PBS ... I Love You

I grew up watching Sesame Street & The Electric Company. I remember Bob Ross painting “happy little trees” and seeing Jerry Jeff Walker on Austin City Limits. Back in those days, when there were only four channels, I remember my very favorite being the one with a degree of static that I would not be able to endure today … PBS.

As a teenager, I remember a local cooking show, my first glimpse at homosexuality, though I did not know it at the time. One of the men was fat and the other one was thin and they had a “kitchen witch” that flew in with a tip from time to time, they both spoke with a deep southern drawl and slapped at each other with dishtowels. There was also the Cajun cook with his “un-yawn” (onion), who achieved quite a bit of fame pre-Food Network. And, lest we forget, the indomitable, Julia Child, whose voice rings clear in my ears to this day and to whom I silently pay tribute each and every time I open a bottle of wine.

As a history teacher, I found PBS.org, to be one of my favorite sources for information and for interactive elements that could be found nowhere else. If you’ve ever felt that the dimensions of PBS were in any way less than that of the Discovery or History Channels, you have obviously not taken advantage of their website. One of my students’ favorites was an interactive page that allowed you to create and detonate various atomic weapons. The students could choose particular places, like the University of North Carolina (because, clearly, they were all Duke fans) or my house. Upon detonation, the map would fill with colors that demonstrated annihilation, fall-out, and so on. PBS made that lesson and its lasting impression possible.

Recently, two of my favorites have been American Experience ~ Fatal Flood, a chronicle of blues music growing out of the Mississippi delta and American Masters ~ Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, not to mention, Bill Nye the Science Guy, the long-lived Masterpiece Theater, and Antiques Roadshow. Last night, in a fit of insomnia and overwhelmed by the sheer number of infomercials that can run at once on cable television, I landed softly on Great Performances, "Cyrano de Bergerac".

PBS is a living thing … always growing, always changing. It’s not just a television line-up for lefties. PBS offers a cutting edge glimpse into many fields of science and delivers a poignant view of current events, politics, and history. The website, as I’ve said before, offers a range of ideas and images that are unsurpassed. You can order dvd’s, download to your ipod, and find local listings there … it truly offers you the world at your fingertips and on your time.

Thank you PBS, old friend, for always being there, for showing me parts of the world that I will never see and for giving me a birds eye view of this country's history. I am forever grateful for all you’ve shared with me.