Blue Ridge PBS - Featured Programs

Join us for these featured programs

	Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns
	The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's
	Masterpiece Mystery!
	Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami
	Nature

	Out of Left Field: The Making of the Chinese Olympic Baseball Team
	PBS Convention Coverage - A NewsHour Special Report
	P.O.V.
	Soundstage

The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's

Sunday, August 3 at 9:00 & 11:00 p.m. & Thursday, August 7 at 9:00 p.m.
The Primetime Emmy Award-winning documentary THE FORGETTING: A PORTRAIT OF ALZHEIMER'S, originally broadcast in 2004, returns to PBS in an encore presentation. Since 2004, there have been significant advances in Alzheimer's research, but still over two million more Americans have developed the disease.

The documentary focuses on the scientific quests to eradicate Alzheimer's and on the families whose lives have been steadily ravaged by it. Despite recent advances in the laboratory, the experience of living with Alzheimer's has not changed much. In fact, of the four principal patients featured in THE FORGETTING, all but one have died since the original broadcast. Harry Fuget and Thomas McKenna - who cared so lovingly for their wives as they battled the disease - have also died. As is common with Alzheimer's disease, years of care giving took a toll on Harry's and Thomas' own health.

Using specially created animations to reveal the complex workings of the brain, THE FORGETTING helps viewers understand how Alzheimer's begins, how it does its damage and what kinds of techniques medical researchers are using to arrive at a way of conquering it. And by following the story as leading scientists search for answers to Alzheimer's mysteries, THE FORGETTING offers an insider's glimpse of the latest work on the disease and what potential treatments are in the pipeline.

Actor David Hyde Pierce hosts "The Future of Alzheimer's," a new half-hour panel discussion that follows THE FORGETTING. Pierce, who has experienced Alzheimer's first-hand through the illness of his grandfather and his father, moderates a panel of medical experts and scientists who discuss the latest developments in the fight against Alzheimer's disease and what it means for you and your loved ones. The panel includes Richard Bozanich, former managing editor of Variety and an early stage Alzheimer's patient.

"While recent advances show exciting progress and promise, effective therapies to combat Alzheimer's disease remain frustratingly out of reach," says Pierce. "With each year that passes, my fear for my generation grows. Millions of baby boomers will get Alzheimer's disease if we don't find a way to beat it soon."

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/theforgetting/

Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns

Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m.

The program takes off from the hit NPR show and follows the on- and off-air escapades of Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers (alter-egos of Tom and Ray Magliozzi) as they try to fix cars, fend off disgruntled customers and seek out increasingly creative ways to goof off. CLICK & CLACK'S AS THE WRENCH TURNS is set at Car Talk Plaza, a fictional building that houses their radio studio and their famed garage in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

August 13 on As The Wrench Turns

8:00 p.m. - "Gotcha"
Click and Clack, both lifelong practical jokesters, always try to top each other's pranks. Tired of the continuous horseplay, Beth points out all the negative effects of practical joking, especially after the guys pull a choice one on her. But the heralded arrival of Ms. Sheila Goldigger, potential network philanthropist, sets the stage for Click and Clack's biggest, most sensational practical joke ever, risking it all for the most elaborate hoax they've ever produced. Will the brothers Tappet pull it off or will they finally learn their lesson?
8:30 p.m. - "Casino"
Click and Clack turn the garage into a casino! The Tappet brothers immediately put gambling hobbyist Sal in charge of running things. Beth, their steadfast producer, is appalled by the idea, until she tries her hand at one of the games - and suddenly, she's hooked. Things spiral out of control, and the guys have a lot of explaining to do as the police pull up at their ramblin' gambling garage.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wrenchturns/

Masterpiece Mystery!

Sundays at 9:00 p.m.
Inspector Lynley returns to Mystery! With Series VII in August. Novelist Elizabeth George's seemingly mismatched partners - the dashing blueblood Thomas Lynley (Nathaniel Parker), eighth Earl of Asherton, and his working-class sidekick, Barbara Havers (Sharon Small) - are known as much for fighting crime as for locking horns with one another. The celebrated New Scotland Yard duo collaborates on two final cases.

