While some programs would still strike a nerve if aired today, most serve as a reminder that what society deems decent and appropriate changes over time and, more often than not, Thirteen led the charge.

Whether you liked the programs or not (and we’re going to assume you had pretty strong feelings one way or another), we hope you enjoy a look back at our favorite PBS shockers, which drew lots of (sometimes unwanted) attention.

June 25, 1968 – The Hippies Take Thirteen

A panel discussion on the “underground press” on Newsfront, a nightly news program, erupted into chaos when, according to The New York Times, approximately “20 hippies broke into the studios of Channel 13″ and disrupted the live broadcast as they “shouted at the panelists and at one another, often using obscenities, which were heard over the air.” Astronaut John Glenn, a guest on the show, said of the chaos, “And they say there is violence on commercial television.” Thirteen didn’t stop broadcasting their signal (the broadcast was live), giving the small band of protesters an unedited megaphone to millions of New Yorkers.

November 6, 1977 – I Claudius

In 1977, the BBCTV adaptation of the Robert Graves novels aired on Masterpiece Theater included scenes of orgies, nymphomania, adultery and incest. In their preview, The New York Times noted that the airing would “test the boundaries of public broadcasting.” Host Alistair Cooke introduced the series, and warned viewers of the sexual content. Reportedly, no PBS stations refused to carry the program. Watch a clip here.

January 31, 1982 – Let Poland Be Poland

How many programs aired only due to an act of Congress? Let Poland be Poland was produced by the federal government’s International Communication Agency (known now as the U.S. Information Agency) and by law, could not be distributed to U.S. networks. Congress, however, passed an exemption for this program, which aimed to build support for the Polish solidarity movement. The program was labeled by many as U.S. propaganda, prompting a number of PBS stations and some international networks not to air it, though Thirteen did. Time Magazine wrote about it.

November 24, 1983 – Mr. Hooper’s Death on Sesame Street

When beloved Sesame Street star Will Lee, who portrayed Mr. Hooper, passed away in December of 1982, the show faced the task of presenting death to young viewers. Sesame Street addressed the issue head on, used the word “death” and explained that it meant Mr. Hooper would never come back. Watch the emotional scene here.

September 6, 1989 – Days of Rage draws protesters

June 23, 1990 – Tongues Untied

In 1991, explicit language and homosexual subject matter caused many public television stations not to air this award-winning documentary about gay black men, broadcast as part of the P.O.V. series. Thirteen aired the unedited version numerous times and received both complaints and support for leaving the decision to view the program in the hands of viewers themselves. P.O.V.’s series producer reminisces.

November 11, 1992 – The Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II

Leading up to the program’s air date, accolades were heaped upon the inspiring story of all-black army units who helped liberate the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. The program was praised for reporting a story ‘not found in standard historical accounts.’ Unfortunately, it’s likely the reason this impressive story had not been reported before was that certain events the film described were false. Despite the criticism, the program received an Oscar nomination for best Documentary Feature. The NY Times discussed the aftermath.

September 4, 1994 – Tales of the City

Amid the controversy surrounding the homosexual themes, nudity, and illicit drug use in the miniseries based on Armistead Maupin’s books, PBS offered stations an edited version in which male and female body parts were obscured by pixilation. Despite the ratings success, PBS announced it would not participate in the television production of the miniseries’ sequel, More Tales of the City, and drew criticism, including from The New York Times’ op-ed page, where then PBS President Ervin Duggan was accused of “acting as a censor to appease the fundamentalism and homophobia of family-values kooks.”

2003-2005 – Kenneth Tomlinson targets Bill Moyers

After being appointed Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in September 2003, Ken Tomlinson was soon accused of pushing a conservative agenda and threatening PBS’ editorial independence. Concerned the PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers had “liberal” leanings, Tomlinson appointed an outside consultant to monitor the program. Moyers resigned in 2005 after more than three decades as a PBS mainstay, citing political pressure to alter the content of his program. Moyers returned to host Bill Moyers Journal in 2007 after Tomlinson resigned. David Brancaccio took over as host of NOW on PBS.

March 23, 2005 – No Postcards from Buster (at least not from Vermont…)

Facing strong opposition, including that of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, PBS decided not to distribute a scheduled episode of the children’s program Buster, where, on a trip Vermont, the title character meets children with lesbian parents. Despite the PBS decision not to distribute the episode, a number of member stations, including Thirteen, aired it. The New York Times weighed in.

