The Australian outback is the driest place on the driest inhabited continent on the planet.

Once every 10 years, rains flood into dried-up river beds and head inland to create the largest lake in Australia, and 100,000 pelicans -- a third of all the pelicans in Australia -- arrive for the event. Leaving their homes on coasts and harbors, they come to feed on fish washed in on the floods and on billions of brine shrimp and other crustaceans which hatch and grow to adulthood in a few days in water twice as salty as the Dead Sea. The pelicans have come home to court and raise as many families as possible before the water and the food disappear once more...and NATURE shows us why...7pm

 

High school football has never had a higher profile...

...with nationally televised games, corporate sponsorships and minute-by-minute coverage on sports websites. In northwest Arkansas, FRONTLINE examines one ambitious high school team working its way towards national renown. With a superstar quarterback at the helm, tiny Shiloh Christian is striving to join the ranks of the country's best high school teams -- teams whose workout schedules, practices and styles of play increasingly imitate the pros. But as high school players grow bigger,faster and stronger, there are growing concerns about the health and safety of these young players -- with rising rates of concussions, career-ending injuries, even death.
FRONTLINE: FOOTBALL HIGH...9PM

It costs approximately $88,000 per year to send a kid to juvenile incarceration and nearly 70% of them are re-arrested after being released. Could there be an alternative to this broken system of kids cycling in and out of the grasp of the juvenile justice system? Now in an experiment, a group of innovators in Baltimore, on a quest to fix the broken system, turn to an island on the other side of the world for a possible solution. Could the restorative justice principles of the Maori people in New Zealand be applied to the mean streets of the United States? FIXING JUVIE JUSTICE...8pm

Is darkness becoming extinct?

When filmmaker Ian Cheney moves from rural Maine to New York City and discovers streets awash in light and skies devoid of stars, he embarks on a journey to America's brightest and darkest corners, asking astronomers, cancer researchers and ecologists what is lost in the glare of city lights. "The City Dark" provides a fascinating introduction to the science of the dark and an exploration of our relationship to the stars...on POV at 9pm

The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd...

It's the final weekend of our August Membership Drive...highlights coming up:

Why has the Broadway musical proven to be such fertile territory for Jewish artists of all kinds? Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, the Gershwin's, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim...the list goes on and on. A look at Jewish Genius on GREAT PERFORMANCES: BROADWAY MUSICALS - A JEWISH LEGACY...Friday 8pm

Saturday features CLASSIC GOSPEL SPECIAL - A TENT REVIVAL HOMECOMING...as well as the Irish Lawrence Welk DANIEL O'DONNELL: FROM THE HEARTLAND...beginning at 5pm

Sunday we repeat GREAT PERFORMANCES ANDREA BOCELLI:LOVE IN PORTOFINO...on of the most beautiful productions PBS has ever done...6pm

Sunday also brings more DOWNTON ABBEY REVISITED...8pm

How to "light" an entire Italian coastal village...

GREAT PERFORMANCES teams up international superstar Andrea Bocelli and trumpeter Chris Botti for a new concert special of classical favorites, pop standards and Brazilian jazz, this time from the breathtaking coastal setting of Portofino, Italy.
ANDREA BOCELLI: LOVE IN PORTOFINO...7pm 

What's New Pussycat? Find out tonight on PBS...

This first-time ever archival PBS special includes all the original artists performing Bacharach's hits with rare archival footage and clips from the 1960s-1970s. Bacharach teamed with lyricist Hal David for a stunning run of classic songs, many in tandem with songstress Dionne Warwick ("Walk On By," "Anyone Who Had A Heart," "I Say A Little Prayer," "I'll Never Fall In Love Again"). British-born Dusty Springfield enjoyed Bacharach hits with the wistful "Wishin' & Hopin'" and the seductive "The Look Of Love" while Tom Jones popularized the playful "What's New Pussycat?" The smashes continued in the seventies when The Carpenters reached #1 with "(They Long To Be) Close To You," following another chart-topper, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," the Oscar-winning tune sung by B.J. Thomas in the film Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.It's quite a stroll down memory lane...BURT BACHARACH'S BEST...8:30pm

More Downton Abbey topped off with 3 Italian teens with major vocal talent...

Continuing our August Membership Drive featuring the greatest moments from "Downton Abbey," Seasons 1, 2 and 3, along with behind-the-scenes interviews with the producers and your favorite cast members - both above and below stairs. Angela Lansbury hosts...7pm

The three young Italian tenors, Piero Barone (19), Ignazio Boschetto(18) and Gianluca Ginoble (17) of Il Volo return with their second PBS special. Il Volo We Are Love, filmed in Miami last March,  allows the boys to show off their multilingual prowess, as they sing in English, Spanish, French and Italian. The entire production is a stunner! IL VOLO: WE ARE LOVE...8:30

We packed up the entire station and moved it to Wellington...

