1/21, 10pm) is a musical tribute to teachers featuring performances by Peter Yarrow, Judy Collins and others.  Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Cosby, Cynthia Nixon, and Tim McCarver of Fox Sports recall their teachers - keenly, affectionately and humorously.

FRONTLINE “Growing Up Online” (Tues 1/22, 10pm) looks at the impact of the Internet on adolescence through the eyes of teens and their parents. The film takes viewers into the private worlds kids are creating online -- from kids who are harassed and bullied, to kids who make social connections virtually when they have few friends at school, to those kids who attain instant celebrity on YouTube. FRONTLINE explores the complicated new lines being drawn between the real and virtual worlds for today's children and teens, and for their parents, who often find themselves on the other side of a new digital divide.

NATURE travels to Australia in “Parrots in the Land of Oz” (Sun 1/27 and Thurs 1/31, 8pm).  From the outrageous drumming palm cockatoo in the tropical rainforests, to the shameless red female eclectus parrot of the far north who keeps a harem of males, to the golden-shouldered parrot in the woodlands that excavates a nest in a termite mound, to the incredibly prolific budgerigars of the deserts, a spectacular array of parrots has evolved here. Big and small, rare and bizarre, colorful and intelligent, they are the most conspicuous and exotic birds on this amazing island continent.

AMERICA’S BALLROOM CHALLENGE returns for a third season (Weds 1/30, 8pm).  Dancers compete in the American Smooth division. Adapted from the traditional standard dances of Europe, American Smooth includes four dances: waltz, tango, foxtrot and Viennese waltz. At the end of the episode, the judges will announce the winners in this category.

ISLAND AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Weds 1/30, 9pm) is the last great wilderness of its kind, a rare and precious haven for some of Earth's most indestructible creatures. Covering more than half-a-million square miles of Chile and Argentina, this wild place is known as Patagonia. At its crown tip is a grand island, Tierra del Fuego, a land as harsh as it is beautiful. This film tracks several species that call this extreme environment home. But the guanaco, condor and Magellanic penguin who share this spectacular place with orcas, parrots and elephant seals are facing increasing pressure from humans. The program details how new conservation models may save them and preserve the wildness at the bottom of the world.