Stories

She went from village hall to Sting/hip hop impact

Like many small-town kids, Kate Prince dabbled in dance and music.
In a village hall in England, she tried ballet and tap and modern dance. In her family’s garage, she played an electric keyboard, mastering a Sting song at 11.
“‘Every Breath You Take’ is the first song I learned to play fairly well,” she said, in a Zoom press conference with Sting.
Lots of kids might try such things, but Prince never let up. Now, 38 years later, PBS has “Message in a Bottle” (shownhere) her dance piece done to the music of Sting. That’s 9 p.m. Nov. 3 on “Great Performances,” which a week earlier (Oct. 27) has a more-traditional dance concert by the New York City Ballet. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 27, 2023

Stories

A gilded age adds glitter and anger

When you call a show “The Gilded Age,” you sort of set expectations.
The first season (shown here) was lush; as the second one starts (9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, on HBO), those expectations are raised. “It’s ‘How do you get bigger?’” Bob Shaw, the production designer, said in a virtual press forum.
Julian Fellowes, the show’s creator and producer, had an answer: You start the story on Easter Sunday.
After a quiky opening – lots of bonnets coming out of boxes and onto carefully coiffed heads – we see masses stroll down two avenues to the church. Kasia Walicka Maimone, the costume designer, recalls her reaction: “‘Oh my God, Julian is putting us through this incredible exercise.’” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 21, 2023

Stories

He’s ranged from the Navajo Nation to Mars

Aaron Yazzie’s life juggles the old and the new.
We’re talking very old. He grew up in the Navajo Nation, which his ancestors may have reached six centuries ago.
And very new. He designed key elements of the rover that grabs samples on Mars.
“Mars looks exactly like the Navajo Nation,” Yazzie (shown here) said. “When I was growing up, just playing in those mesas with my cousins and my brothers, I … was sort of creating this muscle memory for when I eventually got to NASA.”
Now he’s featured in the opener (9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24) of the second season of PBS’ “Native America.” The four episodes feature: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 20, 2023

Stories

Buffalo story is filled with complicated humans

A neon sign in Ken Burns’ editing room sums things up with two words: “It’s complicated.”
Life is, people are, history is. Burns’ latest documentary – “The American Buffao,” at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 16-17), rerunning at 10 p.m. both days – is filled with complicated souls.
On one level, Burns said, this is straightforward. “It is an unmitigated tragedy …. You watch a species that numbered perhaps as many as 50 or 60 million” dwindle at one point to “under a thousand.” At the same time, the native Americans, who had co-existed with those buffalo for centuries, also declined.
But alongside that are all the rich complications of human behavior. Consider: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 11, 2023

Stories

Disney turns 100, via its semi-eternal TV show

A century ago, a young artist was in deep money trouble. He would be there often.
Walt Disney was 21 when his Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt. He moved to Los Angeles, where his brother Roy – older (30) and wiser in the ways of money – lived. On Oct. 16, 1923, they officially created what was then called the Disney Brothers Studio. Now that’s being noted twice:
— On Sunday (Oct. 15), Kelly Ripa hosts a “Wonderful World of Disney” celebration, at 8 p.m. on Disney-owned ABC. It includes the 2021 film “Encanto” and a new cartoon, “Once Upon a Studio.”
— On Monday (the studio’s 100th anniversary), Disney+ debuts a restored version of the 1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (shown here), the first feature-length, animated movie in full sound and color. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 11, 2023

Stories

From London confinement to coastal splendor

Louisa Binder’s life did an instant, 180-degree flip.
This was pandemic time, when London was finishing its third lockdown. “I had been stuck in my flat, by myself,” she recalled.
Then came the news: She had a lead role as Constance (shown here) in “Hotel Portofino,” the lush period-piece drama. Soon, she was going from urban confinement to splendor on the Croatian coast.
“It was breathtaking,” Binder said. “I get off the plane and it’s sunny and the sea is turquoise.” This was the proper way to start a professional acting career.
Now the actors have filmed three six-episode seasons. The second one starts at 8 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 15) on PBS, juggling moments that are brash soap opera and serious historical drama. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 8, 2023

Stories

An old master brings “Frasier” back

Life has a special place for the masters of the old arts.
There are the blacksmiths, the locksmiths, the whatever-smiths. There are the keepers of native tongues and the cousins who memorized grandma’s recipes. And there’s James Burrows.
At 82, he retains a special skill – directing situation comedies that are filmed before a studio audience. We’ll see that when the first two episodes of the “Frasier” revival (shown here) debut Thursday (Oct. 12) on Paramount+, then rerun at 9:15 p.m. Oct. 17 on CBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 7, 2023

Stories

An “Indian auntie” caterer solves crimes

Rippling through “Mrs. Sidhu Investigates” (shown here), the new streaming series, is the notion of “Indian aunties.”
These aren’t the family-tree aunts; you usually only get a few of those. They’re the it-takes-a-village type; Suk Pannu, the “Sidhu” creator, figures he had dozens.
“They gave us lots of love and lots of food,” he said. “They knew what we were up to, before we did.”
And, he figured, they could probably be great crimesolvers. So he created Mrs. Sidhu, a skilled caterer. That brings her in contact with the higher-ups, who seem to be murder-prone. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 4, 2023

Stories

Late shows return … with a lot to talk about

The late-night TV world boomed back Monday and everyone seemed excited to be there.
How excited? “More excited than the guy who went to see ‘Beetlejuice’ with Lauren Boebert,” Jimmy Fallon said. “More excited than the Jets fans for the first three plays of the season.”
Yes, they had a lot to talk about.
Boebert (a congresswoman from Colorado) and her guy were ejected from a theater, after being accused of vaping, groping and yelling. Jets fans were giddy until their new quarterback was injured on the third play. There was much more.
At 6:17 a.m. Monday, Jimmy Kimmel (shown here) said, one of his writers received this text from his mother: “Please don’t make tonight’s monologue all about Trump.” Kimmel shared that text with the audience and then … well, had a long chunk of the monolog that was all about Trump. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 3, 2023

Stories

She found a fictional world of crime, a real world of horses

For a young actress in her first big role, this was a new world.
Emma Naomi (shown here with Ben Miller) was in Belgium to co-star in “Professor T,” the mystery series that airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on PBS. What struck her about the place?
“The horses,” she said. “There are horses everywhere.”
She’s a city kid who grew up in London, the daughter of two nurses. For “T,” she was often living in Antwerp, which seemed familiar enough; “it’s a fashion capital, lots of coffee shops.” Still, many of the locations took her into the horse-filled countryside. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 27, 2023