PBS Looks at Primetime Hits

PBS will debut a four-part documentary series in October
looking at TV hits and the people who made them.

America in Primetime
will air Sundays at 8-9 p.m. from Oct. 30 through Nov. 20. and look at shows it
says are part of an "this iconic American art form, which has both
reflected and shaped our national character."  The series is produced
by WETA TV Washington, one of PBS's chief programming partners, in association
with the Documentary Group and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The series will look at the shows broken out by
genre--the man of the house (from The
Cosby Show
and Andy Griffith to The Sopranos), the independent woman (Murphy Brown, Mary Tyler Moore Show, The
Good Wife
, Grey's Anatomy), the
misfit (The Office, Beavis & Butthead, Larry Sanders) and the crusader (M*A*S*H, Dexter, House, The Shield).

The series features more than 100 interviews with
creators, writers and actors.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.