September – October 2007 – The SNAFU over Ken Burns’ The War

PBS feared huge FCC fines for airing Ken Burns’ The War, which contained explicit language. In response, the documentary was offered to affiliates in two versions: One that included profanity generally prohibited by FCC regulations (including explanations of the salty acronyms FUBAR and SNAFU) and one without profanity. Thirteen risked (and ultimately avoided) any fines and aired the unedited version. Get more series info.

November 13, 2007 – Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Any time you mention the words “Darwin” and “evolution,” you’re bound to hear some criticism. This episode of NOVA focused on a 2005 trial in a small Pennsylvania town where a school board member attempted to introduce a text teaching intelligent design into the science curriculum. When the board voted against the measure and instead, required biology teachers to read a prepared statement citing flaws in Darwin’s theories, lawsuits emerged. When the program aired, as it did on Thirteen, it was widely criticized by the religious right as being too pro-Darwin/evolution. Watch the full program online.

Monday, March 16, 2009
(Thirteen’s broadcast day runs 6 a.m. – 6 a.m.)

10:00 pm: BETTY FORD: THE REAL DEAL (watch full doc online)
A profile of the former First Lady that covers her years at the White House; her feminist views; and her battle with substance abuse that led to the founding of the Betty Ford Center. The documentary features interviews with Mrs. Ford, family members and friends.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

1:00 am: BARBARA MORGAN: NO LIMITS
Idaho schoolteacher Barbara Morgan achieved the dream of a lifetime when on August 8, 2007, she was a member of the astronaut crew that flew aboard the space shuttle endeavor. Barbara Morgan: No Limits explores this amazing woman’s 23-year-journey to flying in space, and the challenges that came along the way.

2:00 am: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: AMELIA EARHART
This installment of American Experience traces the life of the legendary aviator from her accomplishment as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo, to her mysterious disappearance in 1937.

3:00 am: WIDE ANGLE: FLYING DOWN TO KABUL
The true story of Danish artist and pilot Simone Aaberg Kærn, who flew her rickety plane into Afghanistan to help an Afghan teenage girl realize her dream of becoming a fighter pilot.

4:00 am: SHIPPING OUT: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S SEAFARING WOMEN
A look into everyday women who work in commercial shipping such as on cargo carriers, container ships, and tugs. In addition the documentary explores the little-known history and myths associated with seafaring women, some of whom had careers as marine engineers and tugboat captains.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

1:00 am: REEL 13: 32A
A coming-of-age story set in 1979 about a 13-year-old teenage girl in Dublin facing the challenges of being in a Catholic girls school and experiencing puberty. Starring Aidan Quinn.

3:30 am: BETTY FORD: THE REAL DEAL (watch full doc online)
A profile of the former First Lady that covers her years at the White House; her feminist views; and her battle with substance abuse that led to the founding of the Betty Ford Center. The documentary features interviews with Mrs. Ford, family members and friends.

4:30 am: GOVERNMENT GIRLS OF WORLD WAR II
Narrated by Cokie Roberts, Government Girls of World War II examines the women who played a role in the mobilization for World War II—such as spies, clerks, and codebreakers—and how their actions impacted their own lives and society.

9:00 pm: AMERICAN MASTERS: CAROL BURNETT: A WOMAN OF CHARACTER
The legendary comedienne of television (The Carol Burnett Show) and film is profiled in this latest episode of American Masters. Watch the trailer.

10:30 pm: ERMA BOMBECK: A LEGACY OF LAUGHTER
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was one of America’s most beloved humorists whose popular syndicated column had appeared in 900 newspapers and reached 30 million readers. A Legacy of Laughter celebrates the life of this unique writer, ERA supporter, and wife and mother.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

4:00 am: ERMA BOMBECK: A LEGACY OF LAUGHTER
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was one of America’s most beloved humorists whose popular syndicated column had appeared in 900 newspapers and reached 30 million readers. A Legacy of Laughter celebrates the life of this unique writer, ERA supporter, and wife and mother.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

9:00 pm: MASTERPIECE THEATER: CARRIE’S WAR
Young Carrie Willow and her brother evacuate from ‘40s war-torn London to live in Wales where they experience times at Druid’s Bottom that will forever impact their lives. Watch what the Sydney Morning Herald called “an adult fairy tale, beautifully filmed, amusingly observed and heart-warming.”

10:30 pm: AN EVENING WITH EARTHA KITT
The famous singer and actress gives her last interview and performance before she passed away on Christmas Day 2008 at the age of 81. Speaking with PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, the diva talks about her life, her musical career, and her popular role as Catwoman on TV’s Batman.

