PBS: Viewers Like You. Thank You.

[Caseysgirl]

Anyone see that lovely documentary about Mr. Rodgers by Yo Yo Ma’s son , Nicholas?  Very nice.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Caseysgirl

[WarnerCL45]

On 2018-05-13 at 6:14 PM, SmithW6079 said:

I just came across Upstart Crow:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0959g26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstart_Crow

The writer is Ben Elton, who also wrote for the Blackadder series.

Upstart Crow had me laughing out loud. It's already the third series. I have to see if I can find the first two now. 

That sounds really good.  Must check it out.

[SmithW6079]

3 hours ago, WarnerCL45 said:

That sounds really good.  Must check it out.

It's really quite funny. The first two seasons appear to be available on Google Play, so I assume they're available on iTunes and other services.

[Mumbles]

If you have Britbox (which I have, and enjoy), Upstart Crow is on that service.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Mr. Rogers widow interviewed on Today.

 

[SmithW6079]

On 6/11/2018 at 11:25 AM, Mumbles said:

If you have Britbox (which I have, and enjoy), Upstart Crow is on that service.

I got it from Google Play.

The show has consistently made me laugh out loud. Kudos to the writers and actors for getting the cadence right, too, in the dialogue.

I'm also a fan of some of the slang they use: assington, boobington, bitchington, plus the nonsense words. I wish other people I knew watched this show so we could use these words. 

[Kemper]

Every time our local PBS station has a fundraiser, they rerun the same tired music shows.  David Foster, Doo-w** (and that is my generation), etc.  Seems like the same ones.  I am really tired of them and wish they would have some different/new programming when they are beating the drums.  I guess most people love them and continue to open their wallets.  I turn the channel.

Last summer the had "Mystery Mondays" where they would show an entire Midsomer Murders episode, usually 1 1/2 hours.  Now they are splitting them up again and running them at different times.  If you watch part 1, it is sometimes hard to remember when part 2 is on.   Gaah.  Yes, I can watch them on Netflix; but sometimes it is a nice surprise to turn on PBS and see an older Midsumer Murder; the "murders" were so campy and over-the-top back then.  Remember the murder in a la Gulliver - the body was found tied down in a miniature village.  Another time a person was killed with catapaulted wine bottles hitting them. There are lots more like that; there were also some that were a little scary in a kind-of fun way.  I must be out of step with what PBS viewers want.  I love the travel shows, the weekend "what's happening" in our state shows.  I am just sick of the old(er) music shows when they are asking me for a donation.

[Ohwell]

41 minutes ago, Kemper said:

Every time our local PBS station has a fundraiser, they rerun the same tired music shows.  David Foster, Doo-w** (and that is my generation), etc.  Seems like the same ones.  I am really tired of them and wish they would have some different/new programming when they are beating the drums.  I guess most people love them and continue to open their wallets.  I turn the channel.

I'm sick of them, too, and I just change the channel.  I don't give them any money.  I call it lazy programming. 

[Brattinella]

11 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

I'm sick of them, too, and I just change the channel.  I don't give them any money.  I call it lazy programming. 

I would be happy if they just showed a marathon of Are You Being Served? or Keeping Up Appearances.  I would donate for that.

[roseha]

Has anyone tried subscribing to the PBS app for $5 a month?  I have been able to receive Channel 13 in New York over the air in the past but lately it's breaking up and I'm afraid of losing other OTA channels if I move the antenna :)  It looks like a lot of shows are available on the app.  I enjoy the Nature and Antique Roadshow episodes, are there a lot offered?

[Mumbles]

I have the Passport app for $5 a month. I'm glad I have it - it's convenient plus it helps PBS - but they don't keep *everything* up as long as I would like. For example they took The Vietnam War off pretty quickly. Lucky for me it's now on Netflix (and perhaps that is why it left PBS so quickly.)

Their library on the app goes back a few seasons. I haven't tried to watch any of the very old series, which I *think* may be on the PBS websites.

[WarnerCL45]

On 2018-06-16 at 11:54 AM, Brattinella said:

I would be happy if they just showed a marathon of Are You Being Served? or Keeping Up Appearances.  I would donate for that.

Lots of good Britcoms out there!  How about Father Ted?  Funniest sitcom EVER!

Oh, and Yes, Minister/Prime Minister and Black Adder!

Edited August 11, 2018 by WarnerCL45

[zillabreeze]

On 8/11/2018 at 3:15 PM, WarnerCL45 said:

Lots of good Britcoms out there!  How about Father Ted?  Funniest sitcom EVER!

Oh, and Yes, Minister/Prime Minister and Black Adder!

