Program Highlights

Michiana's Public Television. Television worthy of your trust

WNIT Local Productions

DINNER AND A BOOK continues on Saturdays at 10:30am (except May 3 and 31) with repeats on Mondays at 5:30pm.
OUTDOOR ELEMENTS continues on Sundays at 9:30am
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK is seen on Fridays at 8:30pm (May 30 at 5:30pm) with repeats on Sundays at 12:30pm.
OPEN STUDIO: Living Michiana continues on Sunday at 7:30pm with repeats Thursdays at 5:30pm.
MICHIANA SPEAKS airs on alternate Thursdays (May 8 and 22) with ASK AN EXPERT at 8:00pm
ASK AN EXPERT airs on alternate Thursday (May 15 and 29) with MICHIANA SPEAKS at 8:00pm.
POLITICALLY SPEAKING continues on Sundays at 2:00pm (except May 18 and 25).

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MAY 2008 LISTINGS

CARRIER

Sunday, April 27-Thursday, May 1, 9pm (with a repeat each night, 11pm).

CARRIER is a character-driven, edge-of-your-seat, nonfiction drama and a once-in-a-lifetime total immersion in the high-stakes world of a nuclear aircraft carrier. CARRIER follows a core group of film participants aboard the USS Nimitz, from the admiral of the strike group to the fighter pilots to the youngest sailors, as they navigate personal conflicts around their jobs, families, faith, patriotism, love, the rites of passage and the war on terror.

The USS Nimitz is 24 stories high, three football fields long and carries more than 5,000 Navy personnel and 85 military aircraft. Filmed from May to November 2005, nearly 2,000 hours of high-definition video were captured aboard the ship during a full six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, of which three months were spent in combat in support of the ground troops. For the first time, a television series takes a raw and personal look at the Navy's role in this controversial war.

NATURE

Sundays, 8pm

For 26 years, NATURE has been the benchmark of natural history programs on television, capturing the splendors of the natural world, from the African plains to the Antarctic ice. The series has won more than 400 honors from the television industry, parent groups, the international wildlife film community and environmental organizations, including eight Emmys, two Peabodys and the first award given to a television program by the Sierra Club.

May 4 - "Superfish"

They slice through the water's surface with explosive power - sail, spear and half a ton of muscle flashing in the sun. Their journeys through the open ocean are epic, their life cycle, bizarre. They are the billfish - marlin, sailfish, spearfish and swordfish - largest and most highly prized of all gamefish. Their astonishing story has never been fully told. Emmy award - winning filmmaker and biologist Rick Rosenthal brings a lifetime of experience with these astonishing sea creatures to the screen as he observes tiny billfish nurseries in the wild, dives deep into secret undersea canyons, films incredible color-changing behavior and embarks on a quest for an elusive thousand-pound "grander." In HD where available.

May 11 - "Prince of the Alps"

High in the Austrian Alps, a female red deer, a leader in her herd, gives birth to a calf. Her status makes him a prince among the other calves. The two are at the center of a wilderness story that features not only the wild alpine herds of majestic red deer, but also a variety of other wildlife that lives in the mountains, including roe deer, ibex, fox, chamois and marmots. From the surrounding towns and villages come cars, hunters, skiers, hikers and pet dogs, all of which threaten the survival of the red deer herds. A harsh and icy winter also takes its toll. Will the prince and his mother endure? In HD where available.

May 18 - "Rhinoceros"

Millions of rhinos once roamed the Earth. There were hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes. But today, the rhinoceros is one of the planet's rarest animals, with three of its species on the brink of extinction. While there is still a chance to save them, teams of experts work to protect rhinos from poachers, relocate them to better habitats and breed them in captivity.

MASTERPIECE

Sundays, 9pm (except May 25)

For more than 35 years, MASTERPIECE has enthralled audiences with the works of the finest classic and contemporary writers interpreted by the world's foremost actors.