August 10 - Inspector Lynley Series VII, "Limbo"
Six months have passed since the shocking death of Lynley's wife, Helen, and Havers is concerned that her partner is drowning (and drowning in) his sorrows. As Lynley struggles to come to terms with his grief, he's unexpectedly drawn back in to the 15-year-old unsolved abduction of his godson. A reconnaissance trip to Rome on behalf of the family ends in a second tragedy - with Lynley at its center. When Lynley is arrested for murder, he and Havers battle against time, the apparent facts of the case and an ambitious professional rival to clear his name and find the real perpetrator.
August 17 - Inspector Lynley Series VII, "Know Thine Enemy"
His reputation restored, Lynley is back in action as he and Havers try to solve the murder of one schoolgirl and the disappearance of another. Is a serial killer on the loose in suburban London? What is the mother of one of the girls hiding? And who is the mysterious redhead seen with both girls before they disappeared? Honeysuckle Weeks ("Foyle's War") and James D'Arcy ("Mansfield Park") co-star in this psychological chiller, which pushes the detectives' friendship to the brink and leaves one of them questioning a critical judgment call.
August 24 - Inspector Lynley Series VI, "Natural Causes"
While Lynley is suspended from duty awaiting the outcome of his disciplinary hearing, Havers teams with Detective Inspector Fiona Knight to investigate the drowning of a young woman in her car. But things aren't as simple as they seem, and Lynley can't resist lending a hand to reveal a new lead in the case.
August 31 - Inspector Lynley Series VI, "One Guilty Deed"
After Lynley is reinstated, he, Havers and colleague Detective Constable Winston Nkata (Shaun Parkes) try to catch crime boss Michael Shand (Tom Georgeson), but their star witness is found shot dead on the tidal flats of the Essex marshes, Havers' childhood holiday retreat. When she learns of a 20-year-old unsolved case involving a murdered child, she is convinced that solving the case will provide the answers they need to catch Shand.

Visit the companion web site at www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/mystery/

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami

Monday, August 11 at 10:00 p.m.
MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI explores the critical role that Miami played in the evolution of one of the most significant cultural figures of our time: Muhammad Ali, aka Cassius Clay.

Cassius Clay arrived in Miami in the fall of 1960, fresh from earning an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer in the Rome Olympics. He moved into a succession of hotels in Miami's Overtown district - when that neighborhood was still considered Harlem South, a vibrant center of black entertainment and commerce - and trained with Angelo Dundee at the Fifth Street Gym on Miami Beach. Over the course of the next few years, coinciding with the height of the national civil rights movement, Clay evolved both professionally and politically, piling up victories in the ring and adopting the black separatist teachings of the Nation of Islam.

It was in this period that Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali. The transformation was completed in February 1964, when Clay, in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history, defeated the seemingly invincible heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach and, two days later, declared his new identity to the world.

MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI is not only Ali's story, but the story of Miami's black community and the Fifth Street Gym. The film combines rarely seen footage with interviews with Dundee, fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco, Ali's Miami neighbors, former Overtown residents, and sportswriters and photographers who covered the young phenom, as well as nationally recognized figures such as best-selling Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Remnick and Columbia University historian Manning Marable.

MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI explores Ali's friendship with Malcolm X, his celebrated encounter with the Beatles, his dramatic victory over Liston and his refusal to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War - all episodes that played out in Miami. Until now, Muhammad Ali's time in Miami has been treated as little more than prologue to his worldwide fame. This film argues that, without Miami, there might never have been a Muhammad Ali.

Nature

Sundays at 8:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.
For more than 25 years, NATURE has been the benchmark of natural history programs on television, capturing the splendors of the natural world, from the African plains to the Antarctic ice. The series has won nearly 450 honors from the television industry, parent groups, the international wildlife film community and environmental organizations, including 10 Emmys, three Peabodys and the first award given to a television program by the Sierra Club.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/

August 3 & 7 - "Horse and Rider"
Every relationship between horse and rider rests on a few fundamental principles - understanding the animal, building trust, communication and working in unison.
August 10 & 14 - "The Dolphin Defender"
More than 25 years ago, filmmaker Hardy Jones set out to learn everything he could about dolphins. At the time, no one had conducted studies in the wild of these enigmatic creatures, and many thought it couldn't be done. Since then, Jones has spent more time with dolphins than other humans, developing unique insights into what goes on in their sophisticated societies. This is the story of his personal journey into the world of dolphins, the sometimes dangerous waters into which they have led him and his continuing crusade to protect them.
August 17 & 21 - "Wisdom of the Wild"
This episode illustrates some of the surprising ways in which animals help teach, heal and strengthen people in body, mind and spirit.
August 24 & 28 - "A Mystery in Alaska"
Many animals in Alaska's complex and spectacular ecosystem decline dramatically in number with no clear explanations why.
August 31 - "Animals Behaving Worse"
New examples of animal/human conflicts ...