My two cents....Outnumbered, Peep Show and the original The Office.  Aussie show, Kath & Kim

[Brattinella]

We couldn't live without our two episodes of The Last of The Summer Wine every weeknight.

[Brattinella]

Oh dear, it appears we are going through yet another PLEDGE DRIVE.  For joy!

[chessiegal]

8 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

Oh dear, it appears we are going through yet another PLEDGE DRIVE.  For joy!

I have 3 PBS stations in my market and 1 of them does pledge drive 3 weekends a month.

[Brattinella]

Okay, it is only Tuesday.  It is Sep 4.  Why is Last of the Summer Wine NOT on tonight?  They have some documentary on the NY public library called Ex Libris.  Am I missing something?

[magdalene]

KPBS San Diego ran an American Experience two parter about the history of the American circus this week. It was fascinating to watch. Not by Ken Burns, but quite Ken Burns like in tone. On the one hand you had the sensationalism and the freak shows, the dubious at best treatment of the animals. On the other hand it was quite a proto feminist environment where an ambitious woman could really make her place in the world. Those impresarios like Barnum, Bailey, the Ringlings, etc. were  supportive of the women artists and performers and pro women's vote. And even the people exhibited in the freak shows - while certainly exploited and gawked at - made a very good living and for a lot of them maybe it meant the best of all possible existence for them, given the times and the culture.

[Sharpie66]

I’ll have to find part 2 of The Circus, since the next American Experience I see is about eugenics. Oh, well.

The local Prime channel yesterday showed two new-to-me eps of Shakespeare Uncovered, Much Ado About Nothing with Helen Hunt and The Merchant of Venice with F. Murray Abraham. Midway through Much Ado right now, and I am loving the recently discovered footage of Maggie Smith as Beatrice in 1967—absolutely divine! It looks like they didn’t include anything from the Whedon film, unfortunately. There was a perfect place to put it, when they were speculating about Beatrice and Benedict’s past (Whedon shows they had slept together before he went off to war). 

[walnutqueen]

On 10/12/2018 at 5:40 PM, magdalene said:

KPBS San Diego ran an American Experience two parter about the history of the American circus this week. It was fascinating to watch. Not by Ken Burns, but quite Ken Burns like in tone. On the one hand you had the sensationalism and the freak shows, the dubious at best treatment of the animals. On the other hand it was quite a proto feminist environment where an ambitious woman could really make her place in the world. Those impresarios like Barnum, Bailey, the Ringlings, etc. were  supportive of the women artists and performers and pro women's vote. And even the people exhibited in the freak shows - while certainly exploited and gawked at - made a very good living and for a lot of them maybe it meant the best of all possible existence for them, given the times and the culture.

KPBS is my station, too.  :-)

I found the American circus show fascinating, and enjoyed it for the same reasons as you.  I'd recommend it.

[Sharpie66]

I was watching a live U.K. production of The Sound of Music on Great Performances. During “Something Good,” I realized I was singing along with Julie Andrews’ accent. I have seen that movie waaaay too often.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Sharpie66

[Spunkygal]

2 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

During “Something Good,” I realized I was singing along with Julie Andrews’ accent.

That's totally understandable, especially if you are imagining that hot Christopher Plummer is singing along with you!

2 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

I have seen that movie waaaay too often.

I don't think that's possible, but just in case, we could form a SofM Support Group! Now I'm off to pick some Edelweiss! 

[Sharpie66]

SoM was the first movie I remember seeing in the theaters. I was about four or five, so it would have been one of its rereleases in 1970 or ‘71. That opening shot of the mountains still takes my breath.

(I always tend to pick up singers’ accents when singing along—I had a killer Helen Reddy voice on “I Am Woman” when I was a kid!)

BTW, this U.K. live production had a gorgeous guy, Julian Ovenden, playing the Captain. The only person I recognized was Mel from the Great British Bake-Off, who played the housekeeper Frau Schmidt. After looking it up on IMDB, I realized that David Bamber was the head evil Nazi—he played Mr. Collins in the BBC Pride & Prejudice miniseries.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Sharpie66

[chessiegal]

The PBS stations in my market are giving me a Christmas present today - no fund raising!!! I get to watch my Saturday afternoon cooking shows. Especially gratifying since yesterday we made our very generous contributions to all of them.

[Spunkygal]

5 hours ago, chessiegal said:

The PBS stations in my market are giving me a Christmas present today - no fund raising!!! I get to watch my Saturday afternoon cooking shows. Especially gratifying since yesterday we made our very generous contributions to all of them.