"Cranford"

A sleepy 1840s English village comes to life with gossip, parties, romances, sudden death, bankruptcy and the drama of an encroaching railway on the three-part "Cranford," based on the beloved Victorian-era writings of Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell combines the romantic flair of Jane Austen with the class-consciousness of Charles Dickens. The all-star cast includes Judi Dench (Casino Royale), Eileen Atkins (Cold Mountain), Michael Gambon (Harry Potter), Francesca Annis ("Jane Eyre"), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) and enough other top actors to populate a picturesque hamlet. In HD where available. Three-part miniseries.

May 4 - Episode 1

Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon) moves to Cranford to live with her two spinster friends, Miss Deborah (Eileen Atkins) and Miss Matty (Judi Dench). Adventures ensue, including the arrival in town of handsome Dr. Harrison (Simon Woods) with his newfangled medical ideas, a glittering garden party hosted by Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) and great agitation over the approach of a railway and the change it will bring. In HD where available. Part one of three.

May 11 - Episode 2

The approaching railway and resulting social upheaval spark a crime wave in Cranford, with a mugging and a missing leg of mutton. Local vagrant Job Gregson (Dean Lennox Kelly) is blamed, but his son Harry (Axel Etel) has an incriminating alibi. Meanwhile, Matty (Judi Dench) has a reunion with Mr. Holbrook (Michael Gambon), the suitor she spurned decades earlier. In HD where available. Part two of three.

May 18 - Episode 3

Through a terrible misunderstanding, Dr. Harrison (Simon Woods) becomes engaged to three ladies at once, casting him into disgrace. Meanwhile, Mr. Carter (Philip Glenister) discovers with horror that Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) has mortgaged her estate. Matty (Judi Dench), too, is in hock after her bank fails. Then tragedy strikes on the railway. Can Cranford's tight-knit community survive all these disasters? In HD where available. Part three of three.

Preempted May 25

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Monday, May 5, 9pm; Tuesday, May 6, 9pm; Monday, May 12, 9pm; Monday, May 19, 9pm; Sunday, May 25, 9:30pm and Monday, May 26, 9pm

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, television's most-watched history series has been honored with every major broadcast award, including 24 Emmys, four duPont-Columbia Awards and 14 George Foster Peabody Awards.

The latest in the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE series of award-winning and critically acclaimed presidential portraits, this two-part biography examines the life and career of the often overlooked 41st president, from his service in World War II and his early career in Texas to his days in the Oval Office, first as vice president to Ronald Reagan, then as the leader who presided over the first Gulf War. Drawing upon Bush's personal diaries and interviews with his closest advisors and most prominent critics, the film also explores Bush's role as the patriarch of a political family whose influence is unequaled in modern American life. In HD where available.

May 5 - "FDR"

Radio broadcasts beamed his voice into living rooms around the country; his picture hung on the wall. His wife was the most admired woman in the country. "FDR" goes beyond the familiar words and images to offer an incisive, often startling portrait of one of the most extraordinary personalities ever elected to the presidency. One of the nation's most popular presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt served three terms - longer than anyone before or since - and led the country through two great crises of this century: the Great Depression and World War II. The series includes archival film, home movies and audio clips; newly-filmed footage of significant landmarks in FDR's life; an album of family photographs; and interviews with family members, friends and witnesses to history. Produced, directed and written by David Grubin.

May 12 "The Center of the World/Fear Itself"

"The Center of the World" explores Roosevelt's family background and education, looking for clues to the coddled rich child's ascent to political success. It follows him from his very first run for political office as New York state senator through his years in Washington as assistant secretary of the navy, as he pursues the highest office in the land. This segment also tells the story of FDR's courtship of his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and their troubled marriage, including FDR's affair with Eleanor's social secretary, Lucy Mercer. The affair, which nearly ended the marriage, encouraged Eleanor to embrace a life of her own and become politically active. The second segment, "Fear Itself," begins with Roosevelt's bout with polio at age 39 and follows his relentless struggle to rehabilitate his body and his seemingly moribund political career, and to teach himself to appear to walk. The section also paints a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt as she makes a life of her own, developing her own political skills while keeping her husband's name before the public through her involvement in reform causes. A remarkable sequence of events leads FDR back from despair to win his party's nomination as president of the United States. Catapulted into the White House, a man who could not walk begins to lead a country crippled by the Great Depression.

