Documentary Archives - Page 35 of 63

Weather Channel special looks back at extreme weather events of 2012

December 26, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Weather Channel premieres a year-end special called 2012: A Year Out of Season this Friday, Dec. 28, at 8pm ET. The one-hour program explores the brutal weather that ravaged the United States and defined 2012. Weather Channel on-camera meteorologist Jim Cantore hosts A Year Out of Season. From The Weather Channel release: “A wide range of extreme conditions ruled the year, beginning with an unseasonably warm ‘winter-less’ winter, and a series of deadly tornado outbreaks that began before the onset of the traditional ‘tornado season.’ Months of record heat followed, leading to a drought so devastating it stirred comparisons […]

Pearl Harbor 71st anniversary TV programming

December 5, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

This Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, marks the 71st anniversary of the “date which will live in infamy” — the day in 1941 when the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing America into World War II and effectively changing the course of that conflict. That date, as President Franklin Roosevelt predicted, has indeed lived in infamy as a symbol of treachery, but it has also lived on as a symbol of resolve. In commemoration of the event, and in honor of those who lost their lives, several TV programs about the Pearl Harbor attack will […]

Mayan 2012 Apocalypse TV programming

November 30, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Updated Dec. 6, 2012, 1:25pm CT Dec. 21, 2012. There hasn’t been so much interest in — and, in some cases, fear over — a date since 1999 and the impending approach of Y2K. Whether or not you believe in the supposed Mayan 2012 prediction that some cataclysmic or transformative event will befall humanity on Dec. 21, 2012, the date is nearly upon us, and whatever happens or doesn’t happen, TV will be there to capitalize on interest in the Mayan 2012 Apocalypse from believers, skeptics and people who normally just wouldn’t care. Leading up to Dec. 21, there will […]

Documentary

“Baby Wait” couple talks about their experience on the open-adoption series

November 30, 2012 StayTuned Staff

Through its first five episodes, Logo’s heart-wrenching docu-series The Baby Wait has explored the complexities of open adoption by giving voice to the birth mother as well as the adoptive family, tracking that period when the child is with the new family but could still be taken back. The season comes to a close Tuesday at 9pm. During its run, The Baby Wait has largely avoided controversy, despite coming from the producers of such cultural lightning rods as Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. The show also features the often heated subject of same-sex couples wanting children. But the treatment of […]

Bullying, murder victims offer forgiveness in GMC’s “I Forgive You”

November 16, 2012 Barb Oates

I forgive you. Those are three extremely powerful words and the premise GMC network (the “uplifting entertainment” net) developed their newest project around. In the documentary pilot I Forgive You, premiering Sunday, Nov. 18 at 9pm ET (repeating 10pm ET, 11pm ET), viewers will witness some very remarkable and inspirational — and true — stories of forgiveness that show the best in human nature. “In none of these stories did people come forward and beg for forgiveness,” said executive producer Arnold Shapiro, the Oscar and Emmy award-winning producer for Scared Straight! “In all of these stories, the forgiveness was voluntarily […]

Spike Lee’s “Bad 25” makes television debut on ABC this Thanksgiving

November 15, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson’s album Bad, his 1987 follow-up to the 1982 mega-smash Thriller. Bad was another critical, artistic and financial triumph for Jackson, launching several hit singles, including the title track, along with “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror,” “Dirty Diana” and “Smooth Criminal.” The album itself is the fifth best-selling album of all time, and launched a world tour for Jackson in 1987-89. Naturally, with anniversaries of this sort — especially when related to departed mega-icons like Jackson — there […]

History’s “Mankind” tells the epic tale of human history

November 13, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

History has certainly embarked upon a program worthy of its network name with its new 12-hour, six-night event series Mankind The Story of All of Us. Following in the wake of its successful America The Story of Us, this series takes the same approach, but — as its title suggests — expands its canvas to a much wider subject: nothing less than the history of the human race. Starting, indeed, as far back as the Big Bang and explaining how conditions on our planet became just right for our species to develop, the series fast-forwards to the first humans and […]

Two new cable documentaries examine Hurricane Sandy

November 12, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, and it’s doubtful that anyone who either lived through it, or witnessed images and video of its startling devastation from afar, will ever forget Hurricane Sandy, which was eventually upgraded to a “superstorm” as it progressed through the Caribbean and up into the United States East Coast. Over 100 people were killed in the U.S. alone, and millions were left without power (thousands are still without power in the U.S. two weeks after the storm). The storm will surely be studied and talked about for a long time, including in two documentaries […]

“Crossfire Hurricane” on HBO documents the rise of The Rolling Stones

November 7, 2012 Ryan Berenz

Crossfire Hurricane on HBO Nov. 15 documents the rise of The Rolling Stones from “the band everybody hated to the band everybody loves.” The Rolling Stones were the bad boys of the 1960s British Invasion, the sexually charged, rebellious foil to the clean-cut, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” Beatles. The Beatles lasted only 10 years together. The Stones have been at it for 50 years. The Stones’ golden anniversary is celebrated with the new documentary Crossfire Hurricane (HBO, Nov. 15 at 9pm ET), which chronicles the band’s evolution from, as Mick Jagger puts it, “the band everybody hated to […]

“Catfish” star Nev Schulman helps other online lovers on MTV’s “Catfish: The TV Show”

November 2, 2012 Lori Acken

If you’re a fan of the 2010 hit documentary Catfish, you know Yaniv “Nev” Schulman as the 24-year-old New York photographer who formed a long-distance, technology-driven relationship with “Megan,” a luscious but evasive Michigan woman, then discovered that his online dream girl was actually a troubled middle-aged mom name Angela. In the wake of the film — which concludes with Schulman making peace with his deceiver — Schulman heard from an astounding cross section of people worried that their own online lovers aren’t really who they seem. • RELATED: Will Manti Te’o hoax become an episode of Catfish? The result is […]