Tonight's August Membership Drive features KACV's latest production - "A Night at the Ritz Featuring Atteberry Station"...a rockin' show combining music and history shot live at the historical Ritz Theatre in Wellington. Back in April, we packed up the entire station, set it up in the Ritz Theatre, and recorded a live concert with a crew of 30 and a total of 12 HD cameras.
This is the kind of stuff public television does...bringing the story of our communities to life, and sharing with all the Panhandle...A NIGHT at the RITZ featuring ATTEBERRY STATION 7pm

The music specials continute...join us for Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center, a centennial celebration of American's greatest folk musician, Woody Guthrie. This concert brings John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, Tom Morello, Ry Cooder, Ani DiFranco, Rosanne Cash, The Old Crow Medicine Show, and others together to honor the music and the man. It's a celebration like no other, recorded live at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
8:30pm

If you've never heard "Lost In My Mind"...

Fresh and seasoned indie rock hits the AUSTIN CITY LIMITS stage with the Head and the Heart and Gomez. Seattle's the Head and the Heart performs tunes from its self-titled debut LP. British veterans Gomez follow with their eclectic modern rock.  AUSTIN CITY LIMITS...7pm

Larry Wilmore is "Senior Black Correspondent" for The Daily Show, and a television writer. His work has appeared on In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Office. You'vew seen him on Seinfeld...now see him with Evan Smith on OVERHEARD...8pm

Leopards are the ultimate cat...

They are the most feline, the most intelligent, the most dangerous, and, until recently, one of the least understood. Leopards hunt from South Africa to Siberia, from Arabia to Sri Lanka, and are the most widespread predator of their size on land. A leopard is a cat that walks by itself, unseen, secretively. They are the beautiful killers that live in the shadows. This film accumulates the evidence and puts together a psychological profile of this extraordinarily cunning cat. We learn how these cats rarely move without a completely premeditated strategy.  NATURE...7pm

 

Remembering the quest for the elusive brass ring...

Long before the days of giant theme parks, the United States had many,many amusement parks where families gathered for a cool escape on a hot summer day. This program celebrates these pre-Disney parks, visiting Playland in Rye, New York; Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana; and California's Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where vacationers can still reach for the brass ring on the merry-go-round. The special also checks out some old wooden roller coasters and other classic rides.
Rick Sebak narrated GREAT OLD AMUSEMENT PARKS...8pm 

A new way to look at autism...and ourselves.

"Neurotypical" is an exploration of autism from the point of view of autistic people themselves. Four-year-old Violet, teenaged Nicholas and adult Paula occupy different positions on the autism spectrum, but they are all at pivotal moments in their lives. How they and the people around them work out their perceptual and behavioral differences becomes a remarkable reflection of the "neurotypical" world -- the world of the non-autistic -- revealing inventive adaptations on each side and an emerging critique of both what it means to be normal and what it means to be human.
POV: NEUROTYPICAL...9pm

This show is a modern day Indiana Jones story: a tale of deception, treasure, intrepid adventurers and international realpolitik.

Did a 19th-century British landowner really discover gold, jewels and the charred bones of the Lord Buddha in an underground chamber on his estate? When Colonial estate manager, Willie Peppe, set his workers digging at a mysterious hill in Northern India in 1898, he had no idea what they'd find. Just over 20 feet down, they made an amazing discovery: a huge stone coffer, containing five reliquary jars, over 1000 separate jewels, and some ash and bone. One of the jars had an inscription that appeared to say that these were the remains of the Buddha himself. This seemed to be the most extraordinary find in Indian archaeology. But doubt and scandal have hung over this amazing find for over 100 years. For some, the whole thing is an elaborate hoax. For others, it is no less than the final resting place of the leader of one of the world's great religions, who died nearly 2,500 years ago. On the heels of PBS' series chronicling the life of Buddha, don't miss the final piece...SECRETS OF THE DEAD: BONES OF THE BUDDHA...9pm 

What's it really like in China? These bloggers get the word out...

"High Tech, Low Life" follows two of China's first citizen-reporters as they document the underside of the country's rapid economic development. A search for truth and fame inspires young vegetable seller "Zola" to report on censored news stories from the cities, while retired businessman "Tiger Temple" makes sense of the past by chronicling the struggles of rural villagers. Land grabs, pollution, rising poverty, local corruption and the growing willingness of ordinary people to speak out are grist for these two bloggers who navigate China's evolving censorship regulations and challenge the boundaries of free speech.POV: HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE...9pm

The weekend begins with the Shaw Festival: Behind the Curtain...

