Let's Be PBS

I'm "partly".

I'm the Sunday lineup:

Nature: The Amazon Rainforest

Cook's Country From America's Test Kitchen

A showing of Leontyne Price's last performance of Aida

Henry James: A Portrait

Masterpiece Theatre

American Masters: Dick Cavett and Groucho Marx

I’m DVDs and I can be yours for a small donation.

I'm Alistair Cooke

I'm Arthur

I'm LuEsther T. Mertz.

And now, let’s go behind the scenes of All Creatures Great and Small. For three hours!

I'm Saturday Night at the Movies, we show classics, foreign, arthouse, and Merchant Ivory-esque films

I'm Live from Lincoln Center!

I'm American Masters, featuring somebody whose name you've heard but are only vaguely aware of.

I'm Rick Steves, and I have no idea why you're watching me tool around Europe endlessly for 6 hours every Saturday.

I'm Rick Steves' weed.

I'm Antiques Roadshow, featuring hillbillies trying to sell PeePaw's old spitoon and then being shocked that it isn't worth the thousands of dollars they'd hoped for.

And I'm on for four hours tonight!

I'm Ken Burns.

I'm veneer

I'm Wishbone, the sweet little dog that introduced kids to classic literature and made it fun.

I'm Thomas the Train (and Alec Baldwin).

I'm Viking River Cruises.

[quote] I'm Viking River Cruises.

Voted number 1 in rivers and oceans!

I'm Frasier Crane

I'm the NOVA coda theme!

I’m Keeping Up Appearances playing Sunday afternoon in the nineties.

I know for a fact I wasn’t the only bored teenage boy who became hooked for life on the show as a result.

NATURE theme song!

I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr, host of the genealogy show Finding Your Roots. White celebs, best prepare yourselves -- if there's a slave-owner in your family tree, I WILL find him!

And when I do, you'd best react like Anderson Cooper:

I'm Betty White:

I’m the excess of programs shot on videotape.

I’m the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

I'm the Pennsylvania Polka.

R25 Thank you, that was hilarious!

I'm Sir David Attenborough

I'm cocktease "Are You Being Served," who only shows up when PBS wants our money.

I'm that pledge drive cooking show where the older host stifles a laugh when he his guest says, "The only hard part is cutting the cheese."

I'm the overpriced DVD "donation to PBS" followed by a ton of junk mail.

Brought to you in PART by viewers like you.

I'm Lambchop and this is Lambchop's Play Along. I wish this bitch would get her hand out of my ass.

I'm The Making of the Three Tenors, narrated by Roger Moore

I'm The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 50 Years of Magic

Hosted by ANGELA LANSBURY

I'm Jim Lehrer and I honestly and fairly moderated the 2012 Presidential Debate.

I let them talk and explain themselves. Both President Obama and Governor Romney were intelligent, courteous, and prepared.

[quote]I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr, host of the genealogy show Finding Your Roots. White celebs, best prepare yourselves -- if there's a slave-owner in your family tree, I WILL find him!

And you will feel personally responsible, OR ELSE. Even though it was 200 years ago. Even though it was a tenth cousin five times removed. You'd better put on a show of guilt as if you owned the damn slaves yourself.

I'm Evening At Pops, which finally ceased production when the last Evening At Pops viewer in the US finally kicked the bucket at age 105.

R39 Im that never happens if you actually watch the Henry Louis Gate show and PBS.

I'm r41 and I'm a holier than thou wet blanket killjoy on a fun thread.

I'm the two-part, four hour long American Experience about some event/person/conflict/cultural/political issue in American history that neither you nor anyone you have ever known in your entire life has ever heard of.

R27, don’t forget us! We ponied up some major bucks too.

I’m the Frugal Gourmet.

Known by my street name, The Cheap Cunt.

I'm John D. MacArthur and let me tell you Catherine was a fucking ball busting cunt. I only set up the foundation to keep her busy with something so she could shut her fat trap and I could sneak off and fuck my mistresses.

I'm the incessant vocal fry on The PBS News Hour, often accompanied by uptalk.

I'm Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet. Do you like gladiator movies? Do you ever hang around the gymnasium?

[quote] I’m the Frugal Gourmet. Known by my street name, The Cheap Cunt.

Also known as the PedoChef.

I'm Gwen Ifill and I could NEVER find myself the right man...

R42 I sure am. Check my credentials.

I'm "People Near Here"

r51 blocked.

We’re (in spirit still, albeit no longer on-air) “Upstairs, Downstairs”!

I’m Judy Woodruff. Some people still confuse me with Jessica Savitch even though she’s been dead for over 40 years.

I'm Live From the Metropolitan Opera's Renee Fleming, conducting backstage interviews with the principals between acts as if they just stepped off the football field at half-time.

I'm Pat Loud, ordering my cheating husband to get the fuck out of my house as millions watched.

