Blue Ridge PBS - Featured Programs

Join us for these featured programs

	A Capitol Fourth
	American Masters "Garrison Keiller: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes"
	Ascent of Money
	History Detectives

	Masterpiece Mystery!
	NOVA ScienceNOW
	Ribbon of Sand
	This Old House Hour
	Time Team America

A Capitol Fourth

Saturday, July 4 at 8:00 & 9:30 p.m.

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Jimmy Smits returns to host the biggest and brightest birthday party in the country, featuring, for the first time ever, Barry Manilow, who will both open and close the broadcast with a stirring medley of hits and patriotic classics along with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Joining him are the "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin; international pop sensation Natasha Bedingfield; the Tony and Grammy Award-winning cast of Jersey Boys ; multi-Grammy Award nominee Michael Feinstein; and acclaimed classical pianist Andrew von Oeyen.

This star-studded cast will light up the stage on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol for the 29th annual A CAPITOL FOURTH celebration, featuring unrivaled musical performances with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of America's prince of pops Erich Kunzel. As a special treat for the entire family, Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and more of the SESAME STREET gang will be on hand to celebrate America's 233rd birthday. The Muppets will perform a medley of patriotic favorites, as well as iconic songs that everyone knows and loves from 40 years of the breakthrough children's television series, celebrating 40 years of fun and learning. The multi-award winning A CAPITOL FOURTH, featuring the most spectacular fireworks display anywhere in the nation, will be broadcast live in high definition before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, on National Public Radio and around the world to American troops on the American Forces Radio and Television Network.

Test your knowledge of the 4th, share what the 4th means to you, create your own virtual fireworks and more at the companion website: www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/

American Masters "Garrison Keiller: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes"

Wednesday, July 1 at 8:00 p.m.
Lake Wobegon - where the women are strong, the men are good looking and all the children are above average - has become America's collective hometown, visited weekly for the past 40 years on a fictional radio program that creates bona fide nostalgia. With his "Prairie Home Companion," Keillor became our national philosopher, filling the empty shoes of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, through his running commentary about the human condition and the social politic.

With biting wit, a quirky perspective and an uncanny ability to home in on the pulse of America, Keillor's themes and characters are somehow familiar to us all. For more than a year, AMERICAN MASTERS followed this great raconteur - and his motley crew of actors, musicians and technical staff - as he criss-crossed the country, broadcasting, recording and revealing himself.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/

Ascent of Money

Wednesdays, July 8-29 at 9:00 p.m.
In this four-part series, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson delves deep into how the complex system of global finance evolved over the centuries, how money has shaped the course of human affairs and how the mechanics of this economic system work to create seemingly unlimited wealth - or catastrophic loss.

July 8 - "From Bullion to Bubbles"
Niall Ferguson examines how money evolved from a crude system of coins to a complex global financial system of credit, treasury bonds, hedge funds and credit default swaps that have shaped the course of human history.
July 15 - "Bonds of War"
Ferguson outlines the close relationship between money and war.
July 22 - "Risky Business"
Ferguson traces the role of risk in the creation of both enormous wealth and catastrophic economic fallout.
July 29 - "Planet Finance"
Ferguson examines the systems of credit, insurance, bond trading and stock markets that have transcended all national boundaries to create a truly global economic system, opening the door to unprecedented growth, but also worldwide instability in the event of one nation's downturn.

History Detectives

Mondays at 9:00 p.m.
America's top gumshoes are back to prove once again that an object found in an attic or backyard might be anything but ordinary. Wesley Cowan, independent appraiser and auctioneer; Gwendolyn Wright, historian and professor of architecture, Columbia University; Elyse Luray, independent appraiser and expert in art history; and Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania leave no stone unturned as they travel around the country to explore the stories behind local folklore, prominent figures and family legends. Dr. Eduardo Pagan, professor of history and American studies at Arizona State University, has signed on as guest co-host for the series' seventh season.

July 6 - A gun that may have belonged to a member of Al Capone's gang; a letter allegedly written by John Wilkes Booth's father; and a device meant to guard against grave robbers.
July 13 - A child who may have been exhibited in an incubator at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair; an early movie mogul's dramatic rise and fall; and a controversial design woven into a Navajo rug.
July 20 - A recording that may have played a part in the World War II treason trial of Tokyo Rose; a photo ostensibly of Crazy Horse; the poignant diary of a World War II pilot.
July 27 - A fragment that may been a piece of Amelia Earhart's plane; a letter from President Millard Fillmore commuting the death sentence of a Native American; a Colorado home whose supports may have been constructed from a railroad boxcar.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/

Masterpiece Mystery!

