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44 unusual facts about PBS


A-frame house

A broadcast of the documentary is anticipated to air on PBS.

Amboseli Elephant Research Project

The subjects of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, mostly notably the elephant matriarch Echo, have been described at length in documentaries on PBS and Animal Planet.

Americans At War

The vignettes have aired on PBS as individual segments and, on November 11, 2007, in a half-hour program containing 21 vignettes.

Anna's Hummingbird

A PBS documentary that first aired January 10, 2010, shows how Anna's Hummingbirds eat flying insects (at 16:45).

Buttons and Bows

During a PBS pledge telethon, Frasier Crane tries to perform it but forgets nearly all of the lyrics.

Cheryl Byron

Byron played one of the lead roles in the PBS film Homecoming, became a published poet in an anthology of poetry, Woman Rise, and is featured on an album of dub poetry, Womantalk, on Heartbeat Records.

David, Kentucky

The David School is featured in the six-hour documentary film Country Boys which was broadcast in Frontline on PBS, about two residents, Chris and Cody, and their life in a poor, rural mountain town.

DCI Banks

On 9 January 2013, BBC Worldwide America announced a "landmark syndication deal" with public television stations in the U.S. for DCI Banks to be available on 166 PBS affiliate stations across the USA, "reaching an estimated 77% of U.S. TV households."

Dome Car Magic

The 30-minute program, narrated by television actor and railroad owner Michael Gross, debuted in 2006 on the PBS television network.

Edge West Productions

For more than a decade, Day has been an active producing partner with National Geographic Channel, Public Broadcast Service, Discovery, The History Channel, TLC, BBC Television, Channel Four (TV UK), and NHK Japan.

Since its inception in 2006, Edge West Productions has produced fifteen documentaries for National Geographic Channel and one for PBS and were honored to produce a four-minute sizzle for TED 2012.

Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Rhodes' illustrative diary of his war service was quoted prominently in Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Civil War.

First I Look at the Purse

In the early 2000s, the Contours performed the song on the PBS special Motown: The Early Years.

Gridiron Club

Recently, however, it has begun opening its doors to such non-newspaper media figures as Tim Russert of NBC News, Bob Schieffer of CBS News, Mara Liasson of National Public Radio, and Judy Woodruff of PBS.

HDV

The PBS accepts HDV for widescreen programming acquisition and to a limited extent for use in HD programs.

Jane Elizabeth Manning James

A 20-minute documentary based on James' life, Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel, premiered in 2005, and has been shown at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2005 annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), and on public television (PBS).

Jean-Joseph Mouret

Even though most of his works are no longer performed, Mouret's name survives today thanks to the popularity of the Fanfare-Rondeau from his first Suite de symphonies, which has been adopted as the signature tune of the PBS program Masterpiece and is a popular musical choice in many modern weddings.

Jeffrey Ethell

He was featured in the PBS Nova documentary "Top Gun Over Russia" about the military aircraft of the former Soviet Union, and appeared as an expert commentator on numerous documentaries.

Kenneth Clark

Also broadcast in the US on PBS in 1969, Civilisation was successful on both sides of the Atlantic, gaining Clark an international profile.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix is a ten track companion release to the critically acclaimed television documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues shown on PBS in September 2003.

Mel Leven

In later years, he wrote songs, stories, and did voice-over work for the PBS children's series Big Blue Marble, and well as working on a number of projects for television commercials.

NASA Education and Public Outreach Group

SSU’s NASA GLAST E/PO was an important contributor to the PBS NOVA show “Monster of the Milky Way.”

Native American Public Telecommunications

They encourage Native American media to be shown on PBS,

Our Lady of Victory Catholic School

The recognition came from the teachings of Deacon David Jones, whose 5th grade art class curriculum that school year was based on the works of noted artist Bob Ross, host of the American PBS television show The Joy of Painting.

Paramount Home Media Distribution

PHMD also had agreements with DreamWorks Animation, PBS, and Hasbro for DVD/Blu-ray distribution of various programs that the former aired, and several films and TV series based on franchises owned by the latter.

Pledge drive

Although the federal government of the United States, primarily through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and corporate underwriting provide some money for public broadcasting organizations like National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), they are largely dependent on program fees paid by their member stations.

Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party

Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party is a video recording; the home version of a PBS "In The Spotlight" special on Steely Dan.

Right to Die?

Right to Die? is a documentary aired on Sky Real Lives in December 2008 (rebroadcast on PBS on 2 March 2010 as "The Suicide Tourist") about the assisted suicide of Craig Colby Ewert (1947–2006), a 59-year-old retired university professor who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Riverbend Music Center

On July 4, 2000, The Pops performed the first live concert televised from Cincinnati, which aired on PBS, featuring Rosemary Clooney and Doc Severinsen.

Rochel Gelman

Dr. Gelman was featured on Closer to the Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future, a PBS series created, produced, and hosted by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Smiley v. Citibank

"I certainly didn't imagine that someday we might've ended up creating Frankenstein," he told PBS's Frontline a decade later.

Sol Garfunkel

Sol is best known for hosting the 1987, PBS series titled "For All Practical Purposes: An Introduction to Contemporary Mathematics", followed by the 1991 series, "Algebra: In Simplest Terms", both often used in classrooms.

Suicide of Ryan Halligan

Halligan's story was featured on a Frontline television program entitled "Growing Up Online," produced in January, 2008, by WGBH-TV in Boston and distributed nationwide over PBS.

Sutro Tower

Sutro Tower also leases space to other Bay Area radio and television stations, including PBS outlet KQED; independent station KOFY-TV; and KBCW, a sister station to KPIX.

Take a Letter, Mr. Jones

Take A Letter, Mr. Jones was never a ratings success (only running one season), but in recent years it has been resurrected by many American PBS stations, where Are You Being Served? is also a hit.

The Curiosity Show

PBS didn't think that middle-aged scientists would engage a young audience (despite the popularity of the format in Australia) and insisted that any science show be hosted/presented by young people.

The Making of The Wizard of Oz

After the success of the book, Aljean Harmetz adapted her knowledge and contacts with the film's survivors into a 30 minute PBS documentary in 1979.

The Old Guys

In the US the first series is currently available on some PBS stations.

The Parking Lot Movie

It was purchased by PBS and aired nationwide on Independent Lens October 19, 2010, opening the series' 2010 season.

The Secret City Adventures

The series was produced by Maryland Public Television and aired on PBS and TVOntario in the late 1980s.

Trash Gordon

Trash Gordon is the name of a fictitious character on the long-running PBS children's television show Sesame Street.

We've Been Asking Questions

The song was performed by Scott McKenzie, who was a friend of Phillips, on a PBS special, My Generation "The 60's Experience" (part of PBS's "My Music" series) in 2005.

Wilhelm Brasse

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (BBC and PBS, 2005), "Surprising Beginnings" and "Orders & Initiatives" (Episodes 1 & 2) "Auschwitz: 1940–1945".

William C. Patrick III

He appeared on all of the major U.S. television networks as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, PBS, the History Channel, The Learning Channel, and the Discovery Channel.


Accidental Empires

A documentary based on the book, called Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires was produced by PBS in 1996, with Cringely as the presenter.

Alive from Off Center

Notable episodes included "As Seen on TV," starring comic actor Bill Irwin as an auditioning dancer who becomes trapped in a television, wandering among daytime dramas, MTV, and PBS's own Sesame Street and the atmospheric puppet melodrama "Street of Crocodiles," adapted by the Brothers Quay from the Bruno Shultz story.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai

After 9/11, he took leave without pay from the World Bank and engaged in intensive interaction with the media, appearing regularly on PBS's NewsHour as well as BBC, CNN, US National Public Radio, other broadcasters, and writing for major newspapers.

Balint Vazsonyi

The one-hour television documentary about the tour has been aired on WETA-TV, Washington's PBS station.

Band of Heathens

Following the Austin City Limits PBS show, the band also played on the German television live concert series Rockpalast on October 9, 2009, performing 14 songs, many from the albums "Band Of Heathens" and "One Foot In The Ether.".

Ben Wicks

He also created and illustrated the Katie and Orbie series of children's books written by his daughter Susan which in 1994 were turned into an animated television program for Family in Canada and for PBS in the United States.

