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Documentary

Anniversary of JFK assassination brings more television speculation

By Jeff Pfeiffer This Sunday, Nov. 22, will be the 46th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The exact details behind this act remain among our country’s most enduring mysteries, and have led to many theories, some reasonable, others bordering on — or crossing into — crackpot conspiracy territory. It’s likely we will never know for sure what actually took place leading up to the firing of those bullets in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza in 1963, but it will always remain good speculative fodder for TV networks and fascinated audiences. This year is no exception, as a few […]

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Documentary

NGC reels in new “Hooked” episodes

National Geographic Channel’s series Hooked returns with several new episodes detailing intriguing — and sometimes terrifying — encounters in megafishing, beginning with a two-night event this Sunday and Monday. Hooked: Extreme Angling —Oct. 18 at 9pm ET/PT. Meet daring anglers who use a variety of nontraditional methods to hook the biggest, baddest sea creatures. In Australia, see a marine biologist and his team lasso an injured — and angry — sand tiger shark with a 6-foot hook lodged in its throat, and then perform on-the-spot emergency surgery to save its life. Then, an expert angler in the Seychelles literally dives […]

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Comedy

Monty Python to reunite LIVE onstage … well, mostly

by Karl J. Paloucek If you’re like a lot of Monty Python fans, chances are you don’t have an invite for the troupe’s 40th anniversary reunion at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. (If you do, ya wanna sell it?) Short of being able to attend, you still can watch the event as it unfolds, as it will stream live on both IFC.com and PythOnline.com. It’s been more than 10 years since the five surviving members of Monty Python — John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — reunited for one of these events. (Fans […]

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Documentary

Discovery Channel chronicles “Ardi” finding this Sunday

You may have heard the announcement last week of the discovery of 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus — “Ardi,” for short — the oldest hominid skeleton ever found. This Sunday, Oct. 11, Discovery Channel presents an exclusive chronicle of the long journey to get to that announcement. The program, Discovering Ardi, is the result of a 10-year collaboration between the Middle Awash Research Project, which discovered the remains, and Primary Pictures of Atlanta. Director Rod Paul and his team worked closely with the scientists to develop an unprecedented level of detail, accuracy and coverage of the discovery of Ardi — much […]

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Documentary

“The National Parks” Episode Five

By Jeff Pfeiffer In last night’s fifth episode of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea on PBS, “Great Nature (1933-1945),” we see how the national parks are affected — and how they have an effect — as America enters the Great Depression and World War II. Under the guidance of a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the parks thrive. Like his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin has a love for the outdoors. With Stephen Mather gone, his assistant Horace Albright is now director of the National Park Service. Albright has a unique goal: to transfer national military parks, battlefields and monuments […]

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Documentary

“The National Parks”: Episode Four

By Jeff Pfeiffer Last night’s fourth episode of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea was “Going Home (1920-1933).” The automobile is now an omnipresent feature in our national parks. How many families have packed up the old car and driven into these places over the decades? But as we see in this episode, the automobile was not welcomed by everyone in the early days. As we enter these years, talk begins about whether or not to allow the cars into the parks, an early example of our country’s ongoing love/hate relationship with the auto in relation to our environment. Many […]

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Documentary

“The National Parks”: Episode Three

By Jeff Pfeiffer The National Parks: America’s Best Idea continues tonight on PBS with the third episode, “The Empire of Grandeur (1915-19).” Though this episode chronicles only a short period of time, it is a very critical time in the history of the national parks. As the episode begins, the nation has a dozen national parks, but they are haphazardly organized, and under the supervision of different federal agencies. Before he passed, John Muir had suggested an overseeing body to manage the parks. After the failure to protect the Hetch Hetchy valley, conservation groups pick up on Muir’s idea and […]

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Documentary

“The National Parks”: Episode Two

By Jeff Pfeiffer Ken Burns’ wonderful miniseries The National Parks: America’s Best Idea continues on PBS tonight with episode two: “The Last Refuge (1890-1915).” John Muir, who figured so prominently in last night’s premiere episode, as he figured so prominently in America’s story of conservation, is back tonight. As the episode’s title implies, it focuses a lot on how, at the dawn of the 20th century, people began thinking differently about the parks and conservation in general thanks to people like Muir. This thought turns more toward how not only the land can be set aside, but also toward how […]

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Documentary

Discovery Channel remembers Walter Cronkite

By Jeff Pfeiffer “It is fair to say there would be no Discovery Channel without Walter Cronkite,” says John S. Hendricks, founder and chairman of Discovery Communications, about the legendary newsman, who passed away Friday at the age of 92. “When we struggled for funding and viability in the early 1980s, Walter was one of the first to see the possibility of a 24-hour channel dedicated to high-quality storytelling about the world around us. His guidance, support and commitment were instrumental in securing the resources and distribution to first launch Discovery Channel in 1985.”

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Documentary

NGC adds new episodes of “Hooked”

By Jeff Pfeiffer National Geographic Channel has added two new episodes of the hit monster-fishing series Hooked to its summer schedule: Hooked: Hunt for the Monster Fish — July 27 at 10pm ET/PT. Zeb Hogan travels the world to see the most extreme encounters in megafishing and the groundbreaking research being done to protect these fish. Hooked: Flying Monsters — Aug. 3 at 10pm ET/PT. High-flying fish of the deep are the subjects of this episode, including battles with a black marlin in Panama; a silver king tarpon in Puerto Rico; a monstrous white sturgeon in British Columbia; and a […]