^^with a cig in hand and half drunk in the middle of the afternoon.

R54, I'm the Millennial-friendly update of Upstairs, Downstairs. This time I'm called Downton Abbey.

I'm 'Mystery!' with title art by Edward Gorey and an intro by Vincent Price (and a WGBH Boston logo too!).

(Dig the sound of the title gravestone falling to pieces :D)

r59 And I'm the *actual millennial-friendly update of Upstairs, Downstairs that no one asked for or watched.

(It picks up 10 years after the end of the original series -- do they really expect us to believe that Rose is only 45?!)

I’m Washington Week, which Robert Costa used as a stepping stone job until he could lose enough weight to get hired as on-air talent by one of the big three networks.

I'm Andrea Mitchell and mistake me for Judy Woodruff

I'm Lesley Stahl and people don't mistake me for Judy Woodruff, but they think 60 Minutes is on PBS

I'm Elmo's hostile takeover of Sesame Street.

I’m the hair and makeup budget for the PBS Newshour. I am a quarter of what CBS spends on Leslie Stahl’s wigs alone.

I'm Laura Linney and this is Masterpiece Classic.

*cue Downton Abbey theme music*

I'm convinced that Judy Woodruff and Lesley Stahl are the same person.

I'm...Lillie.

Masterpiece Theatre is made possible by a grant from Mobil corporation who invites you to join with them in supporting your local public television station.

I'm Alan Cumming's drunken red face for Masterpiece.

I'm the Friday Film, the six hour version of Little Dorrit starring Alec Guinness and Derek Jacobi.

Also starring Eleanor Bron, Roshan Seth, Cyril Cusack, Miriam Margolyes, and Sir Robert Morley

Hosted by Russell Baker

I'm John McLaughlin....buhhh-byyyee

I'm The Duchess of Duke Street

I’m the programming about parks you didn’t even know about.

I’m the British Invasion! Who are all these fucking geezers who can’t sing??

I'm Marilyn McCoo and you're going to love this 5-disc Motown flashback package when you donate $199.95!

I'm one of The Two Ronnies...

I'm still doing the money grab from time to time. Fine, just bring me vintage rock docs.

I’m the person calling into the fund-raising telethon during a break from a concert from a band of my youth telling the phone bank person, “Thank you for finally playing some good music!” It’s the same sentence no matter the age group.

I'm the theme to 3-2-1 Contact

I’m locally produced current events show focusing on African American issues. My audience is measured in the dozens.

I’m “In The Life,” a low-budget weekly about homosexualists.

Harvey Fierstein does an Andy Rooney bit at the end of each episode.

[quote] Harvey Fierstein does an Andy Rooney bit at the end of each episode.

He closes every segment with “Is that so wrong?”

I'm Oscar the Grouch.

I'm Anthony Blanche. I'm the only Brideshead Revisited character who turned out to have his head screwed on tight.

I’m This Old House.

[quote] I'm Oscar the Grouch.

I’m Cookie Monster!

You're all so ungrateful. We've served the mothers of Poplar for YEARS as midwives and not a mention on your little thread?

No cake for you.

I'm Frontline

I'm Maria and Luis on Sesame Street in the 70's, and we were the first hispanic adults who weren't "hot tamales," or napping under sombreros, that many children had ever seen on TV.

You all may ooh and aaah over Maggie Smith on Downton but some PBS stations had ME! Judi Dench! Me, bitches!

And also the character of Alistair, who had some young gays crushing on him back in the day......

I'm kindness personified.

I'm "Monty Python's Flying Circus" that was introduced to American audiences through PBS stations

I'm PBS Passport.

I am the smartest pay television in the USA!

So much quality programming for so little $$.

I am The Durrells (known in the US as The Durrells in Corfu)

I was the first time many Americans got a glimpse of pendulous Josh O'Connor.

I am also the first time many Americans were inflicted with a pest called Keeley Hawes.

Duwwell!

In this chaotic, troubled times, I actually enjoy the bland nerdiness of PBS, including Rick Steves hawking his travel crap & the lamest travel show ever, Samantha Brown. There's some Norway cooking show that's clearly intended to be an advertisement for Norway, but it makes them seem like such oddballs - endearing oddballs, but still oddballs. I turn into on Saturday afternoon as background noise, but it's comforting.

I'm Rick Sebak, a TV legend in Pittsburgh.

I've probably voiced more documentaries than David Attenborough!

Most of them were local, but this one covered the country.

I loved that Norwegian cooking show!

I'm George Frankly, Kate Monday, and, later, Pat Tuesday of "Mathnet." Pat Tuesday always seemed "mannish" to me...

Only show interesting shows during pledge drive. Then piss off your potential doners with 15 minute desperate pleas for money that cut into programming like a knife in your liver!

I'm Julia and Jacques.

