Documentary Archives - Page 16 of 63

“Meerkat Manor” returning (sort of)

May 27, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Animal Planet’s cute “docu-soap” hit from about a decade back, Meerkat Manor, is being packaged with reversioned footage from the first two seasons and a new narrator for two 90-minute specials debuting on sister network Discovery Family Channel in June. Meerkat Manor: The Monarchy Begins, and Meerkat Manor: The Monarchy Under Attack will air June 2 and 9, respectively. As you can tell from the photo above, the repackaging is inspired by Downton Abbey, as new narrator Rupert Graves explains the drama in the “Whiskers Mob” of meerkats that became viewer favorites (hopefully the post-Edwardian garb will not be CGIed onto the real meerkats). […]

Nat Geo Wild Three-Night Event: Is Your Dog A Genius?

May 15, 2015 Kellie Freeze

Is your bichon a brainiac? Is your elkhound like Einstein? Might your four-legged friend who eats from your unattended garbage be one of the most intelligent beasts in the animal kingdom? Nat Geo Wild and dog scientist Dr. Brian Hare hope to answer those questions in Is Your Dog a Genius?, a three-night event that explores and explains the goings-on inside the minds of dogs. Dr. Hare — an evolutionary anthropologist and codirector of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, coauthor of The Genius of Dogs, and cofounder of Dognition, a doggie IQ testing site — uses his research to help […]

American Masters honors 75 years of the ABT with Ric Burns’ American Ballet Theatre: A History

May 15, 2015 Lori Acken

At the very start of Ric Burns’ duly masterful American Masters documentary American Ballet Theatre: A History, which premieres tonight on PBS, dance historian Jennifer Homans offers up this assessment of the dancer’s experience: “If you are a dancer and you stand at the barre in these positions which have been prescribed for over 400 years and you go through this ritual — it’s a ritual of repetition, a ritual of physical discipline — you have to focus purely on the body. On what’s going on inside you. As you do that, you sort of end up letting go of all […]

Review: E:60 Pictures’ “WWE Behind the Curtain”

May 6, 2015 Scott Fishman

Viewers were given an unprecedented look at sports entertainment with E: 60 Pictures “WWE Behind the Curtain” on ESPN. Cameras were given access to production meetings, backstage, in the ring and into the lives of the men and women who portray these larger-than-life characters. Featured in the documentary are superstars Adam Rose (Ray Leppan), Corey Graves (Matthew Polinsky) and Xavier Woods (Austin Watson). These men have come from various backgrounds, but share the same dream of making it in WWE. The starting point for each of their journey is at the company’s developmental brand NXT and the state-of-the-art Performance Center […]

Monster Week 2015 airs nine nights on Animal Planet

May 4, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Recently, Animal Planet announced the lineup for its annual Monster Week celebration of all things related to terrifying beasts, real and legendary. Monster Week 2015 will air nine nights, May 17 through May 25, on the network, and some of the premiere titles are eye-catching, to say the least, sounding more like Syfy movies, with program names including Serial Killer Tiger at Large and Killer Hornets From Hell. Earlier this year, new Discovery Channel president Rich Ross promised no more “mockumentaries” on the channel, like has been seen with the Mermaids and Megalodon shows. That promise may have technically applied only to Discovery Channel […]

40 years after fall of Saigon, “Last Days in Vietnam” looks at final days of the war

April 24, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

Forty years ago this month, the last stage of the Vietnam War took place as the remaining American presence was chased out of Saigon, the capital city of South Vietnam. Although most U.S. military forces had left the country in 1973 in the wake of the Paris Peace Accords, by 1975, the communists of North Vietnam had broken that peace and initiated an invasion into the south, leaving the remaining groups of military, intelligence and embassy personnel scrambling for an escape plan as North Vietnam encircled Saigon by late April. The chaos that ensued in those final days is probably […]

Discovery releases first Shark Week 2015 promo

April 23, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

That time of year already? Discovery’s Shark Week 2015 is just around the corner, airing even earlier this year, with a July 5 kickoff. Just as most holidays seem to get advertised earlier and earlier, Shark Week — likely viewed as a holiday by some, not the least of which is Discovery, who usually enjoys a ratings Christmas each summer thanks to the programming event — so Shark Week has gotten its first promo today, about two months out. Set to a revised version of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” tweaked with some shark-y lyrics, the video […]

Go Behind The Cameras Of Botched, Season 2.

April 14, 2015 Kellie Freeze

Tonight, E! heads back under the knife in the return of its groundbreaking reconstructive plastic surgery series, Botched. In each episode, Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif transform bodies and lives by correcting plastic surgery-gone-bad or devastating physical situations that have rendered the patients all but shut-ins. The creation of any kind of reality programming requires the work of a small army of talented entertainment professionals, and I was curious about the specific challenges of shooting a show as graphic and intimate as Botched. The camera men and women who film the consults and surgeries do so without he […]

Restored version of Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” will air on PBS around series’ 25th anniversary

April 9, 2015 Jeff Pfeiffer

As America marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, this year is also the 25th anniversary of Ken Burns’ superlative and iconic documentary on the conflict, 1990’s The Civil War. To this day, the documentary stands as the highest-rated PBS series broadcast; it attracted 38.9 million viewers during its September 1990 debut. Now, 25 years to the month that the film series originally premiered, PBS will re-air The Civil War over five nights, Sept. 7-11, 2015, at 9pm ET (check local listings). The rebroadcast of The Civil War will present for the first time a newly restored high-definition version. Over the course of two […]

“Cancer: The Emperor Of All Maladies” a biography of everyone’s worst enemy

March 27, 2015 Ryan Berenz

Ken Burns executive produces Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, a three-part, six-hour documentary based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by cancer researcher Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. Airing on PBS March 30-April 1 at 9pm ET (check local listings), the ambitious project tells the story of cancer from nearly every angle, looking at the history of its diagnosis, study and treatment, following current patients battling the disease, and uncovering breakthroughs that might someday lead to a cure. The first episode, “Magic Bullets,” focuses on the centuries-long search for a cure. Tuesday’s episode, “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” looks at the rapid advances in […]