Monday, March 23, 2009

4:30 am: THE REINDEER QUEEN
A biography of “Sinrock Mary” Antisarlook, an Alaska Eskimo woman who became the richest woman during the Alaska Gold Rush through amassing the largest reindeer herd. It also tells the story of how she was able to persevere despite attempts by others who tried to gain control of her herd.

9:00 pm: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: SISTER AIMEE
Sister Aimee Semple McPherson was an early 20th-century evangelist who established the Church of the Four Square Gospel, and delivered her sermons through the medium of radio. Learn about this significant and controversial figure in American religious history.

10:00 pm: THE POWDER AND THE GLORY
Narrated by actress Jane Alexander, The Powder and the Glory is a documentary profile of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein—two women who separately started their own cosmetics and beauty empires and transformed our appearance.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

10:00 pm: INDEPENDENT LENS: LAKSHMI AND ME
Nishita Jan makes a documentary about her employee, a 21-year-old housemaid in Mumbai, that explores their relationship and leads the filmmaker reevaluate her priorities in life. Watch a preview clip:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

2:45 am:INDEPENDENT LENS: LAKSHMI AND ME
Nishita Jan makes a documentary about her employee, a 21-year-old housemaid in Mumbai, that explores their relationship and leads the filmmaker reevaluate her priorities in life.

3:45 am: THE POWDER AND THE GLORY
Narrated by actress Jane Alexander, The Powder and the Glory is a documentary profile of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein—two women who separately started their own cosmetics and beauty empires and transformed our appearance.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

3:00 am: MASTERPIECE THEATER: CARRIE’S WAR
Young Carrie Willow and her brother evacuate from ‘40s war-torn London to live in Wales where they experience times at Druid’s Bottom that will forever impact their lives. Watch what the Sydney Morning Herald called “an adult fairy tale, beautifully filmed, amusingly observed and heart-warming.”

Saturday, March 28, 2009

4:30 am: WHERE WORDS PREVAIL
A fascinating look into the work of Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose techniques have had a profound impact on theater, media and politics.

1:30 pm: THE POWDER AND THE GLORY
Narrated by actress Jane Alexander, The Powder and the Glory is a documentary profile of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein—two women who separately started their own cosmetics and beauty empires and transformed our appearance.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

3:50 am: AMERICAN MASTERS: MARILYN MONROE: STILL LIFE
Emmy-award winning producer/director Gail Levin’s film explores the life of the glamorous Hollywood icon through archival images.

In this post:
* Video, from the mid-70s WNET series “Assignment America”: a biographical profile and interview of the first woman seriously considered for VP of a major party in the United States. Farenthold garnered 13% of the delegates’ vote for VP at the 1972 Democratic Convention, where she was bested by Terry Eagleton, who became George McGovern’s running mate. Includes an interview conducted by the late Studs Terkel. 30 minutes. (Originally aired: 1975)

* Interview with Farenthold, who is now 82, from Feb. 2009, below the video.

Interview with Frances ‘Sissy’ Farenthold, February 2009:

(our interview with Ms. Farenthold is long, but covers a lot of ground.)
She speaks to:
* her experiences running for office in 1960s Texas
* the need for campaign finance reform with regards to the media
* her anti-war stance and criticism of the military complex
* much more

You were born in 1926. And early on, you went to Vassar?
I went into a war work program in 1943, you could finish in 3 years if you wanted to. The idea was to get us through in 3 years so we would be available for the war. Well, the war stopped in 1945. And then I went to law school and then I married and had 5 children.

And then you went directly to law school?
I was a month short of 20 when I went. And I was one of 3 women in a class of 800.

You must’ve been one of few women in the law at that time.
Very, very few. You were almost a freak. And then, I started into politics after I had twins and I lost one when he was 3, in 1960. I’d always been involved in politics. I was familiar with it because my father worked in it. So in 1968 I was asked to run for the legislature. I was then legal aid director of Nueces County.

You were an ACLU field lawyer?
Yes, later, in the sixties, during the time of the farm worker’s strike. Then i worked for Legal Aid.

How did a Ramada sign get you jump-started in politics?
I got a call asking me to go down to city council to represent the local museum—which I think I was on the board of—objecting to a sign going up that was illegal under our local ordinances, blocking people’s views. And so then my husband said “well, don’t get too involved.” And that started a whole chain reaction.

How did your legal projects stand with your husband?
He encouraged me in the beginning. Which was unlike what you would have found in a traditional household at that time. Sometimes I’d take my kids, ages 3-8, to city council meetings with me. And sometimes at night meetings, someone would say, “you should be home with your children.”

