Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Do not try any of this at home...serously...

Rearing up with its head four feet above the ground, the Black Mamba strikes with deadly precision. Without treatment the mortality rate is 100%, the highest among all venomous snakes in the world.
NATURE travels to Africa to pay the little guy a visit...tonight at 7pm

Then, NOVA reveals how snake venom causes the body to shut down, arteries to bleed uncontrollably and limbs to go black and die. But nature's most destructive and extreme poisons could contain the building blocks for a new generation of advanced drugs that could treat heart attack, stroke, diabetes, obesity and cancer. VENOM follows scientists as they track down & capture the planet's deadliest creatures, hoping to turn their lethal cocktails into medicine's brightest new hope...8pm 

In Florida's Everglades, we join reptile expert Jeanette Wyneken to dissect two pythons: a nine-foot male and a 14-foot female. The program explores the science of slithering, as well as the development of "infra-red goggles" that let the snakes hunt warm-blooded prey in the dark and a flexible jaw that allows them to stretch their mouths around huge prey, including alligators...INSIDE NATURE'S GIANTS...9pm

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Once again, FRONTLINE goes deep...

Civilization: The West and the Rest continues tonight as historian historian Niall Ferguson explores philosophical and political developments that have enabled the Western hemisphere to dominate the globe for the past 500 years...7pm

FRONTLINE travels into the heart of Yemen's radical heartland to report how members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken advantage of turmoil in the country to impose their rule on areas of south Yemen. As the US expands its drone war to prevent terrorists from establishing a new safe haven, FRONTLINE shows how AQAP is taking control of towns and cities in an attempt to establish its own state. Also in this hour, the story of Al Qaeda operative Fahd al Quso -- killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen early this month - as told by former FBI agent Ali Soufan who first interrogated him before 9/11...tonight at 9pm

Friday, May 25, 2012

What exactly is the "Goat Rodeo"?...

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin wizard Chris Thile come together for a most remarkable and organic cross-genre project...the fire and drive of the bluegrass world meets the clarity and class of the classical music world...GOAT RODEO LIVE: YO-YO MA, STUART DUNCAN, EDGAR MEYER...Friday 8pm

Saturday's AUSTIN CITY LIMITS features Mumford & Sons performing cuts from their hit album Sigh No More, as well as new tunes...10pm 

Comedy in film is discussed by the creative minds behind TO DIE FOR, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION, and THE HANGOVER.Featuring Harold Ramis, Judd Apatow, Buck Henry, and Jon Lucas. Film: Sleep Study by Kerri Lendo and John Merriman and My Biggest Weakness by Bradley Jackson...ON STORY...Sunday afternoon at 5pm

On Memorial Day weekend PBS continues with an evening that has become an American tradition.
The NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT honors the service and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform, their families at home and all those who have given their lives for our country. Broadcast live from the West Lawn of the US Capitol before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, to millions more at home and on the American Forces Network to troops serving around the world. The National Symphony Orchestra, co-hosted for the seventh time by Emmy Award- winner Gary Sinise and Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna, the event has become the nation's memorial service...THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT...Sunday at 7pm 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

"I and Love and You" is the first song of the set...

Rising roots rock kings the Avett Brothers perform songs from their album, I and Love and You...then Ohio-to-Austin transplants Heartless Bastards follow with their classic rock 'n' roll....AUSTIN CITY LIMITS...7pm

Then Evan Smith interviews actor Bill Paxton, who spent the '80s playing small roles in a series of big movies...then his first big lead in One False Move led to such films as Apollo 13, Titanic, Tombstone and A Simple Plan. His current projects include the hit HBO series Big Love and the Steven Soderbergh movie Haywire, released in 2011. OVERHEARD WITH EVAN SMITH...8pm 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

It's best to just get out of their way...

The Columbia River Basin once teemed with young salmon heading toward the ocean and mature salmon returning to their home rivers and streams to spawn. Now, many salmon species of the Pacific Northwest are extinct, and thirteen are currently endangered. This film investigates the parallel stories of collapsing Pacific salmon populations and how biologists and engineers are trying to shore up their numbers. Salmon are now conceived in laboratories, raised in tanks, driven in trucks and farmed in pens...NATURE seeks to explain why...7pm 

NOVA traces new clues to the historic sinking of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, where 1,177 crew members perished in 1941...the greatest loss of life in United States naval history. Could it have been a Japanese "midget sub" firing torpedoes, instead of bombers? NOVA...8pm

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Tower safety...isn't there an app for that?

Tonight on CIVILIZATION, historian Niall Ferguson explores philosophical and political developments that have enabled the Western hemisphere to dominate the globe for the past 500 years...7pm

Then on FRONTLINE...while some tower climbers say they are under pressure to cut corners, layers of subcontracting make it difficult for safety inspectors to determine fault when a tower worker is killed or injured. Go behind the scenes of the smart phone industry...also this hour: Jon Corzine, former head of Goldman Sachs and political power broker, took over MF Global in the spring of 2010 with oversize ambition and a passion for risk. But after a massive bet on European debt turned sour, the firm lay in ruins, with more than a billion dollars of customer funds missing...FRONTLINE...9pm

Monday, May 21, 2012

Back when songs had melody and lyrics...that didn't get bleeped.


Burt Bacharach and Hal David, recipients of the 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song bestowed by the Library of Congress, are featured in a PBS special taped this past Tuesday night. It's the first time the honor has been given to a songwriting team...penning hits like Alfie, The Look of Love, Walk on By, and my personal favorite...Always Something Left to Remind Me...those were the days! 8pm

Friday, May 18, 2012

I wish we carried baseball...

