Blue Ridge PBS - Featured Programs

Join us for these featured programs in August

	American Experience: Earth Days
	Anatomy of a Hurricane
	Benjamin Latrobe: America's First Architect
	Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio
	Great Performances: Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2010

	Great Performances at the Met: Carmen
	History Detectives
	Human Spark
	Live from Lincoln Center: South Pacific
	Masterpiece Mystery!
	Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami
	Nature

American Experience: Earth Days

Thursday, August 26 at 9:00pm
Television's most-watched history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has been hailed as "peerless" (Wall Street Journal), "the most consistently enriching program on television" (Chicago Tribune) and "a beacon of intelligence and purpose" (Houston Chronicle). On air and online, the series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including 24 Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards and 14 George Foster Peabody
Awards.

On "Earth Days," director Robert Stone ("Oswald's Ghost," "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst") traces the origins of the modern environmental movement. The story is shared through the eyes of nine Americans who propelled the movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to its moment of triumph in 1970 with the original Earth Day and to its status as a major political force in America.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/ .

Anatomy of a Hurricane

Sunday, August 15 at 10:30pm
This documentary program goes inside the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, during the 2004 hurricane season. With satellite images courtesy of NOAA and NASA, viewers get a revealing look at the stressful work of the dedicated staff who deal with unique and unexpected challenges and struggle to make the most accurate predictions. Hurricane Specialist Jack Bevens remarks, "You're the man who has to make the call, and if you get it wrong, you can get a lot of people killed."

Hurricane Jeanne

Benjamin Latrobe: America's First Architect

Basilica

Monday, August 9 at 10:00pm
Noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger hosts this documentary biography of Benjamin Latrobe, the creator of the first uniquely "American" architecture. Latrobe's tumultuous life was a series of creative triumphs, personal tragedies and constant re-invention. The film features computer-generated animation, interviews with architects and historians and location shooting as Goldberger explores Latrobe's life, from his early years in England to his immigration to the young republic and his work on such iconic buildings as the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the Baltimore Basilica.

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

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

Monday, August 23 at 10:00pm
In 1993, the late architect and MacArthur "genius" Samuel Mockbee started the Rural Studio, a design/build program in which students create striking architecture for impoverished communities in rural Alabama. Guided by frank, passionate, never-before-seen interviews with Mockbee, the film shows how students use their creativity, ingenuity and compassion to craft a home for their charismatic, indigent client, Jimmie Lee Matthews, known as "Music Man" for his passion for soul music.

The Rural Studio provides students with an experience that inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. Interviews with Mockbee's peers and scenes with those he's influenced infuse the film with a larger discussion of architecture's role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, citizenship and social change.

Great Performances: Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2010

Wednesday, August 25 at 8:00pm
The renowned Vienna Philharmonic continues its summertime tradition with another open-air concert held in the magnificent gardens of Austria's Imperial Schonbrunn Palace. Guest conductor Franz Welser-Most (currently music director of the Cleveland Orchestra) will lead the Vienna Philharmonic in an atmospheric selection of audience favorites.

Visit the Great Performances website at www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/

Great Performances at the Met: Carmen

Wednesday August 4 at 8:00pm
Richard Eyre, the renowned British director of theater and film, explores the passionate drama of Bizet's Carmen and the power of her desires in his new production at the Metropolitan Opera, which premieres on Great Performances at the Met.

Elina Garanca sings the title role opposite Roberto Alagna as Don Jose in director Richard Eyre's production of Bizet's masterpiece. Barbara Frittoli is Micaela and Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays the matador Escamillo. Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts. Renee Fleming hosts the broadcast.

History Detectives

Mondays at 9:00pm
America's top gumshoes are back to prove once again that an object found in an attic or backyard might be anything but ordinary. Wesley Cowan, independent appraiser and auctioneer; Gwendolyn Wright, historian and professor of architecture, Columbia University; Elyse Luray, independent appraiser and expert in art history; Dr. Eduardo Pagan, professor of history and American studies at Arizona State University; and Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania leave no stone unturned as they travel around the country to explore the stories behind local folklore, prominent figures and family legends.

Visit the History Detectives Facebook Fan Page at and the companion website at pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/

Human Spark

Wednesday, August 11
Uniquely human abilities - to think in symbols; recombine those symbols into infinite meanings; invent a technology to disseminate the message; ponder the past; speculate about the future; imagine the unknown; build cities; compose music - constitute the "human spark." In this three-part series, host Alan Alda searches for the origin and nature of this spark.

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

8:00pm - "Becoming Us"
Where and when did the "human spark" first ignite? In the caves of France, where 30,000-year-old paintings adorn the walls? Or at a much earlier time - and on another continent?
9:00pm- "So Human, So Chimp"
Alda joins researchers studying our fellow simians to discover both what we share with them and what new skills humans evolved since we went our separate ways.
10:00pm- "Brain Matters"
Viewers literally peer into Alda's head with a variety of high-tech imaging techniques, looking for his human spark.