How did you decide to run for the Texas House of Representatives?
I had a phone call one night, the last night of the filing for candidacy, from a friend of mine who I had known in law school. He called and asked me if I would run. And in a very traditional way, I asked my husband and I asked my cousin—who served in the legislature—what they thought. And they said go on and run. So I did.

What did you think you could accomplish by running?
Well, that was the whole thing. I had spent two years at Legal Aid, and it was a soul-searing experience. I saw a part of my town that I’d grown up in that I hadn’t been aware of. I’d seen poverty before, but not as a systemic problem like I saw it at Legal Aid. I always said the scapegoats of our society were unskilled women, and children. I saw so much, and so much of it was state policy. I hadn’t thought about running, because I thought it would be years before a woman would be elected to the Texas legislature. I mean I thought it would 10 years at a minimum.
But when I was asked, I felt I was, to put it mildly, up to the job.

I was outraged at what I saw. I realized that all of the oratory about taking care of people, was bunk. People weren’t being taken care of. And so much was done to penalize poor people. Poor people were short-changed in trying to buy houses. They had something called contract-to-sale, where you don’t even get an equity in your house. And during the war on poverty—as it was called under Johnson—we learned that the three poorest cities per capita in the country were Corpus Christi, Laredo, and El Paso, TX. Texas is just always ranked at the bottom as far as social safety nets are concerned. And it continues to this day.

Texas at that point still voted Democratic?
Yeah, it was a one-party state. The Republicans were just beginning and much stronger than the Republicans was George Wallace.

Even despite the fact that it was one-party state, there wasn’t a social safety net?
No, because what happened, there were factions within the Democratic party, and I was always to the left of that. It broke down to either you were a John Connally supporter, who later became a Republican, or you were a Ralph Garber supporter, and those were the more liberal Democrats out there.

When you got elected in 1968, you were the only woman out of 150 representatives. And then 30 of you rebelled against the speaker 3 years later?
That’s right. After seeing how things in the Texas legislature operated, I had to object.

Did you just hit the ground running on poverty issues?
I remember calling in the head of the the welfare office, asking him to come to my office so I could go over the issues. And I tried to put a bill on establishing a state Legal Aid, so we would have broader coverage for the whole state. But none of those things came to fruition. That was not the way Texas operated.

That’s what led you to want to reform the whole operation?
Yeah, it was much bigger than just reforming welfare. And again, it’s just an incremental thing – you go into a situation, and you see and you learn and you react. And then I only ended up spending 2 terms as a Representative, because I ran for Governor.

Why did you decide to leave the legislature for a try at the governorship?
I thought we had the makings of a reform movement, and we did, but it didn’t last. People won office on this whole ‘30-rebels’ thing. It was a phenomenon down here. And I only ran for governor because no one else in our group would. They saw how insurmountable it was.

I ran for Governor twice. But I lost the element of surprise the second time. No one paid attention to me. And all reporters wanted to know was “was I raising any money?” I saw that the money-raising was absolutely essential if you wanted to win.

What do you think about campaign finance reform today?
I think we need it. Obama did a great job, not quite enough, by a long shot. Someone told me that unlike Obama’s funds being 100% from the usual political financial sources, it was more like 50%. I don’t think what he did was a true phenomenon, and it didn’t take the underpinnings of the usual campaign financial structures away by a long shot.

What do you think would be the perfect situation for campaign finance?
Here’s one place the reform could happen: the media airways are owned by the public. And what candidates find is that much of their funds end up going directly to TV and other media. If we had real public debate, we wouldn’t need to fund political commercials. But you aren’t going to hear about that kind of campaign finance reform from the TV and media networks. They’re making money off the commercials, big, big money. I knew a woman that ran for Judge–that’s a local race here –she said: “I struggled and struggled to raise the money, and then it all went to TV.”

When you were running, did you spend a lot of time raising money?
Nothing like they do now. Congresspeople have to campaign the whole time, even when they’re in office, because the races are only two years apart.

So before you finished with the running for Governor, you started the Women’s Political Caucus?
I was the first national chair, but I did not start it. I was in the legislature when that took place.
When I first ran for the legislature, I tried to find other women legislators. I called the Democratic National Committee and they couldn’t tell me anything. So when I saw in 1970 that this group had been organized in Washington, I said to myself—because no one had contacted me—”this is wonderful.” When I was elected chair of the National Caucus, I was criticized. You have to remember this is 1973 in Texas. People were not used to women in politics. For example, when we had campaign fundraisers, we found no private homes open to us to hold them in.

It was very pronounced in Texas, about women being in their place, so to speak. I mean, when the Caucus was here, the hotel where the activities were held even had a policy that women were not to be paged.