Just back from the PBS Annual Conference in Denver...lots of programming previews, intense learning sessions, networking, and the Colorado Rockies opening stand against the Arizona Diamondbacks. I'm back now refreshed, re-energized, and respectful of Rockie pitcher Jamie Moyer - at 49, baseball's oldest player...who actually beat out an infield single! What Ken Burns could do with that story...

And now for some programming highlights...tonight Great Performances at the Met presents "The Enchanted Island", a mash up of two of Shakespeare's most revered classics...8pm

The Avett Brothers return to Austin City Limits, and then we follow the lives of nomads living on the grasslands of Eastern Tibet in "Summer Pasture" on Independent Lens...Saturday night starting at 10pm

Then Sunday night the last of the new "Sherlock, Series 2' episodes premieres with The Reichenbach Fall as Sherlock locks horns with Moriarty...8pm

Friday, May 11, 2012

2000 kids singing in four part harmony...

Tonight on CRAFT IN AMERICA, we explore woven textiles and story quilts by artists across the country...8pm.

ONE VOICE tells the story of the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest through the eyes of the student song directors...2000 high school students compete in singing Hawaiian music in four-part harmony, and ONE VOICE shares the thrill of the competition via the personal stories of the student song directors...9pm

INDEPENDENT LENS features the story of the Ponce family's hardscrabble circus, surviving on the back roads of Mexico since the 19th century. "Circo" (Circus) intimately portrays the Ponce family circus as it struggles to make a living from its artistry, sweat and wit against the backdrop of Mexico's collapsing rural economy...INDEPENDENT LENS, Saturday 11pm

On the new series "ON STORY", the challenges of creating fantastical worlds and getting the audience to suspend their disbelief are discussed by the creative minds behind STAR TREK, TRANSFORMERS, EL MARIACHI, and WATCHMEN...Sunday at 5pm

And for the Sherlock Holmes fans, SHERLOCK: SERIES 2 on MASTERPIECE MYSTERY continues Sunday with the Hounds of the Baskerville... at 8 pm.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The DUDE plays music too...

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS features Miranda Lambert and Jeff Bridges, doing his best to hit all the artistic touchstones in his amazing career...actor, musician, producer, photographer, cartoonist, storyteller,  occasional vintner, and now progressive country picker...and pulls it off nicely...7pm

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

If only lions lived in the arctic...

NATURE presents the story of two remarkable and extremely rare white lion cubs born in May 2009...growing up on the savanna, they must not only overcome the same survival challenges that all young lion cubs must face, they must also overcome the threats their high visibility brings...NATURE 7 pm

Tonight's episode of NOVA looks at the science behind the April 2001 tornado outbreak, meeting those affected and the scientists trying to predict tornadoes and understand whether this outbreak relates to global climate change...NOVA 8 pm 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Behind the curtain at the Wall Street Journal...

This film explores the story of an American president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history...from draft dodging to the Dayton Accords, from Monica Lewinsky to a balanced budget, the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton is revisited tonight and next week on FRONTLINE...7 pm

Rupert Murdoch, the 80-year-old owner of the WSJ and FOX News Channel, is the fight of his life... with ongoing criminal investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. In a joint production with the CBC, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman tells the story of the battle over the future of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's reputation and his family's fortunes...9 pm 

Monday, May 7, 2012

Who was that masked man? Why was he alone?

This special edition spotlights celebrities and big-shots including the first mask ever worn by Clayton Moore in 1951, as television's Lone Ranger...and a look at the progression from fourteen-year-old Norma Jean Baker to the ultimate screen siren - Marilyn Monroe...ANTIQUES ROADSHOW 7 & 8pm

An encore viewing of AMERICA REVEALED investigates the emerging notion that manufacturing itself is changing - from a system based on the movement and assembly of raw materials to a system in which ideas and information are the raw materials of a new economy. Yul Kwon explains at 9pm 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Sherlock in love? The Game is clearly afoot...

Tonight on the final Art in the Twenty First Century, artists Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold and Sarah Sze, create ordered and precise works that explore the gap between art and existence, challenge the distinction between seeing and knowing and, as if that's not enough, demonstrate that the pursuit of harmony can be a radical proposition...heady stuff...8pm

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner...teacher, historian environmentalist and above all, writer. Considered by many to be the "Dean" of western writers, this film by producer John Howe has captured the tremendous influence Stegner has been on the lives of generations of readers and students...WALLACE STEGNER...9pm 

Sunday the highly anticipated return of the modern day SHERLOCK, SERIES 2 from Masterpiece Mystery...Sherlock and Watson are plunged into a case of blackmail involving crafty dominatrix Irene Adler, whose motto is "know when you are beaten." Can she outsmart Sherlock at his own game?
And at a battle he is ill prepared to wage - love?  Find out at 8 pm.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Kay Bailey's got big shoes to fill...

All major United States Senate candidates – Democrat and Republican – vying to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison will take part in a two-hour live event – "Conversations with the Candidates" hosted by HoustonPBS and seen on PBS stations across the state...our program guide inadvertently lists the show starting at 8, but we're running it LIVE at 7pm.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Now you've got a computer...get ready for your robot!

Travel cross country with host Yul Kwon to look at traditional, and not-so-traditional types of manufacturing...meet the men and women who are reinventing the American auto industry, steelworkers who brave intense heat to accommodate radical new ideas about recycling, and engineers who are re-imagining the microchip...AMERICA REVEALED...9 PM

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Adolp Hitler never saw him coming...

On April 2, 1936, The 22-year-old son of a sharecropper would channel his raw emotions into some of the most remarkable achievements in the history of athletics, winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics....JESSIE OWENS: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE...7pm

In a special investigation, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of the origins of the financial meltdown and the battle to save the global economy. FRONTLINE goes inside the White House to meet the key figures in the administration's game plan and follows those who said they had no choice but to rescue Wall Street. Did they choose the right course? MONEY, POWER & WALL STREET...8pm