I'm featherweight middlebrow masquerading as highbrow so all the flyover fraus can congratulate themselves on their refined "cultural" tastes as they tote their pledge-drive PBS canvas bag around town. (See: The Three Tenors singing pop songs, Jane Austen adaptations, The Crown, etc.)

I am the PBS tote bag; I am a sexy beast and you know you want me

I am the PBS show "Hotel Portofino". Season 3 starts soon, but at the end of Season 2 the old bad Fascist Italian man killed Assad Zaman, the ugly Bangladeshi boypire with hideous hair who is not HOTT.

I was rooting for DEATH, Yea DEATH!!

I'm the pledge drives. I seem to last for about 48 weeks a year.

I am PBS animated idents from years gone by.

My music and graphics jiggle long-dormant brain cells and evoke a flood of nostalgia.

I'm Pittsburgh and Boston.

Our local nerds BUILD this network and generated most of its iconic programming, probably as a reaction to getting beaten up so many times by sports fans.

I’m the 80 yr old pbs affiliate volunteer who hosts every pledge drive since 1966.

I'm only 7 seconds long, but I will make a Gen X'r cry.

I'm NET.

I was PBS before PBS became PBS.

"Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel"?! Sounds like my kind of show!

For those annoyed by the pledge drives -- if you buy a Passport, there ARE NO pledge drives.

An extra great reason for getting a Passport to access the HUGE PBS library of programs!

R113, I actually preferred the spiinoff, "Georgia Quilting with Lap Bonesteel."

Is this about that quilting lady who had a stroke?

[quote] Is this about that quilting lady who had a stroke

R116, you speak out of one side of your face.

I'm Great Performances

Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury is a staple of ours

I'm Holland Taylor as Ann Richards in PBS Great Performances

The full show!

I'm Great Performances:

HAL HOLBROOK in MARK TWAIN TONIGHT

I'm PBS Great Performances

Sir Alec McCowen in his solo performance of ST. MARK's GOSPEL

I'm Alistair Cooke. Americans love me.

R113, you can’t be Alistair Cooke. R4 is Alistair Cooke.

R123, you can’t be Alistair Cooke. R4 is Alistair Cooke.

ooopsie

I'm the MTV of classical music, Classic Arts Showcase, occupying the overnight block on most PBS stations for the last 30 years. We are doing all this for free, by the way. You're welcome.

I'm Carl Sagan's "Cosmos: A Personal Journey", that aired on PBS stations in 1980.

I’m the recorded ringing of old-fashioned, rotary phones being played over the hosts’ pleas for donations. I haven’t been in use wide use in 40 years and the pledge calls have been answered by a 3rd party phone bank service for at least a decade yet we’re still ringing like we did when Ma Bell was the HBIC and Earnestine was still making sure you knew who was boss when you dialed ‘0’ for the operator.

I'm Ashoken Farewell and "My dear mother..."

I'm the memorable way Alan Cumming pronounces "Darlene Shiley" with a Scottish accent.

I am Darlene Shiley - I'm fucking fabulous and I own San Diego!

[quote] I am the PBS tote bag; I am a sexy beast and you know you want me

You stole my answer! And it's CANVAS tote bag!

[quote] I'm the pledge drives. I seem to last for about 48 weeks a year.

Yes, the pledge drives did seem to come around too often.

I was WQEX, the redheaded stepchild to the well known WQED, our main PBS station.

I did have a memorable signoff to my broadcasting day, though.

That was weirdly charming, R135. Just goes to show you that being the second best sometimes gives you the freedom to be a little, or a lot, different.

In these days of 24-hour digital programming kids miss out on the excitement of seeing the channel sign-offs. You always felt like you had stayed up really late and were having fun when even TV went to bed.

R136 indeed......I miss those signoffs. I have fond memories of the days when that was my signoff time for the day too LOL

[quote] LOL

LoL! :)

I worked at two PBS stations years ago.

It was frightening. It's the ultimate refuge of those who can't do anything else except linger mindlessly in public television and avoid having a real job. Most of the stations are run by hacks who pay themselves enormous salaries (Philly-man was getting about $750K a year) and spend all their time wondering why no one watches them. Their tragic joke was "We get until you're 7 and then pick you up again when you're 70." And it was true. In many of the stations the reruns of the Lawrence Welk show were the highest rated programs outside of the kids' shows.

The problem is that the entire system doesn't work. It's not a company like CBS or NBC, it's an affiliation of independent stations usually run by incompetents who control their hand-picked board of directors and therefore never have to worry about job security -- or doing anything right.

Worse, most of these people are so distanced from reality they're barely aware of the Internet. They still think that viewers will come to them through actual tv sets. And no one can tell them otherwise. The board of directors is filled with the progeny of third generation wealth, people who have no connection with the real world and just want to tell their peers what important work they do educating the public. Etc.