I was so happy to see Nigella’s Christmas Table. As an unabashed Nigella fan, I thought it was a delightful episode and I loved every recipe. I will definitely try those forgotten meringue cookies and was intrigued by the red cabbage/cranberry combo. Almost forgot...that vegetarian stew with couscous looked amazing. She’s so refreshing after shows like that Pioneer Woman crap on FN.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Spunkygal

[SmithW6079]

Looks like "To the Manor Born" is back on my local PBS station. Yea! I haven't seen it in decades. Unfortunately, I only discovered it this week; they're up to episode 4 already. I have never managed to see the first episode (on YouTube, BBC has blocked the first 10 minutes of every episode).

[Spunkygal]

2 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

Looks like "To the Manor Born" is back on my local PBS station. Yea! I haven't seen it in decades. Unfortunately, I only discovered it this week; they're up to episode 4 already. I have never managed to see the first episode (on YouTube, BBC has blocked the first 10 minutes of every episode).

Thank you for the heads-up. I have often heard about this show and see that my station is showing episode 1 of season 1 tonight. I have my DVR set to record the series. I adore Penelope Keith. 

[Brattinella]

I saw a terrific, haunting movie on PBS last night:  Shallow Grave, 1994, UK. 

[Spunkygal]

33 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

I saw a terrific, haunting movie on PBS last night:  Shallow Grave, 1994, UK. 

Is that the one with Ewan McGregor? If so, yes! Haunting is a great description. It’s been years since I’ve seen it but would definitely watch again. 

[Brattinella]

3 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Is that the one with Ewan McGregor? If so, yes! Haunting is a great description. It’s been years since I’ve seen it but would definitely watch again. 

You bet!  I'll never forget it.

[Spunkygal]

@Brattinella, you got me thinking about older movies with Ewan and I wondered if you’ve seen a quirky movie from 1998 titled Little Voice? It also stars Jane Horrocks, who is amazing, Brenda Blethyn, Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147004/

if you have a chance, don’t pass this one up. I don’t know if it’s ever been on PBS and was surprised to hear that you saw Shallow Grave on PBS, but thought I’d mention it.

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, Spunkygal said:

@Brattinella, you got me thinking about older movies with Ewan and I wondered if you’ve seen a quirky movie from 1998 titled Little Voice? It also stars Jane Horrocks, who is amazing, Brenda Blethyn, Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147004/

if you have a chance, don’t pass this one up. I don’t know if it’s ever been on PBS and was surprised to hear that you saw Shallow Grave on PBS, but thought I’d mention it.

@Spunkygal I looked up Little Voice; it sounds wonderful!  The music in it is exceptional, and it is set in one of my favorite (though unvisited) places, Scarborough.  Thank you, I will look for it!

[Sharpie66]

Little Voice is great. 

[dcalley]

Well, it's a huge bummer to me that the Masterpiece forum on this site is no more, and not even archived. I guess there's no more Masterpiece small talk thread, so I will treat this thread as such.

Russell Baker, Masterpiece host from 1993 to 2004, has died.

Quote

In the early 1990s, Mr. Baker’s career took an unexpected turn when the producers of the venerable PBS program “Masterpiece Theatre” asked him if he would be interested in replacing the retiring Cooke, the erudite, silver-haired British broadcaster, as the show’s host.

He initially laughed at the notion, saying, “I don’t want to be the man who follows Alistair Cooke. I want to be the man who follows the man who follows Alistair Cooke.”

[Jaded]

@dcalley I'm posting what Silverstormm said about the missing Masterpiece forum when asked about it in the "Where'd My Show Go? And Other Reorganization Information" thread in case you didn't see it. I think your right about the Masterpiece small talk thread. I think something is supposed to be coming in the next board update to help with the missing small talk threads though.
 

On 1/11/2019 at 3:58 PM, SilverStormm said:

Each Masterpiece show is now a single topic in 'Other _ Shows' according to the letter it starts with.

Like with any forum, all 'Other _ Shows' forums can be sorted according to the users preference by clicking the 'Sort by' button at the top right when in the forum, whether by title, last replied to etc. Presently the choice defaults to 'Last replied to' but we're looking into having user preferences stick in the new design.

[dcalley]

@Jaded, I did see that, thanks. I understand why it's been changed, but Masterpiece is irregular and unique, and I found it nice to have a single forum. It can be hard to know what's coming up and when, and program names sometimes change from UK to US, etc. Plus I didn't prepare like I did for other shows that were losing forums, because we weren't warned. So now I'm trying to remember all the threads. Glad to still have this thread!