It seemed like you had a lot of male support to run for these positions, though?
No question about it, I was a big exception.

You definitely alluded to having to face a lot of sexism, what was the worst of it?
Honestly, I’ve tried to just push it out of my mind. I’m not interested in repeating, you know, what they call ‘war stories’.

So then you ran for Vice-President.
Back in 1972. Well it was very interesting, and it came about because Shirley Chisholm, who’d run for President, decided she didn’t want to run for Vice-President. So, it was a combination of some young men that had been in my campaign plus the National Women’s Political Caucus: they asked me if I’d put my name in. I came in second.

Did you think that Shirley Chisholm would’ve had a shot at VP?
I don’t know. I mean, no, because these things were all settled in the inner rooms where we never were. And that was a year that was supposed to be an open convention. And a lot of people ran for VP that year—7 or 8.

What did you think of Hillary Clinton’s run at President? Or Sarah Palin running for VP?
The less I say about Palin the better. She’s very telegenic. I will give her credit for that, if that’s credit. She’s very attractive and that goes a long way in the television era.

And how about Clinton?
She was a very strong candidate. I didn’t support her– I was for Obama from the beginning, but that didn’t take away from her ability. She ran a hard race. There are a lot of people who feel that as a female politician, that you should support Hillary. But I wasn’t going to support anyone in the beginning who supported the Iraq war. That took it off the table for me. I had Holbrook tell me that he didn’t believe in litmus tests, well, that’s one I believed in. And actually, Obama and Richardson—the two candidates who weren’t in the Senate at the time—were the two that spoke up against it. I was the same way with Kerry. I didn’t support him in the primaries because of his vote on the Iraq War.

Do you think women should be better represented? Are you satisfied with how they’re represented now?
They should be much better represented. After all, we’re over 50% of the population. And it’s certainly true no woman speaks for all women. The proponents of the second woman’s movement—which was the ’60s and ’70s (the first being in the early 20th century, suffragists and the right to vote) thought we would be able to bring a great variety of women together. But there was a backlash to that hoped convergence, some of it based on religion. For instance, the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated principally by the Mormon Church and the insurance companies. And the choice issue divides women as well.

So which politicians do you admire?
Officeholders? I wouldn’t make a list. I mean, there are some people I have confidence in. I do in Feingold, for example, but he couldn’t get anyplace with a mere censure of Bush, no impeachment, just a censure.

But his torture bill went through … with McCain?
The McCain torture bill passed with two amendments. I made a study of them when I was looking at the Military Commission Act, the history of those Supreme Court cases. The two amendments weakened that torture bill. It wasn’t publicized. I only know it because I had to go back and look the thing up.

You said in the 1975 Studs Terkel interview (video above), that “Texas has a private government.” Do you think that’s changed at all?
No, it’s even more so, today.

What do you mean by private government?
The government is operated by interests that, whether oil business, chemical industry—rather than operated for the public good. It’s not that much different from when I ran. As a state, Texas is right at the bottom on education, on all kinds of social and economic matters. For instance, the private prisons, they always get their way. All of the so-called social welfare organizations — they’re not for clients. They drain people.

We don’t look at what’s really happening. I mean, as far back as I can remember, I was a little kid and going with my father to 4th of July events. And everyone had a canned Constitution speech. Year after year, I’d hear the same thing. I have a very difficult time hearing the words of the Star Spangled Banner, because everyone sings the line about ‘the bombs bursting in air’? Where are those bombs coming from now? They’re coming from our war planes.

These are subjects that make people uncomfortable. And you don’t want to make people uncomfortable when you’re running for office. Even Obama saying that things were going to get worse before they get better wasn’t what we wanted to hear. I remember a wonderful thing that happened with a cousin of mine that had a radio station: I was on the air, talking about subjects that probably made people uncomfortable. And he said to me, “Sissy, just talk about the weather today.”

It seems like most of your life, you’ve fought for race and gender equality. Are those the most important issues to you? Or have things changed?
They continue to be, but I’m lately focused on some other issues: I just read this last week: In Eisenhower’s first draft of speech when he warned us of the growing military-industrial complex? In his first draft, it was “military-industrial-congressional complex.”

I spend what reading I can do on this whole military setup we have. I think much of it is for the benefit—or has been for the benefit—of our trade, or countries with natural resources we want. I remember reading some declassified Senate committee hearings at some point, about Mobuto Seseke, who recently just drained the Congo. He was our big buddy because we were getting uranium from him. And you never hear about that part of it, you only hear about his corruption. But we more than tolerated it for years. You’re put away to the fringe if you talk about empire. But we have one.

