Media Menu

These listings cover television programs up to Thursday, April 17th.

Greetings, TV viewers!

Since it's the beginning of a holy week for many, there are history broadcasts about the Judeo-Christian-Islamic Holy Land and about Jesus on Sunday and Tuesday. This week's MediaHour will be about these historical perspectives -- I expect we can all keep the discussion polite, right?

There's also a delightful series called "Inside the Actors' Studio" on the Bravo Channel. This week's actors are the cast of "The Simpsons"!

Want some clams? Watch the show-of-the-week, then talk about them with me and other citizens (including other city workers, if they're available) in the House of Illusions Geek Speak. We meet on Wednesdays from 6:30pm and 7:30pm Whyville Time (that's the same as Eastern Standard Time).

If you come and really take part in the meeting, you'll get up to 50 clams from City Hall (or more, if your efforts are exceptional)... you like that?

To sum up: tune to the show, show up to the chat, chat up your thoughts, and get clams!

We're considering moving the chat to another room, like the AbilityFirst Rec Room. What do you folks think?

Everyone is welcome to email me what you and your parents think: Email me, the MediaWiz of Whyville!

And now... the Media Menu!

Thursday, April 10

"Stinkers! The Ten Smelliest Animals in the World" (Discovery Channel, 6-7pm E/P) Back by popular demand, this is a documentary about a less-than-scientific poll of wildlife professionals from all corners of the globe resulting in a top ten list of the most malodorous members of the animal kingdom. These stinky critters aren't just offensive, their stench can be downright crippling!

"Nature's Nightmares: Infested!" (National Geographic Channel, 8-9pm E/P) This documentary is another reminder that Nature is not always our friend. It points out that the average home contains hordes of uninvited guests, from rats, and mice to creepy crawlies and microscopic bugs. You don't have to live in squalor to be infested, and sometimes you don't even know you've been invaded.

Friday, April 11

"NOW With Bill Moyers" (PBS, 9-10 pm E/P) This news program is about guns. One former insider says major gun manufacturers are deliberately looking the other way while some dealers sell their guns to criminals. Can one whistleblower change the industry? The U.S. Congress is now considering legislation to remove liability from these companies when their guns are misused. It's the first time in history that an entire industry could be immunized against lawsuits. Bill Moyers profiles a former executive director of the American Shooting Sports Council, who is now fighting the industry he used to protect. He not only contends the manufacturers didn't do anything to stop crime gun sales, but they lied to the public about what they knew.

"The Rubens Robbers" (Bravo, 10-11 pm E/P) This is a documentary about art history. The paintings you'll learn about are famous ones that have been stolen. In March 1991, U.S. Customs are alerted to a painting by an artist named 'Rueben' being offered on the black market. Eventually, a Customs special agent discovers that it is, in fact, a genuine Peter Paul Rubens work called "Aurora", stolen from a Spanish museum six years earlier along with "The Daedalus". The latter had already been recovered when it was brought in to be valued at the National Museum of Stockholm. This episode follows an elaborate sting operation in Miami. For information about this, log on to http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rubens. It turns out that more than 10,000 works of art are reported stolen from museums, galleries and private collections around the world each year. Bravo Network has followed the investigations of six of the most brazen art frauds and thefts in recent history in a documentary series "Art Crimes and Mysteries". You'll learn interesting things about fine art by logging on to a description of these cases at http://nbcmv.printthis.clickability.com/pt/fb=Y&partnerID=377

Saturday, April 12

"Inside the Actors Studio: The Cast of 'The Simpsons'" (Bravo Channel, 7-8pm E/P) This is a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the 'voice artists' profession where there are faces you never see but voices everybody recognizes. The official website of the Simpsons' tv show, http://thesimpsons.com/bios/bios_actors_index.html, gives the biographies of these people but no pictures. Here they are, "in the flesh". Have you every wondered what they look like?

Sunday, April 13

"Nature: Lost World Of The Holy Land" (PBS, 8-9pm E/P) This week contains both Good Friday and Passover. Here are two documentaries which touch on the Christian and Jewish faiths. First, a natural history documentary about a place that erupts, time and again, into bloodshed and grief, but where efforts to re-introduce and protect indigenous species may do more than just save animals. A shared concern for wildlife may bring people together. For further info, log on http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holyland/index.html.

