TCA Winter 2023 Press Tour — PBS’s Second Day
We kicked off Day 2 with SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS, a new, three-episode miniseries which follows some of the region’s most compelling and influential contemporary creators to the places they call home. Our panel featured Jericho Brown, Craig Renaud, Adia Victoria and Courtney Pledge, who discussed the boundaries of the South in the U.S., the process of selecting the storytellers and we were treated to a special poetry performance by Jericho Brown and a musical performance by Adia Victoria and Mason Hickman.
The electric energy continued with our next panel, GREAT PERFORMANCES “Richard III” / 50th Anniversary Season.
Danai Gurira, Robert O’Hara and David Horn artfully commented on how Richard III and other popular anti-heroes fascinate audiences, the diversity of the cast and Danai Gurira dug into the process of becoming Richard III.
After GREAT PERFORMANCES wrapped up there session, we had special guests take the stage in our NATURE “Dogs in the Wild” panel.
Our panel, including Fred Kaufman and Jo Shinner, reminded us that these canids are subject to illegal trapping and while cute and cuddly, are not meant to be pets.
Our next panel featured the charming talent and producers of WORK IT OUT WOMBATS!, a new animated series from PBS KIDS that stars a playful trio of marsupial siblings — Malik, Zadie and Zeke — who live with their grandmother, Super, in their treehouse apartment complex.
Our panelists included Marcy Gunther, Rain Janjua (voice of “Zeke”) and Kareem Edouard, who talked about the choice to feature wombats instead of other animals, how the show breaks down computational thinking for small kids, and how to meet kids where they are.
After our PBS KIDS panel, James Gandhi, Gwyneth Hughes, Solly McLeod, Susanne Simpson, Sophie Wilde of MASTERPIECE “Tom Jones” joined us on-stage to talk about giving a new twist to the tale and the many comedic elements to this story.
We switched gears from romantic comedy to science and travel with our HUMAN FOOTPRINT panel with Shane Campbell-Staton, Nathan Dappen, Adrian Yonge, and Josh Tetrick to delve into all the ways humans have transformed the planet, including how meat production impacts climate change and being realistic about the current state of the world.
Following HUMAN FOOTPRINT, NOVA “Chasing Carbon Zero” posed the question “to achieve 100% zero carbon pollution by 2035, what exactly would it take?” Donnel Baird, Chef Christopher A. Galarza, Melissa C. Lott, and Miles O’Brien talked about the most likely real world technologies that could be up to the task and how to make them available and affordable.
We ended our tour with a celebration of 40 years of FRONTLINE and spotlighted the upcoming “Age of Easy Money” with Raney Aronson-Rath, James Jacoby, Sheila Bair, Nina Chaudry, and Ben McKenzie who examined the Federal Reserve’s policy and its impact on the U.S. economy.