You’re very outspoken. Do you think that that’s changed as you’ve gotten older?
Well, only in that maybe I’ve learned, or my eyes have been opened to things I could never imagine. I was so conventional in my thinking long ago, that when the U2 was shot down in the Soviet Union, I thought it was a weather plane, exactly what Washington had told us.

And I’ve been in deep distress these past years with what has happened to our Constitution. The torture. And those memos that have come out, that there was no check on the so-called Commander-in-Chief.

You seem really busy. What have you been doing recently?
Last Monday, group of us went out to Gene Green’s office. He’s on Waxman’s committee that will be writing the global warming bill. And his little problem is that he’s got all the oil refineries in his district. So he needs to have his mind changed.

I’m doing research on the Unified Security Budget. I’m on the board at the Institute for Policy Studies and they have someone working on this along with Lawrence Korb, who used to be in the Pentagon during the Reagan Administration, but who’s taken a turn to the left.

What is not on any one of my resumes: I was recently an executive producer of a film that was shown at Sundance. It’s called Quest for Honor, and it’s about honor killing, which is on the increase in Kurdistan, which is in northern Iraq. It’s usually brothers, fathers, or male cousins who do the killings, but one of the new techniques—since it’s theoretically been outlawed—is to just send a young girl up with a gun.

And you won the first Molly Ivins Lifetime Achievement award.
Yes, from the ACLU.

It seems like you’re not quite done yet. (Farenthold is 82)
I’ve always said on the way to my funeral, if we passed a demonstration, I’ll probably jump out.

That’s pretty scary.
It’d scare everybody. I still have the capacity for anger, which I guess sort of wears the adrenaline down.

It’s more passion than anger, though, right?
Yeah, that’s right. We’ll stick with that. Thank you for the word.

More about Frances ‘Sissy’ Farenthold:
Wiki Entry
Bio at Texas Legacy
2006 interview from the National Organization of Women

Assignment America was a freeform newsmagazine airing on WNET/Thirteen in 1975, a production of WNET. The program had four, rotating hosts/presenters: Maya Angelou, Studs Terkel, Doris Kearns, and George Will.

Beate Sirota Gordon grew up in Tokyo, the daughter of a Ukrainian expatriate teacher. She observed the period in Japan when wives walked behind their husbands. When she became the only woman (at age 22) assigned to work on the post-World War II Japanese Constitution on General MacArthur’s committee, she saw an opportunity to make a difference.

Knowing the traditional family values and women’s point of view of Japan, as well as the struggles that Western women had been facing for the previous few decades, Ms. Gordon used her influence to write portions of articles into the Constitution in order to secure Japanese women’s rights and equality.

Two of the articles she drafted survived in the new Constitution: Article 24 and Article 14 (1).

Article 24:

1. Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it
shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of
husband and wife as a basis.

2. With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of
domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family,
laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the
essential equality of the sexes.

Article 14:

1. All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no
discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race,
creed, sex, social status or family origin.

Despite the growing number of “career women” in Japan, traditional values still hold strong. I went to one of the nation’s best single sex schools in Tokyo, and always felt that we were ready to stand up to boys in the society. But I have seen my friend become a stay-at-home mom after completing her
studies at medical school because it was assumed by her family that the mother should stay home and take care of the child. (And some older and more conservative people may assume that the husband doesn’t make enough money to support his family if the wife works outside of home.) Another friend of mine had a hard time getting married to the man she chose, because of the families’ class distinctions.

We Japanese are still struggling to balance old customs, traditions and values with human rights and new responsibilities. It’s clear that Ms. Gordon’s effort and contribution became the basis for the laws for women’s equal rights that were later written. I truly appreciate her passion, and respect her as a visionary leader. - Chie Witt

Beate Sirota Gordon, author of the memoir “The Only Woman in the Room” spoke at Middlebury College in 2007:

More about Sirota-Gordon:
Beate Sirota Gordon spent many decades of her life in new york city, working for both the Asia Society and the Japan Society.