I could go on but now I'm having flashbacks of working at the station and instead I'll get out a bottle and do what every good PBS CEO does. Get drunk.

R139 is the discontent.

In The Know on Peacock is a funny parody of PBS.

I'm Carmen San Diego. Where in the world am I?

I'm Basil Fawlty. I own a hotel.

I’m the Margaret Hamilton Sesame Street episode shown once them banned forever. ( it’s online)

Why was it banned, R144?

I'm sorry to hear that R139, though I am in no way surprised. It's too bad because it's nice to have a public service channel not driven by $$ but providing earnest, if somewhat dull, entertainment. And I know that DL likes to make fun of Ken Burns (and there's a lot of material there), but a lot Muricans could benefit from a little history and long perspective. I recently re-watched The Civil War and I was struck by the beautiful letters people wrote in the midst of terrible hardship. What a lost art. So long live PBS, though I am sorry to hear (though not surprised) it's all badly managed

I’m Zoom!

HEY YOU GUYS!

R139 I swore I responded yesterday but somehow I didn't. Anyway.....I sympathize with you.

I think most current PBS stations have leadership that either wants to keep everything exactly the same forever, or wants to tear things down to the ground and start new. The CEO/leader of my hometown station is a tear down kind of leader. Of course the smart road is somewhere in the middle, trying new things or ideas while still keeping some favorites as well.

I'm the series that cost $1,500 per episode to make (in the late 1990s) and was beating all the commercial networks in that primetime slot in several major metropolitan markets. It also came in consistently in the top 10 places in the same markets weekly.

Holland Taylor SUCKED as Ann Richards.

She does a terrible Texas accent, and she stoops her little shoulders as if she's Richard Nixon trapped in Nancy Reagan's body. That's not how the Governor talked, moved, or lived.

I'm Miss Marple starring Joan Hickson

I'm Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Bell’sh Palshy

R150 what was that?

Yeah R150, what WAS that? My only guess is Tales of The City but I think that was early 90s.

I'm Lidia Bastianich with my commanding voice. You better listen to what I say.

Shaddup baldy

[quote] I'm Lidia Bastianich with my commanding voice. You better listen to what I say.

Especially if you’re her slave.

Say what you want about Lydia but whatever hair system she’s been working for the last several years is a marvel of modern engineering.

She was pitiful when first starting her tv career. If we can put hair so convincingly back on that head then we can certainly put a man on Mars

I'm all The Voice of Grievance, Victimization, and FEATURING THOSE YOU SHOULD HEAR because we are here to EDUCATE you, not provide the news.

I’m Conrad Prebys. Don’t hate me because I’m fucking loaded.

Fuck off, R161. Just because PBS affiliates generally try to serve and reflect the broad diversity that makes up the American population and not just the dominant culture doesn’t mean they are preaching or talking down to you.

Well, in second thought maybe the are talking down to you, but that we would more be a matter of where you sit than PBS being high in an ivory tower.

r163 has stated her boundaries.

I'm the decades-long, raging hard-on that PBS had for Peter, Paul and Mary.

I’m the only channel available over the air, besides the Christian channel.

R161 is just pressed they aren't making a documentary of her life.

"Tub Girl: I Eat Shit"

I always had a thing for Alistair. And Harry. But only one of the Harrys.

We're Lidia's grandkids and we help out, hands on! Isn't it great to get kids cooking at an early age?

And when the camera is on Nonna Lidia we are free to suck our fingers and put them up our noses, up our bums, in our ears.

R163, your lack of education and knowledge of the business shows, as does the bigotry and smallness of view you carry so proudly. If I seem to be talking down to you it's because you're a little nuisance that becomes intolerable when your ineffective, uncommitted ilk start buzzing and thinking your droning is the music of the spheres.

I share nearly all of NPR's "positions." However, the granting of half-hour slots in prime time for every concern and cause that has a big-mouth influencer behind it just shows how corrupt journalism is today, and journalism schools and departments are.

You, as implied, are a spawn of such degraded values when it comes to journalism and the commonweal. If you never get enough of women delivering their inevitable tales of woe and transcendence and calling it "diverse," that just shows how much you've sunk into the smugness of the echo chamber. The mountain of grievance has been created to serve the people who benefit from, not eliminating the causes, but living off of the grief of others.

Too much? Then this: You're a bigot and a snob. It's the snobbery, the superiority, of your kind that shows the asocial nature of today's trends, connected through disconnection and always trying to stick a fork in Daddy's thigh.

Oh. And I work with NPR, by the way. It's a huge issue as the same impulses and means behind FOX and the new fascism are displayed by non-objective professional news media and the swarms of individuals trying to make money via second- and third-ring "news" and commentary sources.

I'm Darlene Shiley.

R172 No, I WAS already Darlene Shiley!

I'm Huell Houser....well, gollllllleeeeee!

I'm Julia Child, shooing the fags out of her kitchen.