Sundays at 9:00 p.m.
MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! continues to bring audiences the best in sleuthing adventures this summer when Miss Marple return to PBS . Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/

Decades after writer Agatha Christie's death (1976), Miss Marple remains one of her most enduring fictional characters, appearing not only in still-in-print collections, but in numerous films and television programs based on her books and short stories. The unlikely detective -the elderly spinster Miss Marple brandishing her knitting needles - is one of literature's most popular creations.

July 5 - "Miss Marple 'A Pocket Full of Rye'"
A string of murders is committed by a killer who seems obsessed with the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Even Miss Marple's former housekeeper falls victim.
July 12 - "Miss Marple 'Murder Is Easy'"
A woman on a train tells Miss Marple about a series of murders in her village. When the woman later falls to her death, Miss Marple vows to get to the bottom of the string of "accidents."
July 19 - "Miss Marple 'They Do It With Mirrors'"
Miss Marple witnesses the confusion when the power goes out during rehearsal for an amateur show and a murder takes place elsewhere in the house.
July 26 - "Miss Marple 'They Do It With Mirrors'"
Miss Marple witnesses the confusion when the power goes out during rehearsal for an amateur show and a murder takes place elsewhere in the house.

NOVA ScienceNOW

Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m.
PBS' fast-paced science magazine series NOVA scienceNOW returns to PBS in summer 2009 with a new, 10-week season full of fresh new perspectives, fascinating scientists, cutting-edge innovations and provocative stories from the frontlines of science, technology and medicine. Hosted by renowned author and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the series also introduces a new correspondent, Ziya Tong, former host and producer of WIRED SCIENCE.

July 7 - The Kepler telescope; discovering genes for Alzheimer's and autism; using computers to authenticate paintings; profile of Maydianne Andrade
July 14 - Two drugs that may aid kids with muscular dystrophy; demise of the dinosaurs; profile of Franklin Chang-Diaz; northern lights.
July 21 - The science behind our sense of taste; carbon sequestration; evolutionary roots of human language; profile of medical engineer Sangeeta Bhatia.
July 28 - Rockets to the moon; the oldest known organic molecules on earth; neuronal processes that lead to producing sound; profile of Lonnie Thompson

Ribbon of Sand

Sunday, July 5 at 7:30 p.m. and July 1 at 10:30 p.m.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina are a slim and moving line of sand in the open Atlantic. Many travelers think they know these islands, but south of Ocracoke Inlet there rises a luminous bar of sand 60 miles in extent, with no roads, no bridges and no hotels. These are the wild beaches of Cape Lookout - one of the few remaining natural barrier islands in the world.

At once an exaltation and elegy, RIBBON OF SAND profiles this seascape and the transitory islands that are doomed to disappear. Meryl Streep reads excerpts from Rachel Carson's writings.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/ribbonofsand/

This Old House Hour

Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.
America's favorite home improvement series, the Emmy Award-winning THIS OLD HOUSE, airs in the first half of the hour.

In the second half-hour, ASK THIS OLD HOUSE, host Kevin O'Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey and landscape contractor Roger Cook address specific, viewer-driven home maintenance and repair questions.

Time Team America

Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. starting July 8
Part extreme adventure, part hard science, and part reality show, TIME TEAM AMERICA takes viewers deep into the trenches of America's most intriguing archaeological sites. In each episode, the show's team of top scientists has just three days to uncover the buried secrets of their assigned dig. Every hour counts as they piece together the past using the latest technology, decades of combined experience and their own sharp wits. Far from the comfort of a science lab, TIME TEAM AMERICA faces searing heat, driving rain, alligator-infested swamps, frayed nerves and the inevitable technical setbacks. Through it all, the audience peers over the shoulders of diggers at work, eavesdrops on intense conversations between experts and shares the rush of discovery as artifacts emerge from the ground.

Visit the companion website at www.pbs.org/opb/timeteam/

July 8 - "Fort Raleigh, North Carolina"
Untangle the mystery of the first English settlement in America, where 116 settlers vanished from Roanoke Island more than 400 years ago.
July 15 - "Topper, South Carolina"
Wade into the alligator swamps of South Carolina to search for evidence of North America's first human inhabitants.
July 22 - "New Philadelphia, Illinois"
Walk the time-buried streets of the first American town founded by former slaves, and go in search of the schoolhouse where the town's children could learn in freedom.
July 29 - "Range Creek, Utah"
Venture into remote red-rock canyons where the Fremont Indians lived 1,000 years ago in a rugged, unforgiving landscape.

For more program information visit our Programs A-Z page
and see clips from your favorite PBS programs.

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June July

Also available are the Blue Ridge PBS Daytime Schedules in an Adobe PDF File.

June July

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