PBS Archives - Page 8 of 17 - StayTuned Magazine

Downton Abbey Season 5 casting news announced

February 14, 2014 Jeff Pfeiffer

Carnival Films and MASTERPIECE on PBS have announced new cast members who will be joining Downton Abbey Season 5. Richard E. Grant (no stranger to this type of period drama, having starred in the film Gosford Park, also written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes), will join the cast as Simon Bricker, who visits Downton Abbey as a guest of the Granthams. Anna Chancellor (The Hour, Four Weddings and a Funeral) will join in a guest role, playing Lady Anstruther. Rade Sherbedgia (24) will play a Russian refugee. The announcement also said that returning guest cast member Dame Harriet Walter […]

Honey badger probably don’t care that it’s the subject of a new PBS “Nature” episode

February 12, 2014 Jeff Pfeiffer

In one of the funniest and most popular (over 65 million views, at last check) viral YouTube videos of recent years, a guy named Randall did a mock nature documentary voiceover accompanying footage of Africa’s honey badger in action, constantly expressing sassy incredulity over just how fearless this little creature is as it proceeds to take on everything from bees to deadly snakes. “Honey badger don’t care” quickly became an enduring Internet meme arising from this video. A more scientific nature documentary outfit — PBS’ Nature series — will now explore the world of the honey badger in a new […]

Subject of PBS’ “The Amish: Shunned” finds Amish reality shows “inaccurate” and “disappointing”

February 4, 2014 Jeff Pfeiffer

Tonight, PBS debuts its American Experience film “The Amish: Shunned,” a follow-up to its successful and fascinating 2012 installment “The Amish.” The two-hour “The Amish Shunned” focuses on the Amish practice of “shunning,” and the cost people who leave the Amish pay. The program follows seven former Amish, who reflect on their decisions to leave the community. Among those featured is Naomi Kramer, a former member of the Old Order Amish who has gone on to become a nurse and to set up the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund for other former Amish. At a press conference for “The Amish: Shunned” […]

PBS re-airing Pete Seeger “American Masters” film

January 30, 2014 Jeff Pfeiffer

PBS has announced that it will be re-airing a 2008 film from its acclaimed American Masters series called “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song,” for a special broadcast in memoriam of legendary singer, songwriter and activist Pete Seeger, who passed away Monday at the age of 94. The film will also stream online at pbs.org/americanmasters. Film synopsis from PBS: “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song” is the singer’s first authorized film biography, and it poetically documents Pete Seeger’s unique experience and contributions. The man, who introduced America to its own folk heritage, got a whole generation passionate about playing the […]

TCA: Benedict Cumberbatch still finds playing Sherlock “invigorating”

January 20, 2014 Jeff Pfeiffer

Many members of the so-called “Cumber Collective,” “Cumberbitches” and “Cumberbabes” were out in force today, camped outside the Langham Hotel in Pasadena to await the arrival of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who was on hand during PBS’ first day of the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour. Cumberbatch was here to talk about Sherlock Season 3, which made its U.S. premiere last night on PBS to an average audience of nearly 4 million viewers. PBS was tightly monitoring the room to ensure only credentialed press were allowed into the approximately 25-minute panel, which also included Sherlock executive producers Steven Moffat […]

Allen Leech and Phyllis Logan talk Downton Abbey Season 4

December 27, 2013 Jeff Pfeiffer

Having just completed its run in the U.K. — where it was Britain’s highest-rated television drama in 2013 — Downton Abbey Season 4 now makes its way across the pond starting Jan. 5 on PBS and airing eight weeks. Fans know that Season 3 ended with Matthew Crawley lying dead on a country road next to his overturned roadster, leaving behind his wife, Mary (Michelle Dockery), and their newborn baby boy. On top of this, the family still grieves over the death in childbirth of Sybil, Mary’s youngest sister, who also left a baby behind. Season 4 begins six months […]

Incredible photos from “NOVA At the Edge of Space”

November 20, 2013 Ryan Berenz

Incredible photos from NOVA At the Edge of Space: NOVA: At the Edge of Space on PBS Nov. 20 takes viewers into the zone between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, where some amazing phenomena take place. NOVA takes viewers on a spectacular exploration to probe the earth-space boundary zone, home to some of nature’s most puzzling and alluring phenomena: the shimmering aurora, streaking meteors and sprites, fleeting flashes that shoot upwards from thunderclouds. NOVA rides with scientists in a high-flying weather observation plane as they hunt for sprites and finally succeed in snaring them in 3-D video, gaining vital […]

PBS special traces Lincoln’s pioneering use of technology and his Gettysburg Address

November 19, 2013 Jeff Pfeiffer

Nov. 19, 2013, marks the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. Though Lincoln stated during his speech that “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here” his brief, approximately 270-word address has lived on to be remembered as one of the great speeches in American history. Through his address, Lincoln reaffirmed the meaning and purpose of the American democracy, and made his case that preserving the union was the only end that could justify the horrors of the war and slaughter of thousands in the fields and forests around Gettysburg, Pa., during the Civil […]

PBS re-airing Lou Reed “American Masters” documentary

October 30, 2013 Jeff Pfeiffer

Check your local PBS listings over the next week — the network has announced that it will be re-airing the 1998 American Masters documentary Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart nationwide Oct. 31 at 10pm ET. Select PBS stations, including the WORLD channel, will be airing the film through Nov. 7 (according to PBS, about two-thirds of the U.S. should be able to see the rebroadcast of this film). Confirmed air dates at this point are Oct. 31 at 10pm on PBS So Cal in the Los Angeles area, and Nov. 4 at 9pm on THIRTEEN in the New York […]

“War of the Worlds: American Experience” invades PBS

October 29, 2013 Ryan Berenz

War of the Worlds: American Experience: Celebrating 75 years since Orson Welles provoked panic with the notorious 1938 radio drama broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, this American Experience documentary reexamines the event’s legacy. The notorious 1938 radio drama broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds remains the prime example of mass media’s potential to cause mass hysteria. Celebrating 75 years since Orson Welles’ panic-provoking news bulletins announced a Martian invasion, War of the Worlds: American Experience reexamines the broadcast’s legacy through interviews with historians and experts, and through letters sent to Welles by the […]