May 19 - "The Grandest Job in the World/The Juggler"

The first segment, "The Grandest Job in the World," focuses on the first two terms of Roosevelt's presidency and explores the central paradox of his presidency: that a man of privilege came to be a hero to a vast and varied coalition of ordinary Americans and a villain to members of his own social class. The episode moves inside the Oval Office to show FDR's response to the massive problems posed by the Great Depression, and out to the heartland to document how his programs and personal style - ebullient, risk-taking and surprisingly cunning - restored hope to Americans who had lost hope. This section also looks at how FDR engineered the "splendid deception" that hid the extent of his physical disability from the American people and how his relationship with his wife affected both his personal and political life. The last section, "The Juggler," is devoted to the wartime years, using FDR's remarkable correspondence with Winston Churchill to chart the calculated and even devious path by which the American president maneuvered support for England before he led his country through the greatest war in history. This segment also traces FDR's management of the war, including his growing personal ties to Churchill and his relationship with Stalin and the Soviet Union, and explores Eleanor's attempt to convince him to maintain the principles of the New Deal, despite the pressures of war.

May 26 - "Truman"

He was a farmer, a haberdasher gone bankrupt, an unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly found himself president. Of all the men who had held office, he was the least prepared. Yet Harry S Truman would have to end the war with Germany and Japan, decide whether to use the most terrible weapon ever devised, confront the Soviet Union, and wage war in Korea. Produced, directed and written by David Grubin.

The first night of "Truman" recounts his early struggles and failures as a young adult, and his undying determination to have an accomplishment to call his own. Truman's success as an army captain during World War I gave him the confidence to marry his lifelong sweetheart, Bess, and begin his path into the world of politics. When he landed the vice presidency with FDR in 1944, he had no idea that his world was about to change forever.

After Harry Truman's unlikely rise to the presidency, he would face some of the biggest crises of the century. Truman would end the war with Germany; use the atomic bomb against Japan; confront an expanding Soviet Union; and wage war in Korea - all while the woman he adored, his wife, Bess, refused to stay in the White House and play the role of First Lady. On the home front, Truman was the first president to tackle civil rights issues for blacks - a move that would prove controversial when campaigning for his second term. His unpredictable win over Thomas Dewey in the presidential election of 1948 proved to Truman that he had finally separated himself from the specter of FDR. However, his second term brought another war and battles with Congress to pass health care and civil rights legislation. Exhausted after his second term, Truman relinquished the presidency and retired to Independence, Missouri, where he lived as a popular and well-loved citizen. In later years, he would receive recognition for all his accomplishments and come to be admired as a gritty American original.

NOVA

Tuesdays, 8pm

PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA programs demystify science and technology and highlight the people involved in scientific pursuits.

May 6 - "First Flower"

Flowers hold a special place in the plant world, as they do in the human heart. There are between 220,000 to more than 400,000 different flowering species on earth. They dominate gardens and landscapes, and provide many food staples. Yet until recently, almost nothing was known about their origin; Charles Darwin called it "an abominable mystery." In the search for answers, NOVA takes viewers on a spectacular journey of discovery to a remote mountain region of China, to explore our fascination with flowers and solve the puzzle of their beginnings. In HD where available.

May 13 - "A Walk to Beautiful"

This program tells the story of three women in Ethiopia suffering from devastating childbirth injuries. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, the women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. NOVA follows each of them on their journey to a special hospital in Addis Ababa where they find solace for the first time in years, and stays with them as their lives begin to change. The trials they endure and their attempts to rebuild their lives tell a universal story of hope, courage and transformation. In HD where available.