Biomonitoring

The issue of exposure to environmental chemicals has received attention as a result of televised reports by Bill Moyers for PBS and Anderson Cooper for CNN's "Planet in Peril" series.

Brian Lindstrom

He was awarded a Telly for work on The Visionaries, a PBS documentary series hosted by Sam Waterston.

Charles Darrow

In 2004 the PBS program History Detectives investigated a game board owned by Ron Jarrell of Arden, Delaware, which had elements of both The Landlord's Game and Monopoly.

Chrysler LH platform

One episode of Robert Reich's 1992 PBS miniseries Made In America focused on the then-yet-to-be-released LH's development and its role in reversing Chrysler's flagging fortunes.

Dave Lindorff

A former bureau chief covering Los Angeles County government for the Los Angeles Daily News, and a reporter-producer for PBS station KCET in Los Angeles, Lindorff was also a founder and editor of the weekly Los Angeles Vanguard newspaper, established in 1976, where he won the Grand Prize of the Los Angeles Press Club for his reporting.

David Mitton

The show became an instant success on British television and in 1989 it was released as Shining Time Station in the United States on the PBS channel and proved equally as popular.

DragonflyTV

DragonflyTV is a science education television series for children aged 6–12, produced by Twin Cities Public Television, broadcast on most PBS stations.

Eric Siday

Among his other contributions to the use of electro-acoustic music in television were numerous station IDs and commercials, including that of the National Educational Television network (the forerunner to PBS), the 1966 CBS "in color" bumper, the news sounder for the ABC Radio Networks, and the 1965–1976 Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television logos.

Eugene Sledge

His 1981 memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa chronicled his combat experiences during World War II and was subsequently used as source material for Ken Burns's PBS documentary, The War, as well as the HBO miniseries The Pacific, in which he is portrayed by Joseph Mazzello.

Ezra Koenig

He's also featured on "Warm Heart of Africa" by The Very Best, "Pyromiltia" by Theophilus London, "I Could Be Wrong" by Chromeo, "Dynamo" by Abd al Malik and singing "I Think Ur a Contra" with Angelique Kidjo in her PBS special.

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four

Nationally broadcast on Independent Lens on PBS, it tells the story of The Greensboro Four, four young college freshman, Joe McNeil, David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Ezell Blair Jr. now Jibreel Khazan, who staged a sit-in at Woolworth's in 1960 to protest segregation practices.

Force Theory

Their later work included composition and sound design on director Marjan Tehrani's Arusi: Persian Wedding (PBS, 2009) and a complete sound design for Benson Lee's Planet B-Boy, which aired on MTV in January 2009.

Gerard Parkes

After Fraggle Rock, in addition to returning as Doc in A Muppet Family Christmas, Parkes continued to work in children's television, guest starring as alcoholic photographer Phil (opposite Sesame Park puppeteer Nina Keogh) on the TVOntario puppet series Today's Special, and appearing regularly on PBS's Shining Time Station as store owner Barton Winslow.

Hammer Damage

Hammer Damage were one of the three bands profiled in the 2005 PBS documentary, If You're Not Dead, Play, along with Chi-Pig and Unit 5.

IL-Informed

The half-hour long pilot was produced by PBS member station WTTW (Channel 11) and premiered locally on Sunday, May 4, 2008.

Jamy Ian Swiss

Jamy Ian Swiss is the author of the essay collection Shattering Illusions. He is also a co-author of the companion volume to the PBS documentary The Art of Magic and the Explaining Magic chapter of Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte.

Jerome Toobin

He was Bill Moyers’ producer, including as the first executive producer of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS in the 1970s, and at CBS.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School

In 2002, KCET, then the local PBS station, produced a 17-minute documentary on the school and its "severe problems".

Kartemquin Films

After receiving the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Hoop Dreams was released theatrically by Fine Line Features and became the highest grossing documentary at that time and one of highest-rated documentaries broadcast on PBS.

Kim Mitchell

he has contributed voice work for several episodes of the PBS animated series Cyberchase voicing Appollo in "out of sync", chief in "The guilty party" and Walter the walrus in "When Penguins fly"

Lisa Lynne

Music from her Love & Peace album was used in Alone in the Wilderness, a documentary from filmmaker Bob Swerer that aired on PBS, chronicling the life of Richard Proenneke in the Alaskan wilderness.

