www.whyville.net Dec 6, 2001 Weekly Issue



MediaWiz
Staff Writer

What's On!

Users' Rating
Rate this article
 
FRONT PAGE
CREATIVE WRITING
SCIENCE
HOT TOPICS
POLITICS
HEALTH
PANDEMIC

What's On!


MediaWiz
Times Writer

Watch the shows and let me know what you think!
Email me, the MediaWiz of Whyville!

Friday, December 7
    Hell in the Pacific

Saturday, December 8
    The Night They Saved Christmas

Sunday, December 9
    CBS News Sunday Morning
    SuperCroc
    Walking With Prehistoric Beasts

Monday, December 10
    Quicksand
    Into the Arms of Strangers

Tuesday, December 11
    The Methuselah Tree

Wednesday, December 12
    Robotica 2: Episode 1
    Women Pharaohs
    48 Hours: Addicted

Thursday, December 13
    Promises

Friday, December 7

"Hell In the Pacific" (The Learning Channel, 9-11pm E/P) This documentary, airing on the 60th anniversary of the America's entry into WWII, presents a detailed look at Japanese expansionism which preceded that war in the Pacific, and the fierce Allied response which ended in Japan's defeat. Veterans -- men and women -- on all sides are interviewed on camera, mixed in with news footage from 60 years ago. These people, now elderly, were not much older that Whyvillians are now when they went through what you'll hear them describing. (Note: A related program, "Beyond The Movie: Pearl Harbor" airs Saturday, December 9 on the National Geographic Channel from 3-4pm ET noon-1pm PT, looking at the facts of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and comparing them to what's depicted in the recent historical action movie.)

Saturday, December 8

"The Night They Saved Christmas" (Hallmark Channel, 9-11pm E/P) This movie combines environmental science, Alaskan politics, feminism and problems affecting Santa's Workshop. What holds it together is the performance of comedian Art Carney as Santa fighting an oil exploration company which wants to drill near the North Pole. He teams with an eco-conscious woman and her children to convince her husband, who works for the drillers, to stay clear of the area. (Actually, tonight's the eve of Hannukah; an inspirational program of interest to young Jewish viewers, and everyone else, "Into The Arms Of Strangers" will be aired on Sunday, December 10th -- see description below.)

Sunday, December 9

This always well done magazine show has a profile of Dean Kamen, the inventor of that "personal transport technology" (sort of a super-scooter) that's been in the news. There's also a behind-the scenes report on the Radio City Rockettes, but to get that you'll have to sit through a report on how presidential "approval-rate" polls work.

"SuperCroc" (NBC, 7-8pm E/P) In this documentary, paleontogist Dr. Paul Sereno unearths fossil remains of an ancient crocodile the length of a city bus. Then, with National Geographic scientist Dr. Brady Barr, he embarks on a round-the-world trek to visit exotic wild crocodile habitats in quest of ideas about how to turn his fossil parts into a life-sized re-creation. There's lots about this discovery and expedition features at www.nationalgeographic.com.

"Walking With Prehistoric Beasts" (Discovery Channel, 7-10pm E/P) For those who can't get enough of those computer generated shows that take us back -- up close and personal -- to the time of the dinosaurs, here's a 3-hour mini-series filled with rhino-sized wolves, six-foot tall birds and miniature horses the size of a cat. There will also be saber-toothed tigers, wooly mammoths and a huge creature 4 times the size of an elephant, making it the largest mammal in history.

Monday, December 10

"Quicksand" (National Geographic Channel, 4-5pm ET 1-2pm PT) This documentary uses eyewitness accounts to explain a natural phenomenon that threatens lives in coastal flats, beaches and mountain spillways ranging in location from Ireland to Alaska.

"Into The Arms Of Strangers" (HBO, 5-7pm ET, 8-10pm E/P -- note the reversal of the usual time slots. Rated: PG13) This documentary, winner of the 2000 Academy Award, tells the stories of 12 Jewish children saved from the Holocaust through a humanitarian project conducted by Britain in 1938. Spirited away from Nazi rule in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia at a very young age before WWII broke out, the majority of the eventual 10,000 children rescued never saw their parents again. Find out more at www.intothearmsofstrangers.com.

Tuesday, December 11

"The Methuselah Tree" (PBS, 8-9pm E/P) This Nova documentary is about a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California; this tree is the world's oldest-known living organism, surpassing by nineteen centuries the oldest known Giant Sequoia. What if this strangely shaped conifer (which took root when the Great Pyramids were going up) could talk? In a neat twist, Nova has asked poet Roger McGough to pen the tree's thoughts. Listen to its description of its hardest year, when a volcanic eruption near the Mediterranean island of Santorini in 1628 sent a thick veil of dust around the world blocking sunlight for months -- causing the tree to grow a jagged black ring of dead cells -- instead of growth cells.

Wednesday, December 12

"Robotica 2: Episode 1" (The Learning Channel, 8-9pm E/P) This documentary series follows several teams of builders of robots from the concept and assembly to a final competition, focussing on engineering skill and competitive spirit. In each episode, the robots try to disable one another -- with the surviving machines going on to compete in successive weeks.

"Women Pharaohs" (Discovery Channel, 9-10pm E/P) This archaeology documentary describes recently excavated tombs and temples near Karnak and Thebes in Egypt. Indications are that for a period of 400 years a religious movement of antiquity devoted to The God Wives of Amun supported the reigns of Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut, usurping the supremacy of male Pharaohs. There's an informative website about Hatshepsut, a rather controversial personality even to this day, at http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Africa/Hatshepsut.html.

"48 Hours: Addicted" (CBS, 10-11pm E/P) This documentary, produced in cooperation with MTV, describes the problem of misuse of a popular prescription painkiller drug called OxyContin. A companion broadcast, "True Life: I'm Hooked on OxyContin" airs on MTV Thursday, December 13, from 10-11 p.m. E/P

Thursday, December 13

"Promises" (PBS, 9-10:30pm E/P) This documentary looks at the Middle East conflict through the eyes of seven Israeli and Palestinian children between the ages of 8 and 13. Living only 20 minutes apart, they rarely have a reason or opportunity to meet their peers of the other nationality. The film does not focus on news or current events but rather the children's detailed accounts of their experiences.

 

 

  Back to front page


times@whyville.net
871