Second, "The Unknown Jesus" (A&E, 8-10 pm E/P) This documentary challenges some traditional beliefs about Jesus. Was Jesus really a poor carpenter or an aristocrat? Was he a pacifist or a revolutionary determined to overthrow Roman tyranny? Did he really grow up in Nazareth or another place? And was he a real-life martyr or a convenient fiction? Rated TV-G.

Monday, April 14

"April 1865: The Month That Saved America" (History Channel, 9-11pm ET/PT) This documentary examines 30 pivotal days in the history of the United States, a time when all signs pointed to a disastrous end for the young country. These were the final days of the Civil War. By April 1865, both sides suffered a total of a million and a half casualties. But Lee's surrender to Grant did not mark the end of the war. There were still 175,000 rebel troops in the South. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet were on the run. Abraham Lincoln knew that reconciliation was vital to the survival of the country. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln as part of a conspiracy to decapitate the Union government. Lincoln's death led to Andrew Johnson's controversial assumption of the Presidency. Unlike Lincoln, Johnson felt that the Union was being too soft on the South. The assassination of Lincoln only incited more public anger on both sides. The thing that Lincoln, Grant, Lee and others had most feared was guerrilla warfare -- which was only narrowly avoided. There is a treasure-trove of information about this topic at http://www.historychannel.com/1865.

"Avoiding Armageddon" (PBS, 9-11pm E/P) This timely series from Ted Turner Documentaries explores the explosive intersection between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Viewers are taken to some of the most dangerous places in the world to see dramatic human stories that convey the threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as the hope that the world can still choose to avoid Armageddon. Series concludes on PBS April 17. Details at http://www.pbs.org/avoidingarmageddon.

Tuesday, April 15

"In The Footsteps of Jesus: The Lost Youth of Jesus" (A&E Network, 9-10pm E/P) Airing during the week before Easter, this is a documentary about a period in the life of Jesus that is not well understood. Thousands of Christians make pilgrimages to the Holy Land yearly to visit sites connected to Jesus. But are they authentic? The search for the historical Jesus began with the first pilgrim -- Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena Augusta. Scholars have been trying to prove -- or disprove -- her amazing claims ever since. Traveling to Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Sepphoris in the footsteps of Jesus, we run into heated debate about where he was born, baptized, and grew up, and reveal startling new discoveries. Rated TV-G.

Wednesday, April 16

"The Searchers" (AMC Network, 8-11pm EP) This movie appears on every list of the greatest American films of all time and has been selected as a National Film Registry Outstanding Film. In it, Comanche tribesmen kill the family and kidnap the daughters of a Confederate veteran played by John Wayne. He sets forth on a hate-ridden quest to find his nieces and save them from the "savages". The quest leads him hundreds of miles over seven agonizing years of dead ends and double crosses. As it becomes clear that one of the daughters has accepted her life among the Comanches, Wayne resolves not to rescue her but to save her from disgrace by killing her. This story of moral ambiguity lives in Wayne's richly layered characterization of a man whose brutal tendencies balance with a tender, forlorn longing for home and family. It climaxes in his words to the frightened girl as he holds her life in his hands: "Let's go home." Available on video.

"Mission Rescue: Baptism by Fire" (National Geographic Channel, 8:30-9pm E/P) In this documentary, a sultry summer sun rises over the scenic beauty of Key West and the day begins like many others for the crew of the Coast Guard station. As the sun and the mercury rise, Hell breaks loose as one calamity follows another. Accidents, medical emergencies and law enforcement cases wash over this dedicated cadre of young 'Coasties' and they struggle to save lives of those in peril on the waters of south Florida.

Thursday, April 17

"Oracle of Delphi: Secrets Revealed" (History Channel, 8-9pm E/P) In this documentary, myth and science meet at the historic site of Delphi, where the ancient Greeks said the oracle (always a woman), in a trance and often a frenzy, spoke on behalf of the gods. Scholarship rejected the claim that vapors rising from the temple's floor inspired the oracle. But now, a wealth of evidence compiled by a geologist, archaeologist, chemist, and toxicologist suggests the ancients were right, and the discovery of two faults intersecting below the temple indicate the geology could have released intoxicating fumes. TV rated PG.

"Planet Weather: Wind" (The Learning Channel 10-11pm E/P) This documentary explores the journey the winds take from their birth at the equator to the poles. We will see how the wind can turn from the cooling breeze of a summer day to a devastating tornado, or how a wind from space can literally flatten the planet.