* Great Bio on Sirota’s works.
* Article on Sirota
* Documentary about Sirota, “The Gift from Beate”
* Article on Sirota’s influence on Japanese Society

Who is your Unsung Heroine? Here are some of ours:

• Joanne Bland is an activist who marched in the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March when she was just 11, and she’s the co-founder and director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. She’s been working for justice her whole life. - Wayne Taylor

• Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, one of the first computer programmers, and a military officer. Among her many accomplishments, the COBOL computer language is based on her programming ideas, and the term ‘computer bug’ is attributed to her. – David Hirmes

• Cristeta Comerford: The first female (and as a Filipina, the first minority) executive chef at the White House, appointed in 2005 during the GW Bush administration. - David Chiu

• Margaret Knight, the ‘mother of the grocery bag’–an inventor during the mid-1800s who was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent…she ‘bagged’ about 89 patents during her lifetime. – Nick Miller

• Dori Seda, underground cartoonist. Seda threw herself at life so hard it eventually kicked back, and she died very young. But not before she’d produced a small but impressive body of work that combines the overactive id of R. Crumb with the sensitivity and self-awareness of, well, Seda herself. – Robin Edgerton

• Nellie Bly, Investigative journalism pioneer who, in 1887, faked insanity to report on a mental asylum from within, and then the following year traveled around the world in 72 days. – Jeremy Chernikoff

Other resources for lists of under-recognized women:

* Gallery of Women Engineers, from the University of Illinois
* Encyclopedia Brittanica’s “300 Women Who Changed the World”
* Women Artists in History
* The CLARA database of women artists

Here are their choices…who is your unsung heroine? Let us know in the comments.

Bill Moyers from Moyers Journal, on Grace Lee Boggs

“One of America’s unsung heroines is 92-year-old community activist Grace Lee Boggs, who has spent a lifetime working for change from the bottom up. Boggs says: ‘These are the times to grow our souls. Each of us is called upon to embrace the conviction that despite the powers and principalities bent on commodifying all our human relationships, we have the power within us to create the world anew.’” Read more about Grace Lee Boggs, and watch her interview on Moyers Journal.

Maria Hinojosa, Senior Correspondent from NOW on PBS,
on Carissa Picard

“Carissa Picard is an inspiration. The wife of an army pilot and mother of two toddlers, she lives on a military base in Texas. She sees many military spouses on the base who feel powerless and lonely. But Carissa is a lawyer, so has taken her legal skills and created an organization–Military Spouses for Change (now Military Spouses for America)–to help the wives (and husbands) speak out and feel empowered enough to challenge one of the biggest and most powerful institutions in our country…the military. She helps women own their voices and their power to challenge authority.” Carissa was featured in the NOW Program “Fighting the Military“, you can watch it online.

Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent on NewsHour,
on Mary Woolley and Cindy Brownstein

“Mary Woolley, President of Research!America, has been an advocate for medical and health research for more than 30 years. She has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the vital role that research plays, and to make the case – through her writing, lobbying and public speaking — for more funding for life-saving and life-lengthening medical research across a broad spectrum.”

“Cindy Brownstein, CEO of the Spina Bifida Association of America, has played a critical role at the head of this organization that advocates for individuals with spina bifida, the most commonly occurring disabling birth defect. Through her leadership and ceaseless efforts, she has helped increase public awareness and helped raise crucial funding to improve prevention and treatment of this too little-known disability.”

Martin Savidge, anchor on Worldfocus, on Wyn Savidge

“When I was a kid I put my mom through hell…As she would put it I was “accident prone”– a polite way of describing a child who was so frequently injuring himself that in the ER of the local hospital they knew me by my first name. Broken bones, concussions, bee stings by the swarm, I even managed to set myself on fire. My mom seemed to take it all really well, but then, she had been through hell before. She lived in London during World War II and the Blitz–when carrying a gas mask was normal just like running for the shelter of the subway at the sound of an air raid siren, wondering if your neighborhood would still be there when you emerged. For her, WWII began in the fall of ‘39, not December of ‘41. Back then she worried about my dad in the British Navy as he made six trips to rescue soldiers from the desperate beaches of Dunkirk, then 4 years later cleared the way for the landing craft to return to France on D-day. After I grew out of my ER phase I went on to become a journalist. And once again my mother worried about wars and this time whether I would return from places like Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor, Kosovo, Gaza, Lebanon and many more distant datelines. Now my mother is 90. Dad passed away nearly a decade ago. She lives alone, still cleaning her home, still independent. She bakes for the church and cares for the shut-ins most younger than herself. My mom is my heroine — perhaps that‘s selfish, but it also happens to be true.”

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, host of Lidia’s Italy, on Erminia Motika:

“Erminia, my mother, is my unsung hero, who at age of thirty-seven decided with her husband to take their two children, me Lidia (then 12) and Franco my brother (then 15), and flee communism. To achieve ethnic and religious freedom, she guided us, comforted us and worked cleaning jobs, even being an educated teacher, so we could have extra food and shoes during the two years we awaited our visa in a political refugee camp. We resided in a long hall where every family’s small square space was divided by sheets hanging from a line. Many a night, while she thought we were sleeping, my mother would cry and ask my father whether the choice they made was the right one. Coming to America sponsored by the Catholic Charities and being inserted in the American life, she represents many an immigrant mother who worked from early morning until late at night to create a new life of freedom and opportunity for her children. It was never about her. It was always about her family. Saluting her, I salute all the immigrant mothers that travel the world looking for freedom and opportunity for their children. Our family was ever so greatly blessed by arriving on American shores.”