This is All Things Considered. Join us for the next hour as we follow Dr. Sheila Mudflap into the Amazon Rain Forest as she practices meditative transcendent chanting to combat climate change and teaches Indigenous women to speak truth to their own power.

[quote] This is All Things Considered.

PBS.

I am "Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters," a 60 minute 1997 documentary about the brother-sister duo that airs on PBS once or twice a year, only during pledge drives.

A new documentary "Karen Carpenter: Starving For Perfection" is on Amazon Prime. It's excellent.

I'm This Old House.

R180, you can’t be This Old House. R87 is This Old House.

I'm "The Day The Universe Changed," an exceptional 1985 BBC documentary about how one scientific discovery leads to another and another, by science historian James Burke.

PBS began airing this 10-part series in 1987 and repeated it almost yearly for a number of years.

But PBS hasn't aired it in at least 20 years, probably longer. They need to renew the rights and broadcast it again.

[quote]Say what you want about Lydia but whatever hair system she’s been working for the last several years is a marvel of modern engineering.

Ha! It's funny you should say that: I saw Lydia recently & thought someone told her "gurl, you need to do something about that receding hairline!" And apparently she did, because she looks much better (if totally fake).

I'm kind of the Stanley Tucci School of Italian Cooking: pay homage to the past, but acknowledge that you're sitting behind a desk, not working in the fields and therefore cannot consume that amount of carbs and fat without keeling over or becoming grossly obese - but still make it tasty.

I'm the "Up" documentary series

The 7 Up kids are now 67.

R155 R156 "Great Lakes Ports Of Call" by some guy named Tom. There's like zero reference anywhere anymore on the web, which is odd. He also made DVDs of each episode and sold them in tourist shops at each port, and made a considerable amount of money from those things! (people were collecting the entire set, what 30 or 40 of them at $10 each) Each episode consisted of him wandering around some place like Muskegon or wherever, talking to locals and getting told stories. Low production values, cheesy everything, but for whatever reason would beat out NBC, CBS, and ABC virtually every week, really odd. People must have found it charming.

We're Siskel and Ebert's humble beginnings

R170/R171, I must ask. How’s your balance? Is your face drooping on one side? Speech slurred a bit?

I ask because you seem to be having a stroke. Either that or you can’t read because this thread is about PBS, which is a consortium of public television stations across the U.S.

The company you say you work with, NPR, is a consortium of public radio stations which isn’t the topic of this thread and isn’t connected at all to the television stations we’re talking about here.

You also seem to be easily upset, which is often a sign that someone has had several small, unnoticed strokes. I’d head to the ER immediately. It could save your life, seriously.

I'm the adaptation of Dickens' David Copperfield

Starring a truly all star cast: Daniel Radcliff, Emilia Fox, Trevor Eve, Ian McKellen, Michael Elphick, Zoe Wanamaker, Alun Armstrong, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Bob Hoskins, Imelda Staunton, Harry Lloyd, Paul Whitehouse, Dawn French, Oliver Ford Davies, and MAGGIE SMITH

Narrated by Tom Wilkinson

Hosted by Russell Baker

Join Us Christmas Day 1999!

I'm a young, straight Ben Affleck in "The Voyage of the Mimi." Who knew what a mess I would later make of things.

It IS David Copperfield!

I'm Russell Baker

I'm Behind the Music

I'm Que Pasa USA, with a young Steven Bauer (Manolo on Scarface, Melanie Griffith's ex-husband).

I'm Kitty Carlisle and you probably have only seen me on PBS

I'm Louis Jourdan as Count Dracula, the most beautiful Dracula of all. Originally, a BBC TV movie which played on PBS in the late 70s.

R196 oooh is it good? Frank Finlay is Van Helsing! I'll have to watch

I'm the entire eight hour version of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby that airs on Saturday afternoon

I'm Darlene Shiley, I'm so much richer than you'll ever be, and I've dyed my hair blue!!!!!!!!

R58 I love the image of her with "cig in hand half drunk in the middle of the afternoon". So fun. And I can see it so clearly. On Saturday, my husband and his visiting mother are going away to see a relative for a full a couple days. I very well might be half drunk in the middle of the afternoon but with a fat joint in my hand. Can't wait now that I am thinking about it.

I am da coookie shit for making your coookie.

r200 Pat Loud lived to be 94! She died just a few years ago. All the booze and cigs, a miracle she lived as long as she did.

Good for Pat. I need a new spirit animal and she's as good as any.

As a child, I was mesmerized by PBS, I would watch This Old House, the Frugal Gourmet, Zoom, Masterpiece Theater, Mystery. I was such a gayling anglophile. Loved it. Meanwhile my boozy country club parents never watched PBS.

PBS makes me smarter is the simplest way for me to express my appreciation for PBS starting in the early 70s and to this day.

