WUCF will debut
a documentary about “The Groveland Four,” the four black men who were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in 1949 in Lake County.
In 2018, PBS station WUCF will debut “Gallery,” a series about Central Florida museums, and “The Groveland Four,” a documentary about the four black men who were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in 1949 in Lake County.
WUCF is responding to teachers’ requests to tell the story of the Groveland Four, said Phil Hoffman, the station’s executive director. The four — Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin — are all dead. In April, the Florida House and Senate apologized to the men’s families. The Senate resolution said the men were “victims of racial hatred.”
PBS and WUCF shared programming plans with donors Wednesday night at the Orlando Museum of Art.
“Gallery” will debut in February, and host Jenny De Witt takes viewers inside one local museum at a time, such as Ocala’s Appleton Museum and the Modernism Museum in Mount Dora. De Witt is social media manager of University of Central Florida.
WUCF will offer a second season of “Central Florida Roadtrip” and ask viewers which communities the series should visit. The station will continue with “How to Do Florida” from Lake Mary-based Crawford Entertainment. WUCF hopes to join forces with Bungalower, a local news website, for a series about life in downtown Orlando. The three series would be scheduled on Thursdays.
WUCF’s latest fund drive concludes Sunday. Hoffman said he was disappointed the station was only two-thirds of the way to its $300,000 goal. He cited donor fatigue after Hurricane Irma but said he hopes online donations continue coming in through year’s end.
To hook viewers next year, WUCF hopes to offer local content to accompany “The Great American Read” from PBS. The show, which launches in May, is sort of an “American Idol” of literature that looks for the country’s best-loved book.
A list of 100 contenders will be released in the spring, and viewers will vote on the favorite, to be revealed in the fall. WUCF will work with schools and the Orange County Library System to promote the series and reading.
Beth Hoppe, PBS chief programming executive, said she was looking for “a breakout event every month to two months” in drama, history, science and independent film. For January, PBS will offer “We’ll Meet Again” — a series of reunions reported by executive producer Ann Curry — and the second season of “Victoria,” the “Masterpiece” drama about the British queen. After the March pledge drive, PBS will start “Civilizations,” an epic documentary about art in history. (It is inspired by “Civilisation,” which aired in 1969.)
The public outreach for “The Great American Read” in May will be the biggest for PBS since this fall’s “Vietnam War,” Hoppe said. “The typical PBS viewer is someone who likes to read books,” Hoppe said. “We hope that it becomes something fun and engaging at the local level.”
Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of “Masterpiece,” promoted “The Child in Time,” a harrowing family drama with Benedict Cumberbatch, for April 1. “Benedict plays an ordinary person,” Eaton said. “He’s tremendous.”
Eaton is also high on a new version of “Little Women,” set for May, with Emily Watson, Angela Lansbury and Maya Hawke — daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, who plays Jo.
“It’s very fresh, the way it is shot, handheld, very immediate,” Eaton said, adding it’s a “five-hanky show, if you know the story.”
She promised more “Poldark,” “Endeavour” and “The Durrells of Corfu.” “We are in the business of returning series,” she said.