This documentary provides unprecedented access and a behind-the-scenes look at the Shaw Festival, one of North America's longest running, most distinctive and exciting theater experiences. In following the process of getting the play from the page to the stage, we get insights into every aspect of theater production. SHAW FESTIVAL: BEHIND THE CURTAIN...Friday at 8pm

Saturday nights POV presents "Only the Young", about three unconventional Christian teenagers coming of age in a small Southern California town. Skateboarders Garrison and Kevin, and Garrison's on-and-off girlfriend, Skye, wrestle with the eternal questions of youth: friendship, true love and the promise of the future. With sun-drenched visuals, lyrical storytelling and a soul-music soundtrack, this film embodies the innocence and candor of its youthful subjects -- and of adolescence itself. POV: ONLY THE YOUNG...Saturday night at 10pm 

And it wouldn't be Sunday on PBS without a program from Britain. Highclere Castle might be famous for being the backdrop to the world's most successful costume drama, but behind the doors of this fairy tale castle still lives a real Lord and lady. This is the behind the scenes story of one of  England's most spectacular country houses. SECRETS OF HIGHCLERE CASTLE...Sunday at 7pm

Austin City Limits is bringing you some southern twang, pink guitars...

shotgun mic stands and serious country with this encore episode featuring Miranda Lambert and Jeff Bridges. Grammy winner Miranda Lambert has become a household name since her appearance on Nashville Star back in 2003 and is now, undoubtedly, one of country music’s biggest names.
The highly acclaimed actor/singer Jeff Bridges also appears in this episode, singing hits from the Grammy-winning Crazy Heart soundtrack as well as songs from his 2011 self-titled debut.AUSTIN CITY LIMITS...7pm

Did you know that the Titanic had 2 nearly identical sister ships?

NOVA searches for great stories from the past...a B-29, on a secret reconnaissance mission over Russia, makes an emergency landing in Greenland. Pilot Darryl and his team rush to refurbish the plane before the harsh winter sets in. The second half of NOVA focuses on the Titanic's 2 sister ships, the Brittanic. Few people realize that the Titanic had two nearly identical sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. The Olympic had a successful career as a liner until she broke up in 1935, but the Britannic met a fate almost as unlucky as the Titanic's. Serving as a hospital ship in the Aegean, it was either torpedoed or struck a mine on November 21, 1916, and sank within an hour, yet only thirty of the crew of 1,100 died. Nova joins the search for the wreck of the Britannic and explores the evidence of its dramatic end. NOVA: B-29 FROZEN IN TIME...9pm

 

William Clark climbed a hill and saw what no white man had ever seen from the Northwest...

As Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the Corps of Discovery passed the Missouri River and approached the Bitterroot Mountain Range, they grew desperate for horses and provisions to get through the seemingly endless, snow-covered peaks. Sacagawea and the Shoshone Indians--her native culture--came to the rescue and provided them with horses for their journey. Finally, on November 18, 1805, William Clark set out from their campsite in the Columbia River Gorge, climbed a hill and saw what no white man had ever seen from the Northwest: the Pacific Ocean. Their exploration of the West opened a new world to Americans and signaled the beginning of the end for Native Americans. This program, the second of a two-part series, recounts how this historic journey was really the discovery of the American future.  LEWIS & CLARK: THE JOURNEY OF THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY...7pm

From the courtroom to the living room (thanks to the hit television series CSI), forensic science is king. Expertise on fingerprints, ballistics and bite mark analysis is routinely called on to solve the most difficult criminal cases - and to put the guilty behind bars. But how reliable is the science behind forensics? A FRONTLINE investigation finds serious flaws in some of the best-known tools of forensic science and wide inconsistencies in how forensic evidence is presented in the courtroom. From the sensational murder trial of Casey Anthony and the FBI's botched investigation of the Madrid terrorist bombing to capital cases in rural Mississippi, FRONTLINE documents how a field with few uniform standards and unproven science can undermine the search for justice...9pm

Ninety years ago in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the greatest archaeological find in history was made:

It made Tutankhamen the most famous name in ancient Egyptian history. But the real story has become shrouded in myth -- with many mysteries around the tomb unsolved to this day. This two-hour special combines the latest evidence from a team of archaeologists, anatomists, geologists and Egyptologists to build the ultimate picture of Tutankhamen. Blending 3D graphics, stylized reconstruction and action-adventure forensic investigation, the programs take a 21st-century approach to ancient history, following new scientific research and presenting fresh insights into how Tutankhamen was buried, why his tomb was the only one to remain intact and the enduring enigma around how he died.SECRETS OF THE DEAD: ULTIMATE TUT...Wednesday at 8pm

A documentary that took 20 years to make, looks at 2 American Families...

Since 1992, Bill Moyers and FRONTLINE have been following the story of two ordinary, hard-working families in Milwaukee - one black, one white - as they spent two decades in an extraordinary battle to keep from sliding into poverty. Two American Families chronicles the struggles of the Neumanns and the Stanleys as they try to hold onto their homes, their jobs, their health insurance, and a future for their children. A remarkable portrait of perseverance, the film raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the U.S. economy and the fate of a declining middle class. FRONTLINE: TWO AMERICAN FAMILIES...9pm