By John Aloysius Farrell
The New York Times has an interesting discussion going on: “Is PBS Still Necessary?”
I won’t minimize the improvement of broadcast and commercial television in the last few years. Shows like Deadwood and The Tudors are fun, and well-written dramas. And I am looking forward to John Adams, if wondering how Paul Giamatti is going to pull it off.
(Not since Martin Sheen did Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg has there been such…er…intriguing… casting. At least Giamatti won’t have to labor with a silly fake beard.)
But there is this thing called…reality. As the major news organizations absent the field in favor of smiley chit chat, Frontline is a drink of cool water.
More importantly, PBS is the main and best venue for history on television. And not just the superb Ken Burns. (And not just television. The web site for The American Experience offers transcripts, original documents, bibliographies, interviews with historians and other guides for its well-crafted episodes. It’s the first place I go when starting a new project.)
The Civil War historian Shelby Foote said, “History is the greatest dramatist.” But that view is not widely shared in Hollywood. So where would we find compelling and educational productions, in such number, without public support?
Let’s put aside, for the moment, the average middle school or high school – or even college student – in Baltimore, Maryland or Arlington, Texas, looking for a gateway to the Scopes Monkey Trial, or the life of Andrew Carnegie, or the Reagan presidency, and finding it on PBS.
At a moment when the number of foreign-born Americans is reaching unprecedented highs, and the assimilation of immigrants is again a challenge, America’s history is a critical glue. It reminds us who we are, and what we believe, and what it has cost, and why.
Does PBS need a shot of invigorating youth? Sure. Like every American institution, it is no doubt dominated by a certain generation, of great numbers, born in the years after World War II. But I’ll bet there are a lot of young film editors, directors, web designers and assistant producers learning the craft for Frontline and other PBS shows, ready to replace we boomers. Time will take care of the rest.