Out of Left Field: The Making of the Chinese Olympic Baseball Team

Chinese baseball team

Thursday, August 21 at 10:00 p.m.

"There are three languages that have to be spoken. There's Chinese. There's English. And there's baseball."
- Bruce Hurst, Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher

In the heat of the Arizona sun, at a field normally used by major league baseball prospects, players who speak not a word of English do their best to comprehend the basics of the most American of games.

They are Chinese - gifted natural athletes who know more about gymnastics and table tennis than double plays and sacrifice flies. Their coaches are American - retired from the majors, looking to help bring together two of the world's most disconnected cultures through the international language of baseball.

OUT OF LEFT FIELD: THE MAKING OF THE CHINESE OLYMPIC BASEBALL TEAM, a remarkable glimpse into this world, is a first-of-its-kind opportunity to see the emergence of a sport in a nation that once considered baseball "cultural pollution." Jim Lefebvre, former player and coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is in charge of turning Chinese players with limited skills into Olympic-caliber athletes. Along with a handful of other retired pros - and with the cooperation of major league baseball - they are helping to bring America's game to a nation with one-fifth of the world's population.

The program follows the team from the practice fields of Arizona to the storied cities of Europe and the villages of the athletes back home - even to China's shopping malls, where players hand out booklets, explaining the rules of the game to anyone willing to listen. This is part culture clash and part sports drama, combined with an inspiring follow-your-dreams quest.

PBS Convention Coverage - A NewsHour Special Report

Democratic National Convention:
Monday-Thursday, August 25-28, 8:00 p.m.
Republican National Convention:
Monday-Thursday, September 1-4, 8:00-11:00 p.m.

PBS' convention coverage, anchored by Jim Lehrer of THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER, will include extended uninterrupted coverage of podium activities and speeches; reporting from the floor of the convention; newsmaker interviews; political analysis and historical perspective. NEWSHOUR senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Judy Woodruff and Margaret Warner will join Lehrer. Political analysis will be provided by New York Times columnist David Brooks and syndicated columnist Mark Shields. Presidential historians Michael Beschloss and Richard Norton Smith will add historical perspective; Andy Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, will update viewers with the latest polling information.

With so many voters turning to the Internet for their news, The NewsHour will also devote extensive resources to convention coverage online, including original reporting and video footage created exclusively for the Online NewsHour . With an eye on the issues at play in battleground states, Online will capture first-hand perspectives of state delegations and other voices from the convention floor, as well as the unique perspectives of the NewsHour's senior correspondents and guests. The Online NewsHour will post video, audio and other multi-media reports as well as allow site users to ask questions of experts and correspondents. Editors will also be publishing photos on the NewsHour's Flickr account, updating the NewsHour Twitter feed for up-to-the-minute observations and collaborate with NPR to constantly update an NPR/NewsHour/PBS interactive election map. While PBS convention coverage will be interspersed with analysis, interviews and commentary, The NewsHour will focus its coverage on podium activities to provide viewers with a real sense of what is going on inside the convention halls.

PBS goes behind the headlines throughout the summer and fall with the "PBS Vote 2008" election line-up, offering Americans a unique opportunity to explore the Presidential elections. PBS' trusted news brands and personalities bring viewers in-depth information and insight into the issues and candidates. PBS' election coverage will be led by THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER, WASHINGTON WEEK WITH GWEN IFILL AND NATIONAL JOURNAL, NOW ON PBS, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL and TAVIS SMILEY, and enhanced by programming from other trusted PBS sources, including AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, FRONTLINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT and P.O.V.. PBS.org's election hub page, pbs.org/vote2008 , will provide further perspectives.

P.O.V.

Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m.
P.O.V. (a cinema term for "point of view") is PBS' award-winning showcase for independent non-fiction films. Visit the companion website at http://www.pbs.org/pov/

August 5 - "Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music"
In this classic 1969 documentary, the Man in Black is captured at his peak, the first of many in a looming roller-coaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash displays the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon. Director Robert Elfstrom got closer than any other filmmaker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride, June Carter Cash; in a rare duet with Bob Dylan; and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians. This program paints an unforgettable portrait that endures beyond the singer's 2003 death.
August 12 - "Belarusian Waltz"
Belarus has been called "Europe's last dictatorship." Since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet republic with a despotic hand, jailing the opposition, shutting down the press and refusing to investigate the assassinations of dissidents. He has virtually silenced his critics - but not one lone performance artist who stages public stunts mocking the dictator's pretensions. "Belarusian Waltz" is the story of Alexander Pushkin, whose audacious, comical exploits earn him the hostility of the police and the consternation of his family. An offbeat tale of post-modern street theater meeting 1930s-style authoritarianism, the film offers a surprising window into the soul of the Belarusian people.
August 19 - "The Judge and The General"
When in 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzman was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. Guzman had supported Pinochet's 1973 coup - waged as an anti-Communist crusade - that left the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and thousands of others dead or "disappeared." The filmmakers trace the judge's descent into what he calls "the abyss," where he uncovers the past - including his own role in the tragedy. "The Judge and the General" reveals one of the 20th century's most notorious episodes and tells a cautionary tale about violating human rights in the name of "higher ideals."

Soundstage

After six years of incredible shows, Soundstage is proud to present one of our best line-ups yet with a diverse roster of legendary and chart-topping performers worth staying in for.

Thursday, August 14 at 10:00 p.m. - "Kenny Chesney"
There's a reason Kenny Chesney received three consecutive ACM Entertainment of the Year awards. Backed by a flawless band and horn section, Chesney presents contemporary country at its finest on this episode of Soundstage. Encouraging the audience to leave their problems at the door, Kenny proceeds to blow the roof off with party anthem opener "Beer in Mexico." Chesney's musical stylings are diverse during this set, ranging from beachy, tropical homages like "Summertime" to reflective, soft crooners like "Better As A Memory" and "Back Where I Come From." Bounding back and forth across the stage, his unabashed energy translates perfectly into friendly heartland ballads and sincere, feel-good sing alongs like "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems," "When the Sun Goes Down" and "Young." Truly a spectacular night, Chesney also performs "Big Star" in this intimate studio setting, putting you in a good mood for days.
Saturday, August 16 at 11:00 p.m. - "Stevie Nicks" - Pt. 2
Stevie Nicks knows how to put on a show. Part Two of this theatrical evening continues with a perfect mix of favorites like "Landslide" and "Gold Dust Woman" that will leave you yearning for more. During this intimate show, Stevie shares poignant personal memories and the origins of her songs. In long, dripping sleeves and trademark shawl, she breaks into her signature slow twirls, exuding a sensuous stage presence. The hour starts off with a riveting version of "Rhiannon" and ends with an epic rendition of "Edge of Seventeen." If that's not enough, Vanessa Carlton joins Stevie on stage for a special duet of Bonnie Raitt's "Circle Dance," as well as "The One," a cut from Vanessa's latest album. Tune in to watch one of the most prolific and influential women in rock music history at her best!
Saturday, August 30 at 11:00 p.m. - "Matchbox Twenty"
Soundstage is delighted to present Matchbox Twenty. After three multi-platinum albums, an incredible string of chart-topping hits and an almost five-year hiatus since their last studio album, audiences demanded they pick up where they left off. In a special rock performance, Matchbox Twenty showcases selections from their new record, Exile on Mainstream, a retrospective collection of 11 previously- released smash singles and six new songs.

Truly a staple of modern rock, Matchbox Twenty has mastered the art of entertaining. Lead vocalist Rob Thomas commands the audience as he belts out soulful renditions of their catchy, relatable and often poignant classics, while the band provides a catchy pop rock back drop. Since their debut they have earned five Grammy nominations and three American Music Award nominations, while Thomas separately earned three Grammy Awards, 13 BMI Awards, and was twice named Billboard's Songwriter of the Year during his sensational solo career. Tune in as they perform the songs they're famous for, including fan favorites "Long Day," "3 AM," and "Unwell," along with new hit "How Far We've Come."

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wttw/soundstage/

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