May 20 - "Lord of the Ants"

Every so often a giant emerges on the stage of science, someone who transcends the narrow boundaries of a particular line of research and alters our perspective on the world. E.O. Wilson is such a man. While studying ants, Wilson struggled to comprehend the evolutionary forces that led workers to forage and soldiers to fight; in doing so, he became the architect of a controversial new discipline: sociobiology. His appreciation of the natural world has been a driving force for his worldwide conservation efforts. Wilson is an icon of our times: a lord of the ants who sought to explain nature on earth ... and who now fights for its survival. In HD where available.

May 20 - "Master of the Killer Ants"

In the Mandaras Mountains of northern Cameroon lives the Mofu - an ancient tribe that shares its homes and crops with insects in a mutual balance of survival. But this year, a terrible drought has hit the region, and the termites, usually the Mofu's precious ally, have left the fields and invaded the huts and granaries. To fight back, the Mofu shaman calls for Jaglavak, a ferocious army ant with the body of a dragon. The ant is protected by a thick carapace and armed with terrifying pincers that cut, tear and slice through anything in its path. This program is shot in an intimate style that takes viewers into the traditional mindset of the Mofu shaman and the villagers who depend on him. Then, with high-tech macro shooting techniques, the film goes underground and gives viewers a terrifying close-up look at a termite's fortress and the war that rages between termites and Jaglavak. In HD where available.

SECRETS OF THE DEAD

Wednesday, 8pm

Part detective story, part true-life drama, SECRETS OF THE DEAD unearths evidence from around the world, challenging prevailing ideas and throwing fresh light on unexplained events. Using the most up-to-date science in the laboratory and in the field, scientists and researchers examine the missing pieces of each puzzle, completing the picture of what had been merely an assemblage of suppositions.

May 7 - "Doping for Gold"

In the 1970s, female East German athletes came out of nowhere to dominate international sport. But behind their success lay a secret, state-sponsored doping program that distributed untested steroids and male hormones to athletes as young as 12. Many of these girls had no knowledge that they were being doped, and now, as grown women (and men), their broken bodies and damaged psyches bear witness to the cruelty of a government that pursued international glory and gold at the expense of its most acclaimed citizens. "Doping for Gold" digs deep into the secretive Cold War world of East German athletes, examining what drugs were used, how they were distributed and what damage they did to many of the athletes who were forced to take them. The result creates a timely perspective on today's many doping scandals and reveals the truth behind the biggest and most horrifying state-sponsored doping program the world has ever known.

May 14- "Sinking Atlantis"

Five thousand years ago, the Minoans, Europe's first great civilization, flourished on the island of Crete. They were the first Europeans to use writing, and their technologically advanced and rich artistic culture became the setting for famous Greek myths about Theseus, Icarus and the Minotaur. Yet in their heyday, the Minoans were wiped from the pages of history. The cause of their downfall has remained one of the foremost mysteries of the ancient world - until now. "Sinking Atlantis" explores - and discounts - all the usual theories about the disappearance of the Minoans - from a massive volcano that buried them in ash to Greek invaders who conquered and killed them. Then, the film digs deeper into the soil and the history, following archeologist Sandy MacGillivray as he finds startling evidence of a massive tsunami that struck the island and destroyed all the major Minoan cities. Was this the origin of the myth of Altantis? Drawing from the archaeological records, new revelations about Minoan language and religion and shocking new geological discoveries, MacGillivray connects fact with fiction and reveals the truth behind the reign and fall of the great Minoan civilization.

May 21 - "The Hunt for Nazi Scientists"

This episode explores the silent race between the Allies to capture Germany's top scientists during the waning days of World War II. As Hitler's technologically superior empire crumbled and the Allies marched to victory, each side sent out secret missions with the sole purpose of tracking down and securing the cream of Germany's scientific crop and capturing their secrets. With the Cold War looming and the know-how to build rockets, airplanes, submarines and perhaps even nuclear weapons on the line, these raids behind enemy lines took on ever-increasing importance. This episode tells the dramatic, untold story of this race and is filled with real-life accounts of the secret raids, rare archival footage, vivid eyewitness testimonies, visits to the hidden technological hideaways of the Nazis and the exploration of a technological legacy that played itself out well into the Cold War and the race for space. Tony-winner Liev Schreiber narrates.