Michal Aviad

The film received several prizes and was the first to be broadcast within the prestigious documentary slot POV (Point of View) on the American public network PBS.

Mischa Scorer

In 2003 he wrote and directed “Degas and the Dance” for PBS “Great Performances” series, a film in HD about the painter Edgar Degas and his obsession with dancers.

My Life as a Turkey

My Life as a Turkey is a television episode that premiered in 2011 in the UK on BBC (season 30 of the series Nature World, August 1) and in the US on PBS (season 30 of the series Nature, November 16).

National Memorial Day Concert

Broadcast live on PBS, NPR, and can also be seen overseas by U.S. military personnel in more than 175 countries and aboard more than 200 U.S. Navy ships at sea on American Forces Network.

New South China Mall

Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green made a short film about the South China Mall called "Utopia Part 3: the World's Largest Shopping Mall." The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS's documentary series POV.

Ray Di Carlo

The studio's advertising agency clients including DDB Worldwide(Chicago, NY, LA, and Tribal British Columbia), FCB, Leo Burnett Worldwide, Santo (Bueno Aires/London), Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Sedgwick Rd., Campbell Ewald, Pedone, Euro RSCG, The Buntin Group, Borders Perrin and Norrander, and Ogilvy & Mather, as well as networks clients NBC, TBS, Cartoon Network, The Learning Channel, and PBS.

Richard Guy Wilson

He has served as an advisor and commentator for a number of television programs on PBS, C-SPAN, History Channel and A&E; he frequently appeared on the program America's Castles.

Rick Kittles

He was featured in the BBC Two films Motherland: A Genetic Journey and Motherland – Moving On (released in 2003 and 2004, respectively), as well as in part 4 of the 2006 PBS series African American Lives (hosted by Henry Louis Gates).

Ronnie Claire Edwards

Edwards also briefly appeared on an episode of PBS's Antiques Roadshow (2008) from Dallas, Texas, when she brought in for appraisal a chair formerly owned by P. T. Barnum.

Sandusky, Michigan

WDCQ channel 19 (PBS) from Bad Axe is also available over-the-air, but is not seen on Comcast.

Shadowmation

Shadowmation is a relatively new technique, but has so far been used in several prominent kids TV shows, including Disney's The Book of Pooh, PBS' It's a Big, Big World, Bear in the Big Blue House and CBC Television and Discovery Kids' Wilbur.

Shaw Broadcast Services

The CRTC approved and on 1 September 1983, CANCOM began transmitting the four Detroit affiliates of the three major commercial networks and PBS: WJBK-TV, WDIV-TV, WXYZ-TV and WTVS.

The Horse Whisperer

Monty Roberts, horse trainer subject of a BBC/PBS documentary "The Real Horse Whisperer"

The Landlord's Game

In a 2004 episode of PBS' History Detectives (title: Monopoly; Japanese Internment Camp Artwork; The Lewis and Clark Cane), the show investigated a game board belonging to a Delaware man, having an intermediate version of a game combining elements of The Landlord's Game and Monopoly.

Tom Sito

He co-directed the animation for the Warner Bros 2001 movie Osmosis Jones, and contributed to other animated films such as Garfield (2005), the PBS TV series Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns (2008), and the 2006 Taiwanese short Adventures in the NPM, which won first prize at the 2006 Tokyo Anime Festival.

Welcome Back, Carter

Peter then interjects his hatred of PBS, after viewing a nine-part series on traffic signs by director and producer Ken Burns, the fourth of which on the yield sign.

Willie Morris

One of Morris' books, Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood was made into a TV movie for Public Television by Disney and PBS Wonderworks and later re-titled The River Pirates in 1988 not far from where Morris lived.It starred Richard Farnsworth, Maureen O'Sullivan, Dixie Wade, Ryan Francis, Caryn West and Richard E. Council.

WPBS

WPBS-DT, a PBS member station operating on Channel 41 (virtual channel 16.1) in Northern New York and serving eastern Ontario.

WQED Multimedia

The program reaches over 8 million households on over 300 PBS stations.