African American Lives -- PBS - Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST)- January 30, 2006 In a lot of ways, this kickoff to Black History Month takes the classic miniseries Roots one step further. In this two-part special that concludes next Wednesday, Feb. 8, interviews and genealogical records are used to trace the ancestry of eight well-known black Americans. Then, DNA testing is used to try and pinpoint their African roots.http://www.billoglesby.com/newspick/2006/01/african-american-lives-pbs-wednesday.html Final Report -- National Geographic Channel - Premieres Thursday, January 26, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST)- January 22, 2006 One of the ironies of the modern television age is that, while we have far more channels and time devoted to news than ever before, less of that time is devoted to real analysis. This new series Final Report on the National Geographic Channel is most definitely NOT trying to be first; in fact, the back-to-back first episodes of this series each deal with dated material -- the D.C. Sniper investigation at 9:00, followed by the Waco confrontationconflagration at 10:00. This is the kind of...http://www.billoglesby.com/newspick/2006/01/final-report-national-geographic.html "Country Boys" (Frontline) -- PBS - Monday, January 9 - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 9:00 p.m. (EST - may vary)- January 9, 2006 Coming of age stories have a way of drawing people in, perhaps because it is a time both perplexing and universal. When carefully documented, it can also be a time of great honesty, which explains the potential of Frontline's latest offering Country Boys. Documentary filmmaker David Sutherland makes us work for this one - it airs for a total of six hours over three consecutive nights. But the reward is to understand, by looking at the lives of two teenage friends, what life is like in the...http://www.billoglesby.com/newspick/2006/01/country-boys-frontline-pbs-monday.html Weekends with Maury and Connie -- MSNBC - Premieres Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 10 a.m. (EST)- January 4, 2006 How will 20 years of marriage impact the ability of two newspeople to work together Will their diverse careers combine to create an interesting commentary on the week's news Perhaps more importantly, at 10:00 Saturday morning, will anyone care This week brings us the debut of Weekends with Maury and Connie -- he the Springer-lite talk show host, former host of A Current Affair and golfing partner (Mo-man) of the President -- she the former star of Los Angeles local news, then uneasy rider with..http://www.billoglesby.com/newspick/2006/01/weekends-with-maury-and-connie-msnbc.html |