Programs/Content
Let’s not do it: PTV Weekend is a bad idea
A debate on the proposed PTV Weekend experiment for two-nights-a-week advertising on public TV Against the plan, below: Fred Esplin, general manager of ...If you love ‘This American Life,’ you really love it
This American Life is unlike anything on public radio. But what would you expect from a man who once devoted an hour of Talk of ...Hull dived into the PBS archives, found himself among old friends
After a year of combing through PBS’s archives, Ron Hull has uncovered a treasure-trove of programs worth reviving one way ...How should public TV follow up the Forsyte Saga success?
Near the end of June 1970, Stanford Calderwood and his wife, Norma Jean, were comfortably settled in their regular rooms in London’s ...‘In the Life’: Everywhere their cameras go, they seem to find gay people
'In the Life' is approaching its fifth anniversary on public TV, aired on more than 90 transmitters and rejected for twice as ...Terrier fans tell the rest of the story
You probably wouldn’t want one. Not if you knew what they’re like. Leave them alone and they’ll rip your couch, dig up ...KQED made its mark by making programs
San Francisco’s KQED-TV remains one of the most-watched public TV stations in the country, but, in the 1980s and ’90s it suffered under ...With funding as shaky as ever, the craft of historical documentaries hits new highs
Current: There was a long period when TV critics regularly wrung their hands over the death of the long-form documentary. Now PBS has ...KQED drops Mondavi project in underwriting controversy
KQED has dropped plans for a public TV documentary about pioneering Napa Valley winemaker Robert Mondavi after widespread newspaper reports ...A ragtime pianist shows public TV how to have fun
Max Morath reminded America about a largely forgotten part of its musical legacy, but beyond that achievement of mass education, the musician also ...Jazzcasters try music testing to pick cuts
The minority of public radio stations that use listener preference data to choose music is becoming a little less minor as music ...Tragic legend returns to public TV, retold this time as an opera
A local tale from Fayette, Maine, that came to public TV seven years ago in an American Experience documentary will return next year as ...Fred Rogers and the significance of story
The late George Gerbner, a leading scholar of TV program content, wrote this article for the 40th anniversary of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, but it ...Latest Rabbit Ears story: a tear-jerker for its staff
The new owner of Rabbit Ears Productions, Millenium Media, says the company will continue producing radio and video childrens’ stories, despite having ...Revisiting Brideshead Revisited
You may have recently reacquainted yourself with this classic public TV mini-series. The American Program Service and 20 stations have brought it ...
Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation.