PBS fall lineup: Disney doc, roots music
A "warts and all" documentary on Walt Disney. A historical journey on the evolution of American roots music. A rebroadcast of Ken Burns' Civil War, for the first time in high-def, on its 25th anniversary.
Those are the highlights of PBS' fall schedule, to be unveiled Thursday, which sets dates on several previously announced projects.
Walt Disney, a four-hour doc that's part of PBS' American Experience series, will air Sept. 14 and 15, and promises a "warts and all" look at the legendary animation whiz and studio chief, says PBS programming chief Beth Hoppe. "No one's had that level of access" to rare archival footage, and interviews with historians and early Disney employees. The subject, she says, "is iconic and, as far our history offerings go, one that will really resonate."
American Epic, a three-part documentary produced by British filmmakers, chronicles the search by 1920s music executives for a new market. They "went to the rural South to find the best local musicians," and used rudimentary equipment to press records and then sell them to local buyers, Hoppe says. The project, executive produced by T Bone Burnett, Jack White and Robert Redford, will air Nov. 10 and 17, and will be followed on Nov. 17 by a companion film, American Epic Sessions, featuring performances by Elton John, the Avett Brothers, Nas, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, White and Steve Martin using that same equipment.
And Julie Walters stars in Indian Summers, a nine-part miniseries (Sept. 27) about a "glamorous doyenne of an English social club" as British rule over India waned.
This will mark a rare fall without a new Ken Burns project, but his epic Civil War, which remains his top-rated film on PBS, returns on its 25th anniversary (Sept. 7-11) transferred into high-definition. The filmmaker's "popularity has not waned in the slightest" since 1990, Hoppe says. "It's costing a pretty penny to get this done, and it's going to be huge."
War will be used to promote Mercy Street, a new Civil War drama now filming in Richmond, Va., that's due in January. Burns' next project, a four-hour profile of baseball great Jackie Robinson, will be followed by an ambitious 18-hour project, Vietnam, due in 2017.
Other fall PBS highlights:
--Althea, an American Masters profile of Althea Gibson, the first African-American tennis pro to win Wimbledon, predating Arthur Ashe (Sept. 4).
--Gorongosa Park: Rebirth of Paradise, a natural history series Sept. 22-Oct. 6.
--And PBS' Fall Arts Festival, Fridays beginning Oct. 9, includes Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson, featuring Latino singers performing 16 hits such as "Billie Jean" and "I Want You Back"; Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat, starring Vanessa Williams and Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey); and a Great Performances special with Chita Rivera.