On Wednesday, July 30 at 8pm, Pioneers of Television: Game Shows highlights the genre’s early years. Do you have a favorite game show, or a favorite game show moment? Have you actually competed on a game show? Let us know here…

On July 25, 1992, The Olympic Games opened in Barcelona with all countries present for the first time in modern history. It was the first Olympics since 1972 that no country had boycotted the Games.

In 1974, the United States Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to surrender tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair. In the 1992 PBS documentary film “Nixon” producers draw from archival footage and interviews with experts about Richard Nixon’s controversial career. Listen to an interview with a Nixon Campaign Staff Member John [...]

This film documents the lives of a group of young Palestinian men working illegally as construction laborers in the Israeli city of Modi’in. They work for Israeli contractors by day while hiding from police by night. Watch film.

From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the mean streets of Seattle, this documentary reveals the intimate stories behind Cambodian American families and their struggles in the face of ongoing deportations and unforgiving immigration laws. This 2006 doc aired again recently on Thirteen; you can now watch it online.

History Detectives explores the years after Lincoln’s death to illuminate the true origins of a bound volume of 19th-century sheet music. Watch segment.

History Detectives

Dr. Sanders passed away this week at the age of 82. In 1993, Dr. Sanders’ work in the Mayan ruins of Copan, Honduras was the focus of an 8-part series for PBS. Called Out of the Past, it examined the processes and goals of archaeology — you can watch the whole series online.

The 29th Annual Emmy Awards for News & Documentary were announced July 15, 2008. Among the nominees, many productions from WNET/Thirteen and PBS. Watch some (a lot!) of the nominees online.

Running up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August 8-24), Thirteen will be airing a number of documentaries about contemporary China (and a few about the Olympics). Some of them are also watchable online. See the listings and links here.