Tom Stewart, the voice of Thirteen, on Dr. Connie Guion

“Dr. Connie Guion in 1946 was named the first woman professor of Clinical Medicine in the United States. She taught at Cornell University Medical College from 1929-1951. She is responsible for a Comprehensive Care Program for outpatients, which was studied worldwide. There is a building in the Cornell-New York Hospital campus which is named for her, but I don’t believe she is widely known. My awareness of Dr. Guion stems from my sister-in-law, a physician, who graduated from Cornell in the early ’60s.”

Paula Zahn, host of SundayArts, on Elizabeth Zahn

“I have had the privilege of meeting and interviewing some extraordinarily courageous and tenacious women. I don’t have to look very far though, to zero in on my ultimate unsung heroine. She is the one who’s been with me from the very beginning…my mother, Elizabeth Zahn. She is a woman of incredible strength, resilience and grace. She grew up in the shadows of a steel mill in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. She went onto earn her doctorate in Spanish literature and became Geneva College’s youngest tenured professor. Her life as she knew it would come to a screeching halt when she was severely injured in a car accident. Her doctors didn’t think she’d ever walk again nor be able to have children. My mother being the brave and determined woman she is, soldiered through a year of brutal rehabilitation and proved her pessimistic doctors glaringly wrong. She walked out of her rehabilitation center with no assistance and into the next chapter of her life. She eventually got married, had four children and worked part-time as a teacher. In addition to mastering the art of the car pool, she studied painting and became an accomplished watercolorist. Her greatest test came when both she and my father were diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other. My father’s cancer was more advanced than my mother’s. While she cared for father, even as she fought for her own life, she never gave in to self-pity. When my father lost his battle against cancer, she remained positive and resolute. Those qualities served her well as she conquered breast cancer while coping with her loss. When she was again diagnosed with cancer after a thirteen-year reprieve, my mother never surrendered to rage or disappointment. I don’t remember her even once asking ‘Why me?’ She has always found negativism and pessimism corrosive and unproductive. So she did what she always did. She absorbed the news and then went to battle. I’m happy to say that today she is a healthy survivor living a very full and happy life. Throughout her painful journey, it was my mother’s love of family and her spirituality that kept her going. Today she plays a very important role in her children’s lives and her seven grandchildren’s. She maintains a vital faith, while continuing to examine its underpinnings. She has taught all of us to be open to many paths on the road to spiritual growth. But perhaps the most important lesson she’s imparted is the power of gratitude and optimism, especially during life’s greatest challenges. And that is why she is my ultimate heroine.”

ITVS and Snagfilms have teamed up to stream these films.
(note: snagfilms do start with a :30 second commercial, but do stream the films uninterrupted)

Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America (originally aired October 28, 2003)
Five Shaolin Temple fighting monks from China are looking to bring their kungfu moves and Zen Buddhism to the United States.
Watch now.

Sentencing the Victim (originally aired March 2, 2004)
The story of rape victim Joanna Katz and her ordeal with the justice system.
Watch now.

Polka Time (originally aired November 9, 2004)
A look at a polka festival that has been a tradition in Gibbon, Minnesota for over 30 years.
Watch now.

The Day My God Died (originally aired November 30, 2004)
A documentary on the child sex trade in Bombay.
Watch now.

Sisters of ‘77 (originally aired March 1, 2005)
This film looks back at the 1977 National Women’s Conference that was attended by 20,000 women.
Watch now.

The Loss of Nameless Things (originally aired February 28, 2006)
The story of then-emerging young playwright Oakley Hall III whose accident changed the course of his life.
Watch now.

Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire (originally aired November 7, 2006)
The three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist is the subject of this documentary film narrated by Tom Brokaw.
Watch now.

Red White Black and Blue (originally aired November 6, 2007)
Two American World War II veterans return to the battlefield of Attu, an island in Alaska that was invaded by the Japanese army in 1942.
Watch now.

Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita (originally aired January 15, 2008)
After his daughter injures her spine, a neurologist researches using stem cells that becomes par of the debate between science and spiritual beliefs.
Watch now.

A Dream In Doubt (originally aired May 20, 2008)
A Sikh immigrant copes with losing a brother to violence in post-9/11 America.
Watch now.