The New York Times - USA (2020-10-25)

10 AR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020

Television

22

COSMOS: A PERSONAL VOYAGE

Our guide to the

galaxy, and so

much more.

BILL-yunn. If there’s a word that
sums up the science show “Cos-
mos,” it was that word, as spoken
by the astronomer Carl Sagan.
His way of pronouncing the word
“billion” — and “million” and
“trillion” and even “quadrillion,”
for that matter — was the equiv-
alent of a science earworm.
Johnny Carson spoofed it, imper-
sonating Sagan in a black wig
and turtleneck. But the really big
numbers underscored the vast-
ness of what Sagan was talking
about in this 13-part series from
1980: the universe. Everything.
“The cosmos is all that is or ever
was or ever will be,” he told us.
“We are made of star-stuff. We
are a way for the cosmos to know
itself.” No one could have asked
for a better guide.
JOHN SCHWARTZ

23

¿QUÉ PASA U.S.A?

A family comedy

like no other.

As the first bilingual sitcom to air
in the United States, this family
comedy made history when it
premiered in 1977. It ran for just
39 episodes, following three
generations of the Peña family as
the Cuban immigrants made a
life for themselves in Miami’s
Little Havana. But the show
resonated with viewers who saw
themselves in the Spanish-speak-
ing abuela and abuelo, Adela and
Antonio; the Lucy-and-Ricky-
reminiscent parents, Juana and
Pepe; and their Americanized,
Spanglish-speaking children,
Carmen and Joe. The comedy
illuminated the Peñas’ struggles
to embrace both their heritage
and their new home, whether
planning Carmen’s quinceañera
or helping Adela and Antonio
study for their citizenship tests.
And its influence can be seen
today in bilingual sitcoms like
“Fresh Off the Boat,” “One Day
at a Time” and “Bob Hearts
Abishola,” which use television to
illuminate the breadth of the
American immigrant experience.
JENNIFER HARLAN

24

DANCE IN AMERICA

When Twyla Tharp

twirled into our

living rooms.

With theaters shuttered, we are
right back to where “Dance in
America” started: bringing
dance into living rooms. This
Emmy Award-winning series,
part of “Great Performances,”
made its debut on PBS in 1976
and was remarkable from the
start, producing programs that
placed spotlights on the work of
monumental choreographers like
George Balanchine, Merce Cun-
ningham and Twyla Tharp. (And
capturing dancers without cut-
ting off their feet!) If you had
never really experienced live
dance, but felt a strange craving
to learn more, “Dance in Amer-
ica” — a training ground for
future dancers, choreographers
and audience members —
hooked you in. Where else could
you discover what a group of
avant-garde rebels were up to?
“Beyond the Mainstream,” a 1980
look at postmodern dance, re-
mains one of its greatest treas-
ures. GIA KOURLAS

25

GREAT CHEFS

Before the glamour,

there was the

nitty-gritty.

Studio kitchens were made to get

around all the nuisance of work-

ing kitchens — the noise, the

heat, the poor lighting, the awk-

ward layouts — and to hold the

audience’s attention with star

chefs who told stories while they

cooked. “Great Chefs” was the

antithesis, working around all

those annoyances, shooting

inside busy restaurants during

off hours, with chefs who weren’t

there to entertain so much as

educate, and who rarely filled the

space with jokes or chatter —

some didn’t look at the camera at

all.

Production values were low on

its run on PBS in the 1980s, and

on reruns I watched throughout

the late ’90s, but the food was

absurdly elaborate, with an

unflappable narrator floating in

and out of the scene, explaining

how to stuff truffle slices under

chicken skin or french bone a

chop. Often, there was no talking

at all. On the screen, there were

only hands, expertly pressing the

edges of pastry, or whisking

butter into puréed potatoes. It

wasn’t glamorous, but as celebri-

ty chefs in studio kitchens took

over food television that was

exactly the appeal of “Great

Chefs”: a behind-the-scenes look

at the work that went into every

plate.TEJAL RAO

26

READING RAINBOW

Remember books?

LeVar Burton

reminded us.

