This week? Lots of fake foliage! Yep, those are plastic plants as seen in our storage area. No doubt many of these have decorated the sets of some of your favorite local series. Look closely when you’re watching and you may spot one of them in the background of a future local production.
It was almost a quarter of a century ago – March 20, 1999 – but here’s what UNC-TV was airing that evening…
Our series NORTH CAROLINA NOW lead at 7:30, followed by NOVA’s look at Volcanoes Of The Deep. At 9pm, veteran journalist Bill Moyers (a PBS staple for many years) hosted FACING THE TRUTH. The night capped off with MURDER MOST HORRID, a very funny British comedy starring Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley) and the old interview program CHARLIE ROSE.
“Let me explain the order of things for you. There’s the aristocracy, the upper class, middle class, working class, dumb animals, waiters, creeping things, head lice, people who eat packet soup, and then you.” – Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), dressing down a subordinate, CHEF!
What was the name of the superhero played by Ardal O’Hanlon on the Britcom MY HERO?
MY HERO was a British comedy series that ran on the BBC from 2000 to 2006. UNC-TV aired the first five series starting in 2007 (the last season featured another actor in the lead role but ratings declined and the show was quickly cancelled). Ardal O’Hanlan starred as a superhero from the planet Ultron who falls in love with a nurse named Janet Dawkins and woos her in his secret identity of George Sunday. Emily Joyce co-starred as nurse Janet Dawkins whose relationship with George was the crux of the series. Along the way, George awkwardly learned how things were done on Earth as he struggled to fit in and romance a human. Much of the comedy centered on the George’s alien nature and his incredible superpowers.
So what was George Sunday’s heroic name? What was the name of the superhero played by Ardal O’Hanlon on MY HERO?
Continue readingSince CALL THE MIDWIFE is back for a twelfth year, I thought I’d take a quick look at who’s who in the cast. I think I’ve done this series before but some of the actors have come and gone in twelve seasons, so it’s a good time for a refresher.
As you may know, CALL THE MIDWIFE is a BBC period drama about a group of nurse midwives working during the 1950s and 1960s. Set at the a nursing convent Nonnatus House, the midwives tackle issues of the day and cope with medical problems in the deprived Poplar district of London’s desperately poor East End. Note: I’m dealing with actors on the current series, so anyone who appears on earlier seasons may not be listed.
To start, Vanessa Redgrave appears as the voice of Mature Jenny. An acclaimed actor, Redgrave has appeared on stage and screen in dozens of roles during her 65-year career. Surprisingly, not a ton of work that’s been seen on PBS. However, she did play Flora Berryman in Man In An Orange Shirt and Sarah Cloyce in the PBS anthology series American Playhouse.
Linda Bassett is Phyllis Crane. She’s been seen as Malka Rosen in Spies of Warsaw, Queenie in Lark Rise to Candleford, Mrs. Jennings in Sense & Sensibility and Rachel Lithgow in Traffik.
Continue readingWhat’s happening, what’s on and what’s interesting this week …
Discover the bonds of sisterhood among generations of women in China as they are are drawn together by the only script designed and used exclusively by women. Don’t miss HIDDEN LETTERS on INDEPENDENT LENS – tonight at 10pm on PBS NC.
Sir Derek Jacobi (Vicious) laments the loss of voice in the theatre.
Discover the untold story of the 1969 showdown between President Nixon and the antiwar movement. Relive THE MOVEMENT AND THE “MADMAN” on AMERICAN EXPERIENCE – Tuesday night at 9 on PBS NC.
Rita Moreno (The Electric Company) says she feels most beautiful when looking into the eyes of her grandson. Hey, hid it get dusty in here all of a sudden?
Continue readingIf you’re a fan of our public affairs shows, I hope you’ve caught the newest series to break into the Friday night line-up: STATE LINES. The show features vibrant roundtable discussions with experienced political analysts, journalists and elected officials as they examine North Carolina’s top legislative stories and current events. When the set was completed, I stopped by our studio to get a quick pic. Check it out.
Side note: Longtime viewers may recall a public affairs series from the ’80s called STATELINE. Different show, similar name. Everything old is new again!
36 years ago, here’s what we were broadcasting on the UNC Center For Public Television.
March 23 was a Monday that year and we started the evening with THE MACNEIL LEHRER NEWSHOUR, a six o’clock staple now for over 30 years! THE NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT followed at 7pm and then our local interview series NORTH CAROLINA PEOPLE WITH WILLIAM FRIDAY at 7:30pm. Primetime kicked off with ADVENTURE, a travel series I vaguely remember but can find no real reference to it online. It featured episode titles like Amazon Steamboat, Ring Of Fire, Across The Jade Sea and Polar Passage. The anthology series AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE was up at 9pm and the Britcom A FINE ROMANCE with Judi Dench capped off the night at 11:30.
“I want to be with Kat, Kat wants nothing to do with me. I don’t want to be with Zoe, Zoe wants everything to do with me. Happy Christmas.” – Dr. Anthony Trueman (Nicholas R. Bailey), lamenting his love life, EASTENDERS
What PBS series is known internally by the abbreviation AMDO?
Okay, we’re going deep into the sausage this week but it’s always been a bit of trivia I’ve personally found fascinating.
Those who work behind the scenes at PBS stations know that each item you see on your screen has to be entered into a database and from that database we produce a broadcast log which instructs technical staff what bits to air when. It’s more complicated than that, as you might imagine, but there’s the gist of it.
So each program we air is given a identifier. Each PBS series is given a four character code taken from the series name. For instance, FRONTLINE is FRON, Nova is NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is AMEX and CALL THE MIDWIFE is CMID. The rest of the code will be a number, usually the program’s episode number. This week’s MASTERPIECE with the season premiere of SANDITON was MAST 5314, 5314 being the number of that particular episode and MAST the program code. A one-off special, something without an episode, might consist of zeros, such as SECRETS OF THE TOWER OF LONDON which is SETL 000000.
With that explanation out of the way, I’m asking a specific question about a specific series, one whose code doesn’t seem to flow logically from its title. The code is AMDO. The series has been around since the 1980s and that’s quite a while. The show, like much PBS fare, has won numerous awards, including Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards and Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards, among others.
It’s a prime time series and it’s featured critically-acclaimed fare by extremely well known and talented creators. I could give more clues but I’m kind of deliberately making this vague to enhance the reveal.
So what is it? What long-running PBS series is known internally by the code AMDO?
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