Live from Lincoln Center: South Pacific

Wednesday, August 18 at 8:00pm
Lincoln Center Theater's Tony Award-winning production of "South Pacific," Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical theater classic, airs live from the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Tales of the South Pacific, the musical tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples - U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush (Kelli O'Hara) and French plantation owner Emile de Becque (Paulo Szot), and Navy Airman Joe Cable and a young native girl, Liat - and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of World War II and their own prejudices.

The score includes such classic songs as "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger Than Springtime," "Bali Ha'i," "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame," "A Wonderful Guy" and "This Nearly Was Mine." Lincoln Center Theater's revival, directed by Bartlett Sher, won seven Tonys.

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

Masterpiece Mystery!

Sundays at 9:00pm
For more than 35 years, MASTERPIECE has enthralled audiences with the works of the finest classic and contemporary writers interpreted by the world's foremost actors.

August 1-"Poirot: Cat Among the Pigeons"
Poirot tackles an intriguing and dangerous murder case involving international espionage, a Middle-Eastern revolution and a missing princess.
August 8-"Inspector Lewis, Series II: Allegory of Love"
Literary whimsy becomes murderous reality with the death of a Czech barmaid.
August 15-"Inspector Lewis, Series II: Quality of Mercy"
Lewis and Hathaway unearth a dark secret during their investigation into the death of a young actor.
August 22-"Inspector Lewis, Series II: The Point of Vanishing"
The murder of a small-time criminal leads Lewis and Hathaway to a prominent Oxford don-turned-celebrity atheist.
August 29-"Inspector Lewis, Series III: Counterculture Blues"
On a routine disturbance call, Lewis (Kevin Whately) is shocked to encounter a rock star (Joanna Lumley) believed to have died years before.

Visit the Masterpiece website at www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami

Monday, August 30 at 10:00pm
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 (ne Cassius Clay). The film chronicles Cassius Clay's arrival in Miami in the fall of 1960 (fresh from earning a gold medal in the Rome Olympics), his life in Overtown - a neighborhood that was considered "Harlem South" and a vibrant center of black entertainment and commerce - and his affiliation with the famed Fifth Street Gym in 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. As MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI makes clear, it was in this period that Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali.

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

Nature

Sundays & Thursdays at 8:00pm
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.

August 1 & 5-"Penguins of the Antarctic"
Emperors and kings, chinstraps and adelies - the penguins of Antarctica all make their home in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. Their life has always been a constant struggle to survive, but their biggest challenge is yet to come. As the climate changes, long-established territories are being invaded and traditional nesting colonies are being disrupted. How will these extraordinary birds deal with the full effects of global warming?
August 8 &12-"Silent Roar: Searching for the Snow Leopard"
Only a privileged few have ever seen a snow leopard - the powerful and mysterious predator of the Himalayas. Telling the story of this most elusive creature is one of the last great challenges in wildlife filmmaking. This remarkable program, representing three years of hard work, high altitudes, long waits, great risk and dogged determination, accomplishes the impossible when a legendary filmmaker sets out to film a legendary cat.
August 15 & 19-"Violent Hawaii"
Hawaii's breathtaking beauty was forged in fire, created by the awesome power of volcanoes on land and in the sea, by earthquakes and tsunamis, natural wonders that continue to shape the islands today. Shot by a team of award-winning filmmakers who live on the islands, this spectacular film features volcanic eruptions, rivers of molten lava, monster waves, humpback whales and perhaps most surprising of all, snow.
August 22 & 26-"Rhinoceros"
They are hulking beasts from prehistory, virtually unchanged over 25 million years. Once they roamed the Earth in millions, numbering hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes; today, the rhinoceros is one of the planet's rarest animals, with three of the remaining five species on the brink of extinction. NATURE trails rangers through the savannahs of South Africa, the grasslands of India and the jungles of Indonesia, and visits rhino fertility experts at an American zoo, detailing efforts to protect rhinos from poachers, relocate them to new habitats and breed them in captivity.
August 29-"Superfish"
They slice through the water's surface with explosive power - sail, spear and a half-ton of muscle flashing in the sun. Their journeys through the open ocean are epic, their life cycle, bizarre. They are the billfish - marlin, sailfish, spearfish and swordfish - largest and most highly prized of all gamefish. Their astonishing story has never been fully told. Emmy award-winning filmmaker and biologist Rick Rosenthal brings to the screen a lifetime of experience with these astonishing sea creatures as he observes tiny billfish nurseries in the wild, dives deep into secret undersea canyons, films incredible color-changing behavior and embarks on a quest for an elusive thousand-pound "grander."

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

For more program information visit our Programs A-Z page
and see clips from your favorite PBS programs.

The Blue Ridge PBS Primetime Calendar and daytime schedules are available as an Adobe PDF File.
Click below on the calendar of your choice.

July Primetime July Daytime
August Primetime August Daytime

Late-Breaking World News and Events May Result in Schedule Changes

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