R204 I agree! Same here!

I’m Roy Underhill, of The Woodwright’s Shop. I started off as a cute, silly little ginger...

R204, I totally agree. My best friend always thought I was crazy because I wanted to watch Mr. Rogers instead of Scooby Doo like he did. It has been a constant in my life, to varying degrees.

From being a heartbroken little boy the day Mr. Hooper died on Sesame Street and learning to deal with loss, then as a lonely, closeted gay teen secretly watching Tales of the City and realizing that I wasn’t alone and being gay actually looked fun, to finally as an adult watching Are You Being Served late at night with my grandmother during the last few weeks of her life, PBS has been a teacher, a lifeline, and a comfort.

And it always been available for free thanks to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people and by viewers like you, and me.

Thank you.

[quote] I'm Darlene Shiley, I'm so much richer than you'll ever be, and I've dyed my hair blue!!!!!!!!

No you cannot be Darlene Shiley because R132 is Darlene Shiley. R172 also tried to be Darlene Shiley but failed in the attempt.

I’m the tote bag

R29, R105 (Rescue Chick) is the tote bag.

R206 Yes! I loved the Woodwright's Shop. PBS in many ways exposed me to the world outside my hometown. I remember in the late afternoon in elementary school I might be doing homework in the den while watching Villa Alegre while my mom cooked dinner. I think it a bilingual show. My Mom would pop her head in the den with a curious look and say "what in the world are you watching?" I would tell her and she'd pop back in the kitchen satisfied why I was speaking Spanish back at the TV.

R206 I used to run in the same musical circles as his oldest daughter 15 or 20 years ago and would bump into him occasionally at shows and in person he is surprisingly sexy and charismatic. He could charm you into bed without you even realizing you taken your coat off.

If you said I got one channel for the rest of my life. It would be PBS

[quote] [R180], you can’t be This Old House. [R87] is This Old House.

I’m an encore episode then.

I'll be that spooky animation promo for Mystery and at the end the tombstone would crack. I LOVED that when I was a kid. It started my love of English mysteries, Sherlock Holmes et al.

R214, you can either be Ask This Old House, the viewer question and small project advice spin-off or the Norm Abrams solo spin-off New Yankee Workshop, where Norm shows you want he can really do when he is given free rein.

I am Eric Porter in The Forsyte Saga.

I'm the 1977-1992 WGBH logo ident that still gives KittyDyke ASMRgasms every single time she hears and sees it. 2:30 to 3:14

I'm Daytripper.

I'm Word Girl, expanding viewers' vocabulary each and every episode.

R211, I remember Villa Allegre! But, there was another Spanish/English show before that called Carrascolendas. Do you remember that? The titular village, with Agapito the lion (a fat guy in a lion suit), a couple of women dressed as dolls, a detective, a bunch of bilingual kids, and an old man who runs a cobbler shop. Very musical, kind of bizarre, with an actual plot to each 30 minute episode.

Did Piaf air on PBS? Jean Smart as Marlene Dietrich...

The two language shows I remember were Annenberg produced Destinos, a Spanish immersion course in the form of a telenovela, and French In Action, a similar course filmed as a romantic comedy focusing on an American college student studying in France and his romantic relationship with a beautiful French girl.

The Annenberg/CPB Project also produced and PBS broadcast what many consider to be the best adult educational program of all-time, a 52 episode lecture series on western civilization called The Western Tradition by UCLA history professor Eugen Weber, illustrated with images from The Met’s collection. I used to wake up at 6 am on Tuesday mornings when I was 10 or 11 to record it in an effort to have the whole series for myself, but I missed one of the last episodes when I overslept and didn’t see it until I bought the set years later on VHS.

The first episode starts with a brief introduction by Weber and then this animated telling of western history from caveman to modern day is shown. It was so unlike anything I’d ever seen at the age that I was instantly hooked.

Anyone remember watching The Electric Company that included a young Morgan Freeman? Even as a country bumpkin kid, I remember thinking "he's too cool for this crowd!"

I'm JUlia Child and I made that network!

R218 I loved that almost as much as the 70s PBS ident.

I was only on PBS stations for a short time, but it was a good time to be on PBS.

What with Dirty Den, Ang, slutty Michelle, fat Sharon and all the others.

[quote] No you cannot be Darlene Shiley because [R132] is Darlene Shiley.

She IS Darlene Shiley!

This is a lot of fun

I'm...

ONE... TWO... THREE...

FOUR... FIVE... SIX...

SEVEN... EIGHT... NIIIIINE ... TEN

TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE , FOURTHREETWO ONE.

*whoosh* ONE *whoosh* TWO *whoosh* THREE! THREE! THREE! THREE!

Let's sing the song of THREE. How many is THREE...

I’m the original Degrassi (Jr.) High!

Everybody wants something...

