Frankie Manning was one of the great dancers – and great characters – in New York City history. As a teenager, Manning started dancing in the best venues in Harlem, including the legendary Savoy Ballroom. He became a member of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, the energetic, immensely talented group that made the dance a national phenomenon.
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from: Stephen Segaller, Vice President of Content for WNET.ORG
Legacy of War premieres Wednesday, April 29 at 10 pm.
Walter Cronkite takes viewers through the major post-war events in Legacy of War. You have a long history with Cronkite. How did you first meet him?
In 1983 I was a 29-year-old producer at World In Action, the UK’s Sixty Minutes. A general election loomed - four years after Margaret Thatcher’s amazing first victory. With a campaign that lasts only three weeks - and not much doubt that Thatcher would trounce her inept opponent, Labour Party leader Michael Foot - what was a weekly show to do?
I thought, why not get an American correspondent to report on the British election since every British election is accompanied by increasing chatter that “our elections are getting like American elections, they’re just popularity contests”, driven by advertising agencies and spin doctors.
Well, there was one major name I knew - and he’d quite recently retired from anchoring the CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite.
A roundup of all streaming, full-length videos online from PBS and Thirteen programs that aired last week. See the list below for all full episodes and links. Read More …
In conjunction with Asian Pacific American Heritage month, Thirteen is airing programs that reflect the Asian Pacific and Asian American experience. From the history of the Chinese in Hollywood filmmaking to the devastating problems in the region of Vidarhba in India, these programs offer insight into culture and identity. Read More …
from: Edie Magnus, Executive Producer, Cry For Help
This all started pretty simply: we were touched by a story. In this case it was a story heard round the world: the slaughter at Virginia Tech. Almost immediately the reports began to circulate: the perpetrator had been diagnosed with mental illness, there’d been signs of his violent fantasies, but nobody had put the troubled pieces of his life together in time. Very soon after that we learned that for every young person like him who takes the lives of others, there are exponentially more who take their own lives. Again, there are often signs of mental illness. But the signs go unrecognized, and the pain goes untreated, and with their lives frayed in so many ways, many adolescents, as one doctor aptly put it, “get the short end of the stick” as they go through life. The troubling statistics mentioned throughout Cry for Help tell it all. There’s an enormous chasm between what we (adults) understand about their lives, and what they’re actually going through. Read More …
A Newshour special–coverage of President Obama’s Wednesday press conference–will air on Thirteen on 4/29 at 8pm instead of our regularly-scheduled programming. The conference will run approximately 60 minutes; the premiere of the documentary Cry for Help, about teens and depression, will follow at 9pm.
from: Robin Edgerton, editor, Thirteen.org
We wanted to do special for Earth Day here at THIRTEEN, so we looked for the biggest fish we could find: the first environmental tv series, Our Vanishing Wilderness which was produced for THIRTEEN back when we were NET, National Educational Television. We’ve also started a new mini-site, Green Thirteen, where we’ll be putting environmental content both new and old, both print and video.
It starts with a book. Husband and wife team the Grossmans (Shelly was a nature photographer, Mary Louise a nature writer) published it in 1969. It has the air of a textbook, a coffee table book, and a natural history all in one. Also titled Our Vanishing Wilderness, it examined some of the threats to the natural environment, particularly in the US. (It must have been fairly popular, because used copies are common). In transferring to television, the production team made the material more political and particularly topical, yet still beautifully filmed. Read More …
from: Neal Shapiro, President & CEO, WNET.org
I’m a big fan of the weather forecast. And that’s due to Janice Huff – the terrific meteorologist at New York’s NBC affiliate, Channel 4. Back when I was President of NBC News, Janice and I were colleagues, and I’m happy to report we’re working together again. Well, in a manner of speaking . . . Actually, it’s Janice Huff – the animated version – who has been appearing on our hit kids series, Cyberchase. Read More …
from: Jared Lipworth, Executive Producer, Secrets of the Dead, on Blackbeard’s Lost Ship
There’s been a lot of talk about pirates these last few months, and other than brave action by an American captain and a remarkable effort by three elite Navy snipers, little of it has been good. It amazes me that in this day and age, with all our high-tech monitoring, weaponry and vessels, the world’s shipping infrastructure can be held hostage by a bunch of terrorists in tiny boats.
What’s even more strange is that we look at today’s pirates as evil, lawless villains, yet we’ve somehow come to glorify and mythologize the pirates of the past, even calling their heyday the “golden age” of piracy. Read More …
Q&A with: Josh Cohen, producer for The City Concealed
The most recent installment of The City Concealed is about uptown’s United Palace Theater, designed by movie palace architect Thomas W. Lamb, in Cohen’s words: “It’s sort of Neo-Classical Cambodian, with influences of Hindu, Mayan, and Moorish architecture. Gilded and covered in red velvet.”
Why did you choose this theater? Is it the best one in NYC? Is it the best one you’ve seen? Read More …