May 28 - "Herculaneum Uncovered"

Just a few miles from fabled Pompeii is Herculaneum, another city buried and frozen in time by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Today, geo-archeologists are chipping away at the soft rock, revealing that this city, unlike Pompeii, was not suffocated by falling ash. Rather, it was engulfed by blistering pyroclastic flows that instantly caused muscles to contract, skin to vaporize and heads to explode.

AMERICAN MASTERS

Wednesday, May 7, 9pm and 10pm

AMERICAN MASTERS continues to offer insightful profiles of important figures in America's artistic and cultural life. The AMERICAN MASTERS film library is one of the most highly honored in television history, with profiles of more than 140 artistic giants. In addition to eight Peabodys, an Oscar, two duPont-Columbias and two Grammys, AMERICAN MASTERS has won 19 Emmys, including Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004.

"Marvin Gaye: What's Going On"

His standing among the most enduring 20th-century American musical artists is without question, yet his story is rarely told beyond the tragic circumstances of his death. Enormously talented and equally complicated, Gaye created an intimate style - full of honesty, integrity, vulnerability - and, essentially, gave the world his autobiography in lyrics and melody. "The Wonderful One," "The Trouble Man," "The Prince of Soul" - he was the Motown star who challenged and changed the face of black music, embodying its evolution from roots in gospel, jazz and rhythm and blues to sophisticated pop and sexually, politically charged soul. Extensive performance footage and insight from Mary Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Mos Def, among many others, capture the tone and texture of a career that still leaves an indelible mark on the musical landscape.

"Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul"

This program traces the meteoric rise to fame of the world-famous Queen of Soul. The film focuses on Aretha's musical development, tracing her progress from her early strengths as a Detroit gospel singer to the wide stylistic and emotional range she comes to command. The moving, emphatic quality of Aretha's singing is demonstrated in clips from film and television appearances, as well as original footage of one of her recording sessions. Interviews with the people who contributed to her musical career illuminate the stages of her artistic growth. An interview with Aretha herself, the first woman to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, reveals her own perspective on her past.

AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS

Sunday, May 11, 10pm

The latest installment in the AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS series explores the emergence of Muslim - and Arab-American comedians in the wake of 9/11, demonstrating how they use humor to take on stereotypes about Middle Easterners and terrorism. The film showcases five performers, their comedy and the way it is shaped by the everyday tribulations of their lives. Some of the comics are Arab, some are Muslim and some are both. All are Americans. This is the story of how each of these men and women felt the aftershock of 9/11. At a time when people of Middle Eastern background were advised to lie low, they all chose to stand up and crack jokes.

FRONTLINE

Tuesdays, 9pm; preempted May 6 and 27

Nearing its 25th anniversary, FRONTLINE continues to build on its reputation for powerful reporting on a wide range of topics. FRONTLINE moves from the Iraq war to early Christianity, from child sexual abuse to high finance, from Rwanda to Washington, all the while providing its journalists and filmmakers the time needed to thoroughly research a story and the time on-air to tell it in a compelling way. As PBS' premier public affairs series, FRONTLINE's stature is reaffirmed each week through incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human, social and political experience.

Preempted May 6

May 13 - "Storm Over Everest"

As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The climbers, exhausted from their summit climb, were soon lost in darkness, in a fierce blizzard, far from the safety of High Camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears returns to Everest to tell the story of the climbers who perished in that storm, marking the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest's history. But more remarkably, it is the story of eleven climbers caught in the storm and the eyewitness accounts of their astonishing survival in the world's most unforgiving environment. In HD where available.