I loved that segment on Sesame Street, R230. Even though I was only 7 years old, I had a crush on the baker who falls down the stairs at the end of each segment. Here are all the numbers:

Thanks r232!

I'm Jacques Pepin, helping Julia's animate corpse whisk butter in a copper saucier.

That poor baker - he must have been a stuntman. We laughed at the time but as old age approaches I can't imagine tumbling down those stairs, even as a young adult.

That show had to be the most multi-ethnic show ever. Thank you PBS.

Anyone else remember the Snuffleupagus controversy? As I remember it, they tested a segment where Snuffy's parents are getting a divorce and he tells Big Bird. The kids in the focus group reacted so badly, crying, sad, probably reliving their own families' dissolution that they decided not to air it.

sit and be fit on at 5 am.

now, even my daughter, nepo-baby,looks as old as i do!

R231 I wanted to be Stephanie Kaye, lol

We're the Pointer Sisters.

We were high as FUCK but we still cranked out some quality education materials for the young'uns.

I'm DW dropping f-bombs

R238, I never knew that was The Pointer Sisters. Sometimes even now I’ll find myself singing the final phrase.

“…eleven, Twel-el-el-el, el-el-ELVE!”

I’m Lilias, Yoga, and You

The Pointer Sisters are talented. I saw them in concert and was pleasantly surprised at how good they sang live.

I'm Conjunction Junction, what's my function?

I'm Suze Orman.

My snatch occasionally shows up at pledge time.

YOU ARE DENIED, GIRLFRIEND!

I'm all the Peter, Paul, and Mary and the Mamas and Papas specials during pledge week.

R244 Her advice is outdated; she needs to update that 'ultimate retirement guide.'

I'm Judi Dench.

[quote]I'm Conjunction Junction, what's my function?

Wrong network.

That's ABC and its Schoolhouse Rock.

Oh, fuck. You're right. Thank you, R248

I'm Reading Rainbow.

I'm the boredom.

I think we've had a thread or two over the years r243. Maybe... but not me.

Whew! Glad ppl could be civilized about Schoolhouse Rock. So many fights on DL could be averted if we took an example from this thread.

R253, I agree but think that a lot of the really hateful posts in response to mistakes like that aren’t just simple bitchiness.

I think what happens quite often is a poster gets their feelings hurt by another anon or someone trashes their favorite diva/porntar/mayonnaise and as revenge poster uses Ignoredar to follow the offending anon around, jumping on every perceived mistake, grammatical to factual while also giving FFs.

I’m not sure I know everything about how you can use the DL features to use the FF/WW system to harass but I’ve always thought that the posts with nothing but a R# are more than a way to see missing stuff without unblocking.

I won’t go into why I believe that because it might get The Great and Powerful M angry at me other than to say that I’m pretty sure its a way to scan lots of threads to make Ignordar work better.

R253 This is PBS, the gold standard of civility, education, science, music, and art and literature.

I’m In the Life, a depressing show in which every episode presents being gay as being tragic.

I'm Darlene Marcos Shiley and the Conrad Prebys Foundation...

I'm the damsel on the plinth with the bobbed hair and in a flapper dress flapping my hands and dropping my scarf in distress, all the while moaning as if the villain of the piece has found my G Spot!

Darlene Shiley certainly is popular on this thread.

I’m the reruns of Absolutely Fabulous that come after the quilting show.

R257 No.

You are at least the fourth person to claim that, but sorry, Darlene was waaaaaay back at R132.

Do catch up, dear.

Sorry, R260...R132 was preempted by a fundraiser.

Wonderful, wonderful!

Wonnerful!

I'm the PBS NewsHour trying to convince you that Kamala was never the border czar.

I'm the free canvas tote you get if you donate 50K during pledge week.

I'm "Musical Comedy Tonight", a series of three specials produced by Sylvia Fine Kaye, featuring a star-studded casts performing numbers from popular Broadway shows.

Here's Juliette Prowse, Lorraine Fields, and Annette Charles (Cha-Cha from Grease) performing a number from Sweet Charity:

R265, you can't be the tote bag. R105 (Rescue Chick) is the tote bag.

"Musical Comedy Tonight" here again; here's Jack Lemmon and his broken foot performing a number from "Finian's Rainbow" (sorry, I can't find a credit for the dancer; she looks like Sandahl Bergman, but I'm not sure it's her)

Two of the three specials are up on Youtube

I'm Yvonne Elliman. Singing If I Can't Have You.

I'm Lady Elaine Fairchild. Why the fuck is there a trolley outside of my Museum-Go-Round?

I'm the pony.

Lady Elaine liked it up the ass.

Has anyone been Sherlock yet? If not, I'm Sherlock, responsible for introducing Andrew Scott Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch to U.S. viewers.

I'm the comma that was forgotten after Andrew's name in r273.

No, R273. You can be Sherlock.

I'm downstairs.

