As others scramble, PBS plans a busy fall

As the upcoming TV season crumbles, PBS becomes more important.
The network has just released its plans for the fall. It has lots of Sunday dramas, a string of Friday profiles, a speck of music and, as usual, loads of non-fiction.
That includes a strong Latino emphasis, plus subjects ranging from buffalo (shown here) to Elon Musk, from nature to reflections on integration, busing and women’s sports.
This happens while the commercial networks adjust to the writers’ and actors’ strikes. ABC and Fox have set line-ups filled with reality shows, plus some sports and Sunday cartoons; CBS and NBC are expected to take similar steps.
That moves some of the focus to PBS: Most of its line-up is non-fiction, except for the dramas, which have already been filmed, mostly in England. Here’s a sampling:
DRAMAS
— Three mystery series go back-to-back, starting Sept. 3. It will be “Professor T” at 8 p.m., “Unforgotten” at 9 and “Van der Valk” at 10.
— On Oct. 15, another mystery series (“Annika”) is at 10, preceded at 9 by the second season of “World on Fire,” a sweeping tale set against World War II.
— “Hotel Portofino” also has new episodes ready, waiting for an airdate. It’s set in an Italian resort hotel catering to the British in the 1930s, as Fascism rises.
“AMERICAN MASTERS” PROFILES
— This series (9 p.m. Fridays) usually focuses on entertainers, but it will open the season with three disrupters – Bella Abzug on Sept. 8, Jerry Brown on Sept. 15 and lawyer Floyd Abrams on Sept. 22.
— It returns to performers on Oct. 6, with drummer Max Roach.
LATINO
— John Leguizamo is the actor/comedian whose one-man show, “Latino History for Morons,” was nominated for a Tony. Now he travels through the U.S. and Mexico to talk about heroes, known and unknown. That’s 9 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 19.
— Surrounding that are other documentaries. One, at 10 p.m. Sept. 18, views a rodeo family, returning to Mexico; another, at 10 p.m. Sept. 19, traces a young, incarcerated immigrant.
— The Hispanic Heritage Awards will be 9 p.m. on Sept. 29, followed by “Songs for Cesar,” which views the role of music and the arts in Cesar Chavez’s farm-workers’ movement.
MUSIC
— This will be relatively scarce in the fall until Oct. 13, when “Next at the Kennedy Center” returns. Robert Glasper performs pieces from his “Black Radio” album a decade ago and reflects on its impact.
— “Message in a Bottle,” at 9 p.m. Nov. 3, is a dance and theater performance, to the music of Sting.
OUTDOORS
— “America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston” returns Sept. 6. At 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Thurston ranges from mountain bikers in the Ozarks to biologists saving snapping turtles in the Suwanee River.
— Fresh from “Human Footprint” this summer, Shane Campbell-Staton has “Evolution Earth,” viewing animals’ ability to fit the planet’s demands. That’s also on Wednesdays, starting Sept 6; it’s at 10 p.m.
— “Nova” opens its season at 9 p.m. Oct. 4 with “Ancient Earth,” a high-tech creation of events in the billions of years before man arrived.
— “The American Buffalo” debuts at 8 p.m. Oct. 16. It’s a two-night, four-hour.
— “Nature” starts its season at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 with a look at a Tasmanian man preserving the platypus. It follows the next week with start of a four-part underseas documentary.
MUCH MORE
— Documentaries continue this fall on “POV” (10 p.m. Mondays). Also, “Frontline” plans ones on Sept. 5 (two prison stories), Oct. 10 (Musk’s Twitter takeover) and Nov. 21 (20 days in a shelled Ukrainian city).
— “American Experience” views civil-rights controversy in the North (the 1974 Boston busing protests, Sept. 11) and South (one Mississippi town’s reluctant 1970 school integration, Sept. 12).
— “Antiques Roadshow” returns at 8 p.m. Oct. 2. It starts by looking back at past episodes and pondering how prices have changed. It also has a new, Halloween-themed episode on Oct. 30.
— “Secrets of the Dead” starts its season at 10 p.m. Oct. 11, with a bizarre mystery – a 4th-century basilica, discovered at the bottom of a Turkish lake.
— “Native America” will have its second season at 9 p.m. on four Tuesdays, starting Oct. 24.
— And “Groundbreaders” is 8-10 p.m. Nov. 21, viewing a half-century of change in women’s sports.