Neal Shapiro, Stephen Segaller and Jac Venza are among those current and former Thirteen/WNET executives mentioned in the New York Sun in coverage of Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008 celebration, which was recorded for air on Great Performances. Playbill also notes telecast, as do nearly 100 dailies nationwide, including Newsday, am New York, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, and Denver Post.
Newsday previewed “the big draws on channels 13 and 21” for the fall season, mentioning: American Masters: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story, Worldfocus, Brava Italia: The Proud Tradition, Leading with Kindness, Betrayed, Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Opening Night, Healthy Minds, In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, David Foster and Friends, and Dance in America. “For the most part, it’s all quiet on the public TV front this fall. There are no huge multipart productions, or (necessarily) can’t-miss draws that’ll make viewers forget about commercial TV. Instead, there’s a bounty of one-offs – many dance- and music-related – that’ll remind said viewers that this remains a vital – and vibrant – alternative.”
USA Today calls American Masters: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story, “A special no film fan will want to miss.” The Los Angeles Times says it’s “an endless toast rather than a purely journalistic examination.” The New York Times says that an “air of elegy is palpable,” but also that, “in the excitement it generates for movie watching, it’s a triumph.” “Nobody on TV does biography like PBS’ American Masters,” says the Baltimore Sun, “and that goes for the life history of institutions as well as individuals.” “Delicious” says Hollywood Reporter. The Rocky Mountain News calls it “fascinating”and “intriguing.” Christian Science Monitor writes “Hollywood is full of stories, but the history of one of its fabled studios is as absorbing as any film it turns out.” and Catholic News Service raves “The series is extremely well-paced, and gets down to basics within minutes. This is one of the milestones of the always worthy American Masters series.”
Where We Stand: America’s Schools in the 21st Century becomes the jumping-off point for a column about the future of American education, published in the Evansville Courier & Press.
Newsday previewed the premiere of Going Green Long Island (soon watchable online), with TV critic Verne Gay calling the doc “a sprawling look at a sprawling challenge before Long Islanders – how to reduce your carbon fuel consumption, while saving money and the Island for future generations.”
Franny’s Feet, a Decode Entertainment production in association with Thirteen/WNET, has a new sponsor in the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, notes Cynopsis Kids.
“In an era when publicity potential dictates many programming decisions elsewhere, public television remains wary of celebrity, despite its own well-chronicled lack of money to promote its programs,” writes New York Times in its review of Spain . . . On the Road Again. “Channels 13 and 21 already experienced that phenomenon this summer when the Police donated the final concert of their reunion tour as a fund-raiser. The stations raised $3.1 million before expenses (up from the $2.35 million first reported),” notes the article.
“Coming up is PBS-TV’s six-hour series Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America. Produced by Michael Kantor, it’s partly hosted by Billy Crystal, who just filmed his opening and closing episodes intercut with another fairly funny guy of a few guffaws ago – Groucho Marx,” says the New York Post.
