August/ September Sleeper Picks
Our Chief Programming Officer, Jim Wiener, has marked his calendar for these sleeper picks in August and September. These are some of the ones you won’t want to miss out on!
Across the Pacific
Saturday, August 15, at 8pm on ThinkTV14
Saturday, August 22, at 8pm on ThinkTV14.2
Four aviation pioneers — Charles Lindbergh, airline executive Juan Trippe, airplane builder Igor Sikorsky and radio engineer Hugo Leuteritz — joined forces to build an airline to South America and then across the Pacific. Note that the final chapter airs on 14.2 since 14.1 will be airing membership drive programming.
Harbor from the Holocaust
Tuesday, September 8, at 10pm on CET and ThinkTV16
Follow the little known story of how some 20,000 Jews who fled Germany in the 1930s ended up living in Shanghai through World War II. Many Jewish merchants traded in Chinese ports going back a century and thousands immigrated following the Russian Revolution in 1917…
Would this account for the American tradition of many Jewish families going out to eat at Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day, or were the Chinese restaurants the only ones open?
Hacking Your Mind
Wednesday, September 16, at 10pm on CET and ThinkTV16
Wednesday, September 23, at 10pm on CET and ThinkTV16
Wednesday, September 30, at 10pm on CET and ThinkTV16
This four-part series about the mind shows how it’s easy for social media companies, politicians and marketers to hack your decision making system that usually runs on auto-pilot.
Man, that that sentence alone should just blow your mind. At the very least, you should separate your thumb and fingers and mouth a silent explosion. Just don’t go to bed, wake up your spouse and start babbling about what you saw. Don’t even mention it the next day until they have had coffee.
Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail
Wednesday, September 15, at 9pm on ThinkTV14
Wednesday, September 22, at 9pm on ThinkTV14
Wednesday, September 29, at 9pm on ThinkTV14
Scotland’s bad boy comedian/actor loves to travel his adopted country of America. Here he traces the history of Scots in America, and visits such landmarks as Ellis Island, the site of Woodstork and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
Building the American Dream
Tuesday, September 15, at 10pm on CET and ThinkTV16
Aging baby boomers may remember Harvest of Shame, a landmark CBS documentary in 1960 narrated by Edward R. Murrow. It was all about migrant workers exploited to pick American crops.
Today, that exploitation has extended beyond the fields to the construction trades. Across Texas, there is a building boom that is fueled by immigrant construction workers – their pay is substandard and working conditions are often dangerous. This airs on the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Carol Burnett Show – Carol’s Favorites
Starts Saturday, September 19, at 8pm on CET
No collection of show snippets here – these are full-length shows that aired Saturday nights from the late ‘60s- early ‘80s that Carol Burnett picked as her favorites. So, not only are we getting the classic comedy sketches, but also time capsule curios like Helen Reddy in bell-bottoms singing “Angie Baby,” Carol talking with her audience or teaming up with Ethel Merman on a number and even the Jackson 5 when Michael was knee-high!
VOCES on PBS: Porvenir, Texas
Tuesday, September 22, at 11pm on ThinkTV16
Porvenir, Texas is about a town that no longer exists. In 1918, 15 Hispanic villagers were executed and the rest driven away as reprisals over Pancho Villa’s incursions into Texas.
VOCES on PBS: The Pushouts
Wednesday, September 23, at 11pm on ThinkTV16
The Pushouts is about the school-to-prison pipeline, and one man’s fight against schools that push out students for reasons beyond their control.
VOCES on PBS: Adios Amor – The Search for Maria Moreno
Thursday, September 24, at 11pm on ThinkTV16
Adios Amor – The Search for Maria Moreno is about Maria Moreno, a migrant mother of 12 and an outspoken advocate for farm worker’s rights.
Library of Congress National Book Festival
Sunday, September 27, at 6pm on CET and ThinkTV16
The festival that brings together dozens of authors and thousands of readers has a theme this year of “American Ingenuity.” No kidding, since this year’s show is a reimagined virtual festival. Talk about a quick turnaround — this airs as the festival winds down that very week.