I'm the pre-revolutionary spice cabinet worth 50K.

[quote]Andrew Scott Martin Freeman

And here I thought that Benedict Cumberbtach was a strange name.

^ Imagine having to sign that on checks back in the day.

I'm Anna the maid, Lady Mary and her mother, Lady Grantham, moving Kemal Pamuk's body from one end of Downton Abbey to the other during the middle of the night.

I'm the girl with no prospects.

When will I broadcast the original British The Office series?

I'm The Life & Loves Of A She Devil

I'm Mr. McFeely. The name is an invitation...

I'm Mr. Pamuk's last ropy load, forever staining the headboard.

Did Mr Pamuk actually ejaculate?

I'm Lionel.

I'm a middling UK period piece drama series that most UK based TV critics were meh about. Here, I'm held up as a prime example of "prestige television".

You want to talk "Musical Comedy Tonight"? You want to talk Bonnie Franklin at her sassiest!

I'm the hot ginger in the Forsyte Saga.

To r290, Can I fuck the Hot Ginger in The Forsythe Saga like an animal? Fuck him hard in his Men's Club!!

Damien Lewis-YUMMY

Every time it rains, it rains...

I'm the Queen Anne's Lace. Just waiting for Mr. Darcy to brush his legs up against me as he comes up the path.

Lady???? Mary, my faggot ass-Fucking Whore.

Lady Edith outranks you now-Bow to the Marchioness.....BITCH!!

I'm Downton's Bertie.

I may be married to Edith and accepting her slow daughter as my own, but I look like I prefer the homosex, preferably with Henry Talbot.

They are "upper class British nobility" How can you tell if they love the Homosex?

They all act and sound GAY!!

I'm the orgasm Lady Mary experienced during her encounter with Mr. Padmuck.

I'm also the terror Lady Mary experienced about 30 seconds after that orgasm upon realizing there was now a dead body in her bed.

Nobody cares about Downton

[quote]Nobody cares about Downton

Downton Abbey will always be relevant on a PBS thread.

Downton Abbey SAVED Highclere Castle financially

Never be almost broke again!!

[quote] Mr. Padmuck.

Pamuk!

[quote] Pamuk! —Nancy Lee Grahn

Why Nancy. Somehow, I didn't picture you as a PBS gal. Welcome to the club.

I'm the piracy that happened because the stupid out of touch fucks who run PBS didn't broadcast Downton Abbey until six months after it aired in the UK. The pirate sites had the episodes up ten minutes after the UK broadcast them.

R276. I'm upstairs...

I'm Mr. McFeeley and I'm spending the rest of my life in prison because I gave my "speedy delivery" to the boys and girls in the neighborhood.

I'm Gwen Ifill's sore uterus.

Gwen Ifill never had a dick inside her in her life r306.

no but she had tumors.

I'm the Elgar documentary

I'm Onslow's dirty tank top.

I’m Davey and Goliath

OP, thanks for starting this thread. Too bad it's devolved into shit.

R289 wasn’t Bonnie Franklin just Kathie Lee on crack?

Damn it, R313! I'm a GYPSY!

Bonnie Franklin was Bonnie Franklin on crack.

No PBS pledge break has ever featured fried egg titties.

I'm the non-European episodes of Rick Steves' Europe (Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia).

Can’t he just go back to the seemy, more underground side of Europe??

[quote]I'm the non-European episodes of Rick Steves' Europe (Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia).

I wish Rick would go to South American countries; granted, I realize his schtick is all about his business & traveling to those countries is not necessarily want his target audience wants, but if I'd much rather go to Latin American than dirty depressing Egypt and I think some travel guidance in those countries from A Basic White Guy/Gringo might be helpful.

I'm finding my roots.

I'm Finding Your Roots

I'm Downstairs

R322, you can't be downstairs! R276 is downstairs!

To R276, I'm sorry, I was wrong. You can be "Downstairs" in the original series.

I will be "Downstairs" in the remake with the hot chauffer who is the boxer.

I temped for the local PBS station for about 6 weeks when I was young. Everyone there was unfriendly...they were shocked I wanted to leave. It was right before Ken Burns' "Baseball" debuted.

I'm that cool guy who builds a cabin in the wild.

I'm Dan Stevens ... I realize now I fucked up BIGLY.

I'm Bradley Cooper. Look at me now!

But not too closely.

[quote]I'm Dan Stevens ... I realize now I fucked up BIGLY.

No wonder your career has gone downhill, Matthew. Never wise to get killed off on Christmas Day in your native Britain. You ruined so many people's Christmas.

I'm the broken tea cups.

I dont' know...Dan Stevens has done alright. Aside from Hugh Bonneville & of course the incomparable Maggie Smith, who else from DA works regularly? He's made kind of odd choices, but he still works. As anyone who watches soaps, tranquil lives = boring stories. You need to shake things up