May 20 - "Growing Up Online"

FRONTLINE looks at the impact of the Internet on adolescence through the eyes of teens and their parents. The film takes viewers into the private worlds kids are creating online - from kids who are harassed and bullied, to kids who make social connections virtually when they have few friends at school, to those kids who attain instant celebrity on YouTube. FRONTLINE explores the complicated new lines being drawn between the real and virtual worlds for today's children and teens, and for their parents, who often find themselves on the other side of a new digital divide.

Preempted May 27 by FRONTLINE/WORLD "Crimes At the Border"

FRONTLINE/WORLD

Tuesday, May 27, 9pm

This series presents timely, compelling and engaging investigative documentaries that explore the stories and issues of the times.

In a joint project with The New York Times, FRONTLINE/World correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the business of human smuggling across the busy ports of entry between Mexico and the United States. In Tijuana, masses of people attempt to cross illegally every day with the help of increasingly organized and expensive smugglers. Bergman explores the region to find that this illicit but lucrative business is expanding, and U.S. border agents are subject to an increased risk of corruption. He follows the dramatic story of one such corrupt U.S. border guard, the risky business he became involved in, and what the U.S. government is doing about the problem. In HD where available.

THE ADIRONDACKS

Wednesday, May 14, 9pm

It's the largest park in the lower 48 states. Yet it is the only one on the continent in which large human populations live and whose land is divided almost evenly between protected wilderness and privately owned tracts. This patchwork pattern of land ownership has created an utterly unique place that maintains, at its very heart, a delicate and dynamic relationship between progress and preservation. Through the varied perspectives of several passionate characters, this high-definition program explores the remarkable history, seasonal landscape and current state of the Adirondacks. In HD where available.

NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT (2008)

Sunday, May 25, 2008, 8pm

PBS will unite our nation in honor of all of America's men and women in uniform for their service and sacrifice with this annual presentation. The event will be led for the third year by co-hosts Gary Sinise ("CSI NY") and Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna ("Criminal Minds"), two acclaimed actors who have dedicated themselves to veterans' causes and supporting our troops in active service.

This year, the event will pay special tribute to the veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam and the sacred war memorials built in their honor in Washington, DC. Actor and decorated World War II veteran Charles Durning, a longtime participant in the NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT, will also be recognized for his bravery and sacrifice as part of the "greatest generation," who stepped forward in a time of need. The valor of the country's newest veterans will be honored through an examination of the bonds that buddies form on the battlefields of Iraq.

The television event will feature a mix of dramatic readings, documentary footage and live musical performances, along with an all-star line-up of dignitaries, actors and musical artists. This includes Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.) and Charles Durning, the quintessential character actor and recipient of the 2007 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award (more talent to be announced.) The National Symphony Orchestra will be performing under the direction of top pops conductor Erich Kunzel. The event is broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, before an on-site audience of hundreds of thousands and is viewed by millions more at home. It can also be seen overseas by U.S. military personnel in more than 175 countries and aboard more than 200 U.S. Navy ships at sea on American Forces Radio and Television Network.

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Wednesday, May 28, 9pm

GREAT PERFORMANCES, the longest-running performing arts anthology on television, continues to feature the best in the performing arts.

Valery Gergiev is widely acclaimed as one of the leading conductors of our time. Currently artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theater and principal conductor of the London Symphony, he also holds posts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, in addition to being founder and artistic director of Stars of the White Nights Festival and the Moscow Easter Festival. "Maestro" offers viewers an exclusive look at Gergiev on the go: the film moves back and forth between rehearsal and performance sequences and the maestro's demanding life as administrator of the enormous Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, along with an almost impossible conducting schedule that takes him to London, New York and other major capitals around the world. "Maestro" also captures Gergiev's devoted collaboration with musicians. He speaks candidly about his carefully planned yet spontaneous rehearsal strategies, his activity in organizing international support for his musicians and his music, and his close associations with high-powered figures in Russia. It is an intimate portrait of a true classical music dynamo, allowing viewers to know and understand Gergiev the man, in order to more intensely enjoy the brilliance of Gergiev the artist.