[Tom Holmberg]

17 hours ago, dcalley said:

but Masterpiece is irregular and unique,

I haven't been watching much "Masterpiece" lately, but I'm really looking forward to the upcoming "Les Miserables" series.  It's gotten good reviews in the UK. 

[Brattinella]

18 hours ago, dcalley said:

@Jaded, I did see that, thanks. I understand why it's been changed, but Masterpiece is irregular and unique, and I found it nice to have a single forum. It can be hard to know what's coming up and when, and program names sometimes change from UK to US, etc. Plus I didn't prepare like I did for other shows that were losing forums, because we weren't warned. So now I'm trying to remember all the threads. Glad to still have this thread!

I agree with you.  There is still the PBS website, which has all your local listings, plus free episodes of certain shows.  They usually have big spreads on the brand-new masterpiece shows, too.

[SmithW6079]

I've been watching "The Dictator's Playbook" on PBS the past couple of weeks. The first, on Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea, was interesting. I'm not sure why, but North Korea fascinates me.

The episode on Saddam Hussein was fine, but it's more recent history, so much of that was familiar to me.

The most recent episode was on Mussolini, who is considered the creator  of modern fascism. The modern parallels are frightening. 

[magdalene]

Anybody else watch Agatha Raisin ? I am a couple of episodes in and it's one of those fish out of water cozy mysteries.  It's cheeky and it's growing on me.

[SmithW6079]

On 1/28/2019 at 11:04 PM, magdalene said:

Anybody else watch Agatha Raisin ? I am a couple of episodes in and it's one of those fish out of water cozy mysteries.  It's cheeky and it's growing on me.

I did. At first I was a little bothered that they had de-aged and prettied-up Agatha, but I liked some of the other changes they made to the other characters. I enjoyed the mysteries. I think there were two seasons maybe.

[AntiBeeSpray]

If any of you guys have PBS, Won't you be my neighbor is supposed to be on tonight (8:00pm eastern). Double check via their website to see if your area's station will be showing it.

[opus]

2 minutes ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

If any of you guys have PBS, Won't you be my neighbor is supposed to be on tonight (8:00pm eastern). Double check via their website to see if your area's station will be showing it.

I noticed it premieres tonight on PBS and HBO. PBS has it slotted for 2 hours, HBO for an hour and 35 minutes. Both are commercial free, so is PBS doing any "extras", or is it just stretched out with pledge breaks?

[AntiBeeSpray]

3 hours ago, opus said:

I noticed it premieres tonight on PBS and HBO. PBS has it slotted for 2 hours, HBO for an hour and 35 minutes. Both are commercial free, so is PBS doing any "extras", or is it just stretched out with pledge breaks?

I'm thinking pledge breaks. It's an hour and 35 minutes long (just double checked via my copy of the dvd).

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 6:08 PM, SmithW6079 said:

Looks like "To the Manor Born" is back on my local PBS station. Yea! I haven't seen it in decades. Unfortunately, I only discovered it this week; they're up to episode 4 already. I have never managed to see the first episode (on YouTube, BBC has blocked the first 10 minutes of every episode).

I love To the Manor Born.  That was my introduction to the goddess who is Penelope Keith.  I saw this before I saw Good Neighbors.

[SmithW6079]

PBS is airing a BBC documentary called "Margaret: Rebel Princess," about the life of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's sister. The first part was on last week.

[chitowngirl]

As I was watching part 2, I was amazed how much of a Wild Woman Princess Margaret was. I always knew she liked to party with Jagger on the Island, I had no idea of the very public affair sh was having while still married to Tony. And The Queen basically raised her kids?

[SunnyBeBe]

Did anyone catch American Masters: Singing For Our Lives, last night? OMG!!!!!!!  What a blessing!  I had never heard of this American treasure.  Definitely worth catching.  She was and is an American musician, activist, writer, actor, feminist from the 60's. 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/american-masters-holly-near-singing-for-our-lives-about/10961/

Edited March 2, 2019 by SunnyBeBe

[SmithW6079]

On 2/20/2019 at 4:01 PM, chitowngirl said:

As I was watching part 2, I was amazed how much of a Wild Woman Princess Margaret was. I always knew she liked to party with Jagger on the Island, I had no idea of the very public affair sh was having while still married to Tony. And The Queen basically raised her kids?

But I also got the sense that Margaret was, ultimately, lonely and without a sense of purpose. Didn't they say once she was divorced and broke up with the young boyfriend, she basically returned to the ways of the "old aristocracy"?

[SmithW6079]

Series 3 of "Upstart Crow" started last week on my local PBS station. They skewer "A Midsummer's Night Dream."