In 1983, the soothing, literacy-

driven show “Reading Rainbow”

began broadcasting on public

television. Each episode featured

a celebrity reader (including

Eartha Kitt and Whoopi Gold-

berg); a related adventure led by

the host, LeVar Burton; and a

final review of the book from his

young co-stars. The result was a

series showered in Emmys,

critical acclaim and the eternal

love of parents who hated watch-

ing shows with squeaky cartoon

voices. As host for the 26 years it

was on the air, Burton won over

generations of teachers, parents

and children while he slowly and

patiently encouraged young

readers to open their books and

minds.JULIA CARMEL

27

THE SHOCK OF THE NEW

Making the modernist

revolution accessible.

There’s a moment late in this

eight-part series from the early

’80s on the development of West-

ern modern art when the critic

Robert Hughes picks up a pistol,

aims at the bull’s-eye — and the

camera cuts to Jasper Johns’s

painting “Target.” The upshot:

The old expectations and mean-

ings we assigned to images have

come radically unstuck. In Paris

or Philadelphia, looking at Ba-

con’s screaming popes or

Rothko’s dusky abstractions,

Hughes drew us into the mod-

ernist revolutions in art and

architecture, and mapped them

against changes in technology,

commerce, colonialism (he calls

Picasso’s breakthrough paintings

of 1906-7 “essentially white art in

blackface”), media and econom-

ics. So often TV presenters con-

descend to modern art, like it’s a

shell game; Hughes, with non-

chalant authority and an unmis-

takable accent we could call

BBCified Australian, let viewers

weigh up modernism for them-

selves.JASON FARAGO

29

EYES ON THE PRIZE

An exceptional view

of the civil rights

movement.

When Henry Hampton began

work in 1976 on his landmark

14-hour documentary about the

civil rights movement, the defini-

tive histories of the subject had

not yet been published. But that

isn’t to say that America didn’t

already have an image of it.

Hampton intended it as a correc-

tive to existing films, mostly by

whites, that showed African-

Americans as “brutalized primi-

tives,” as he later put it. His

version would show that “it was

the strength of Blacks that made

the civil rights movement hap-

pen.” The first part, covering the

years 1954 to 1965, aired in 1987,

winning wide acclaim. The sec-

ond part, taking the story to 1985,

followed five years later. Hamp-

ton, who had marched in Selma,

Ala., followed a number of guid-

ing principles, including no talk-

ing-head hindsight, sparing use

of the period’s music (too over-

powering) and lots of American

flags, especially when held by

Black children in archival

footage. As he would say, “It’s

our flag too.”

JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

30

SHERLOCK

A new, and very

modern game is afoot

at Baker Street.

Bringing something new to a

character like Sherlock Holmes,

who has been well known since

the 1890s, is no small feat. But in

this BBC series (which debuted

on PBS in 2010), Benedict Cum-

berbatch managed to flourish as

the famous “consulting detec-

tive” by throwing himself fully

into the character’s charms and

flaws without regard for the

more staid depictions that pre-

ceded his. Thanks to the nimble,

and often irreverent, contempo-

rary adaptations of Arthur Conan

Doyle’s stories by Steven Moffat

and Mark Gatiss, he had all the

room he needed to make the

Baker Street sleuth his own and

helped inspire legions of hard-

core fans who proudly called

themselves Cumberbitches.

PETER LIBBEY

31

FIRING LINE WITH

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.

A rare conservative

voice inviting spirited

debate.

“Firing Line” is sometimes cited

as the forerunner of today’s

political talk shows. But unlike

today’s partisan screamfests,

Buckley ran his interruption-free

hour like a civilized, if hardly

gentle, debate club. Guests in-

cluded politicians and policymak-

ers, but also an eclectic range of

cultural figures like Muhammad

Ali, Germaine Greer, Jose Luis

Borges and Allen Ginsberg.

Buckley, with his famously or-

nate vocabulary and eccentric

upper-crusty vocal mannerisms,

would have been an anomaly

anywhere on television. But

when the show moved to PBS in

1971 after five years of commer-

cial syndication, he also became

the rare conservative in what

many on the right saw as enemy

territory. “The challenge of con-

servatives in those years,” he

once said, “was not to convert

others to our point of view, but to

convince them that conservative

views weren’t held by savages.”

JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

33

INSPECTOR MORSE

A charmingly irritable

detective? We’re all in.

Before premium cable and

streaming services demonstrat-

ed how even shows with simple

premises could be elevated when

lavished with talent and strong

production values, “Inspector

Morse” was helping redefine the

television mystery — and PBS’s

“Mystery!” It had strong casting,

especially John Thaw as a

charmingly irritable Oxford

detective with a penchant for

opera, crosswords and a pint or

two. Its lovingly filmed shots of

Oxford’s dreaming spires helped

set the standard for the pictur-

esque crime scenes of “Foyle’s

War,” “Midsomer Murders” and

“Shetland.” Now the torch has

passed to a period prequel, “En-

deavor,” where the young Morse

of Shaun Evans slowly grows

more Thaw-like (He’s got the

Jaguar! He’s renovating the

Morse home!) with each season.

Now, as the 1960s of its first

seasons give way to the ’70s,

Morse fans can only hope that

“Endeavor” will last into the

’80s, so the team can eventually

remake all the originals. Infinite

Morse!MICHAEL COOPER

34

WISHBONE

No better way

to learn the classics.

Ah, the sassy joy of a Jack Rus-

sell terrier portraying Don Qui-

xote. And Rip Van Winkle. And

Prince Hal, Oliver Twist, Cyrano,

Silas Marner, Quasimodo and

dozens of others. “Wishbone”

aired 50 darling episodes in the

mid-90s, each one a combination

of a modern-day story line and

loosely connected work of classic

literature, depicted in full fantasy

sequences and starring an ador-

able little dog. The show’s con-

densed versions of great works

are better than CliffsNotes and

way more fun — not only be-

cause of Wishbone’s obligatory

cheeky dog antics but also be-

cause of the show’s voice, sense

of humor and thoughtfulness. A

“Wishbone” movie is in the

works, though without the

show’s creative team, and while

clips abound on YouTube, the

original series isn’t streaming

anywhere.MARGARET LYONS

Why We Turned to Them

28

GREAT PERFORMANCES

Holland Taylor found the ‘magical

intimacy’ of almost-live theater.

I lived in New York as a young actor. I was right in the middle of all of

that culture. But I hardly had access to it. Far be it from me to be

going to the opera and the ballet. I had limited resources. To be able

to see these things on “Great Performances” was extraordinary.

When I was told that PBS wanted Ann [Taylor’s one-woman show

about the Texas governor Ann Richards] for “Great Performances,” I

thought I literally could not be more honored. It felt like the absolute

apogee, the absolute pinnacle. I can’t tell you quite what the effect is

to hear that music and see the familiar logo and have it be your play.

It was really quite thrilling. The director was very mindful to make it

as intimate as possible without ever making the audience feel that it

was anything other than a theater production. It still felt like theater.

It gave the viewer the sense of being an audience member who has

the best seat heaven could provide. It had a magical intimacy. “Great

Performances” is a real treasure. Nothing is like live theater, but that

sure as hell comes close.

Holland Taylor is an actor and playwright whose credits include

“Legally Blonde,” “The Practice,” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Interview by Alexis Soloski.

Not quite “Star Trek”: Patrick Stewart starring in the title role of

“Macbeth,” which aired as part of the “Great Performances” series.

MANUEL HARLAN/PBS

Bob Vila of “This Old House.”

PBS

32

THIS OLD HOUSE

For Chip Gaines,

it turned a trade

into a profession.

As far as I’m concerned, Bob [Vila] is

America’s contractor. Bob inspired an

entire generation of industry professionals

— I was one of them — and he

single-handedly shifted the narrative of an

age-old trade in a way that highlighted a

sense of professionalism and intelligence.

He made things interesting. In a way, he

legitimized the profession for me. I used to

think “professionals” were either lawyers

or doctors or something like that, but it’s

partly because of Bob that I started

thinking, “Why not become a contractor or

builder or carpenter? Why not?”

Chip Gaines was the co-star, with his wife,

Joanna, of “Fixer Upper” on HGTV.

Interview by Ronda Kaysen in 2019.

50 YEARS OF PBS

GPN AND WNED

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BBC

BIG FEATS!, VIA EVERETT COLLECTION

.