Grammer Narrates PBS TV Retrospective

Tapped for four-part 'Pioneers of Television' installment

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/15/2010 4:49:45 PM

Kelsey Grammer has been tapped to narrate PBS' latest installment of Pioneers of Television, this one a four-part series looking at genres of early television and the actors that populated them.

PBS has also announced the debut dates of the four shows, all airing at 8-9 p.m., and almost all containing lineups straight from a Baby Boomer's video collection. Science fiction (Star Trek, Lost in Space, Twilight Zone) will air Jan. 18, Westerns (Davy Crockett; Maverick; Bonanza; Wild, Wild West) on Jan. 25; Crime Dramas (Untouchable, Mission Impossible, Mannix, I Spy, Policewoman) on Feb. 1, and Local Kids TV (Romper Room, Jim Henson's Muppets, Larry Harmon's Bozo) Feb. 8.

The shows are being produced for PBS by Boettcher/Trinklein Productions.

Past shows have looked at sitcoms, variety shows and late night. They will be reprised on PBS at 8-9 p.m. for the three weeks following the new series (Feb. 15-Mar. 1).

Among talent from in front of and behind the camera being interviewed for the this latest retrospective are James Garner, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Angie Dickinson, Bill Cosby, Robert Culp, Stefanie Powers, Martin Landau, Peter Graves, Robert Conrad, Linda Evans, Mike Connors, Fess Parker and Stephen J. Cannell.

To celebrate the premiere, a Legendary Women of Television event is being held Jan. 16 at New York's 92nd Street Y featuring four of those women, Dickinson (Police Woman); Evans (The Big Valley),  Nichols (Star Trek) and Powers (The Girl From UNCLE).