The second season of the PBS documentary series chronicling the early history of American television serves up four hour-long episodes, each concentrating on a specific genre—science fiction, westerns, crime dramas, and local children's programming. Each segment weaves together clips, interviews, and narration while highlighting representative series. James Garner discusses Maverick, as well as The Rockford Files; a grown-up Bill Mumy talks about his experiences on both Lost in Space and The Twilight Zone; and William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy reminisce about their Star Trek days along with guest appearances on The Twilight Zone and Columbo. Even the episode on kids' shows finds well-known figures offering recollections, like weatherman Willard Scott, who had an early job performing as Bozo the Clown (a gig he later transformed into the lucrative Ronald McDonald character). Archival interviews, such as one with Rod Serling, are also excerpted, and special attention is paid to series that addressed social issues or broke barriers, either racial (I Spy and Fat Albert) or gender-based (Honey West and Police Woman). The tone throughout is indiscriminately positive, even triumphant: the campy Lost in Space and its cost-and-ratings-driven creator Irwin Allen are treated with almost as much respect as Serling or Gene Roddenberry. But as an affectionate, if hardly critical or exhaustive, tribute to early network TV, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Pioneers of Television: Season 2
(2010) 240 min. DVD: $24.99 ($54.95 w/PPR). PBS Video. ISBN: 978-1-60883-403-7. Volume 26, Issue 3
Pioneers of Television: Season 2
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