Mister Rogers will be in the PBS ’hood, Betty White too

A look back at Woodstock

BEVERLY HILLS, California, Aug 1, (Agencies): A roundup of news from the Television Critics Association summer meeting, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on upcoming programs.

With Fred Rogers’ legacy back in the spotlight, PBS wants viewers to remember that public television was the longtime home of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

PBS stations will air the acclaimed documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” as part of the “Independent Lens” showcase. The film has earned more than $20 million in its eight weeks in theaters, a blockbuster by documentary standards.

Rogers’ “powerful” approach to children’s programming is an ongoing influence at PBS, said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service.

One direct link: The animated series “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” from creator Angela Santomero and the Fred Rogers Co.

This year is the 50th anniversary of “Mister Rogers” TV debut. An airdate for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” wasn’t announced.

Betty White sees no point in slowing down at age 96, as long as her phone keeps ringing with offers to work.

The actress known for her roles in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls” is marking her 80th year in show business with a PBS special that looks at her life and career.

Moore, Georgia Engel and Gavin MacLeod are among those sharing insights in “Betty White: First Lady of Television,” which debuts Aug. 21. Moore’s appearance in the special was the last interview she did before her death last year, Boettcher said.

The special shows White at work, at home and interacting with friends. She is the lone living star from “The Golden Girls.”

White wasn’t a part of the panel discussion at a TV critics meeting on Tuesday.

“Betty wanted to be here in the worst way,” said Steve Boettcher, the special’s co-director and producer. “She sends her best and she’s doing great.”

Tap dancer Arthur Duncan credits White with launching his career by featuring him on her daily talk show in the mid-1950s. The show received letters complaining about Duncan’s presence as a black performer.

White’s response was to use Duncan every chance she could. He later went on to “The Lawrence Welk Show,” becoming the first black regular on a TV variety show.

“She was probably one of the nicest, grandest, greatest people I’ve had the chance to meet in my life,” said Duncan, now 84. “Whenever she walked into a room, it lit up.”

Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff says it affected her when she said on air that President Donald Trump had said something that wasn’t accurate.

“The first time I had to say on the air the president had said something that we needed to point out was not accurate, I got a lump in my throat,” she told a TV critics meeting on Tuesday. “It’s not something that journalists are accustomed to doing.”

“PBS NewsHour,” the nightly broadcast anchored by managing editor Woodruff, is careful about using the term lying in regards to Trump and other people in the news, she said.

“When you use the word ‘lie’ you’re saying someone said whatever they said with intention to mislead, to misrepresent,” she said.

“We can’t know what is in someone’s mind, so we are much more comfortable when a situation presents itself, whether it’s the president or someone else who is an important political figure or someone in the news says something that cannot be borne out by the facts, can’t be borne out by evidence, then we say what they said was inaccurate and then we go on to explain what is accurate.”

A 50th anniversary look at Woodstock and a Ken Burns series on the human genome will be among PBS’ upcoming documentaries, the public TV service said Monday.

The two-hour documentary on Woodstock will air in 2019 and will examine the events that led up to the three-day festival that would become one of the defining moments of the tumultuous 1960s.

The documentary will be part of PBS’ “American Experience” series and is being directed by Barak Goodman, who is teaming up with Burns on the genome series.

“The Gene: An Intimate History” will be a three-hour documentary series based on a book of the same name by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Burns previously produced a documentary on Mukherjee’s “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies” book.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: One of Britain’s best-known TV actors, David Jason, will travel around the West Coast of the US in a new UKTV series “David Jason: Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”

Jason is beloved in the UK for his turns in classic BBC comedy “Only Fools and Horses” and ITV detective series “A Touch of Frost.” In his travel show for UKTV’s Gold channel, Jason, an avid train buff, a pilot, and a trained mechanic, will travel 1,300 miles from Seattle to Los Angeles on the iconic Amtrak Coast Starlight train.

He will make pit stops along the way, delving into local history, checking out feats of engineering, and riding cable cars and motorbikes, flying vintage airliners, and driving trucks.

“The West Coast of America has seen — and is still witnessing — some of the greatest innovations in transport history. I can’t wait to find out for myself how they do things over there,” Jason said. “It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be entertaining, and I get the feeling I’m going to learn a great deal about this part of the world on my journey, too.”

ITV-owned producer Shiver will make the factual series, which will air in 2019. ITV Studios will sell it internationally.

Gerald Casey, channel director for Gold, said: “It’s a privilege for us to be working with Sir David Jason again, and I’m delighted we’ll get to share his passion for all things automotive. I can’t think of anyone better to take the Gold viewers on a long vacation Stateside.”

LOS ANGELES: NBC will bring back “Timeless” for a special two-part series finale, the network confirmed Tuesday.

“We’re excited to tell one final chapter to this incredible story,” said Lisa Katz, co-president, scripted programming, NBC Entertainment. “A huge thank you to all — our cast, crew, producers and partners at Sony — who have worked so very hard, and to the fans who kept us on our toes and made sure we did our very best week after week.”

In June, NBC canceled the time travel drama from Sony Pictures Television and executive producers Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke after two seasons. It was the second cancellation for “Timeless.” NBC had canceled the series after its first season, only to bring it back a few days later after Sony agreed to hand over a 50% stake in the show to NBC’s sister studio Universal Television.

Fans of “Timeless” have, since May when the show did not appear on NBC’s 2018-19 lineup at upfronts, campaigned vigorously on its behalf in the hopes that another platform would revive it. Interest however, did not materialize. Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour Sunday, Netflix head of originals Cindy Holland said that there had been no discussions at her company about picking up the series.