Live and Learn
Telling great stories is a WGBH hallmark. In the case of the ever-popular Antiques Roadshow, great personal stories serve as a touchstone for teaching and learning about art, antiques, and history. Viewers describe Roadshow's cross-country journey as both a guilty pleasure and "a terrific way to learn about America." This season, Antiques traveled to Hawaii, 5,000 miles from its WGBH Boston base, to visit a ukulele factory and recover an ancient umeke poi bowl. And the learning continues at Antiques Roadshow online, a 24/7 resource for all things antique and collectible. The secret to the series' success? Appraisers viewers trust, drawn from the world's leading auction houses, plus "guests who touch our hearts," says executive producer Marsha Bemko. A winning formula, she adds, that is "part education, part game show, and wholly accessible."
Today's Specials
In the WGBH lifestyle programming tradition that began with Julia Child and
French cuisine, Ming Tsai takes the confusion
out of fusion
cooking in Simply Ming. Another Boston-based
chef, Todd English, discovers his culinary muse on the road in
Food Trip with Todd English. The main ingredient in
both programs? Experts sharing skills and inspiration to help shape viewers'
culinary lives. Time-challenged gastronomes can download a Ming
vodcast, or watch him work his master-sauce magic anytime via WGBH On Demand,
one of six WGBH digital cable services.
Dear Diary
Looking at the world food-first, Gourmet's Diary of a
Foodie
combines "the wanderlust of a travel book with a culinary
anthropologist's quest for the . . . social history behind the marriage of
food and culture," says The Dallas-Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Expanding on lessons learned during the show's
travels, Gourmet editor
Ruth Reichl demonstrates how to
create culturally diverse
culinary adventure at home. As with another new hit show, Real
Simple, WGBH partnered with an estimable publication to bring its
expertise to a wider audience.
House Proud
Single women represent a fast-growing segment among new homeowners, so it
was only natural that This Old House took its talent
to East Boston in 2006 to restore a 1916 two-family home
owned by an aunt and niece. "I have modern sensibilities," homeowner Liz
Bagley told the team, "and my aunt prefers a more traditional approach.
Somehow, the House team
made it all work, and taught everybody a lot
along the way." Then, with global warming top of mind, the House crew
headed to Texas to transform a 1926 Austin bungalow into an eco-friendly,
21st-century home.
Garden Variety
TV's longest-running and still most trusted garden series is giving
amateurs and aficionados alike a new tool for their horticultural arsenals:
Victory Garden vodcasts. The one- to two-minute
online videos feature the savvy Garden team answering questions
culled from the series' viewer mailbag. Like WGBH's New Yankee
Workshop, which encourages woodworkers to get creative, The
Victory Garden inspires viewers to just do it. "Whether planting
your first tomato or perfecting your peonies," says Laurie Donnelly, WGBH
executive producer of lifestyle programming, "our user-friendly pros are right
there, showing viewers the way."
