AP News, October 6th, 2007
Christopher Columbus has his big day with a pair of documentaries.
The two-hour films premiere in most cities head-to-head on PBS and the History Channel at 9 p.m. EDT Monday (check local listings), but you can sail with the History Channel documentary when it re-airs Tuesday at 1 a.m. (or launch the TiVo).
PBS' "The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus" is adapted (and upgraded to high-def) from the 1991 series, "Columbus and the Age of Discovery." It recounts Columbus' first Atlantic crossing, while a modern-day crew retraces the voyage in replicas of his fleet.
Columbus' big idea: to sail west to reach the East, and thereby chart a new trade route with China. Except it didn't happen. Instead, he unwittingly ran into what became known as America, which really made waves.
That voyage, which, as every school child knows, took place in 1492, wasn't Columbus' only attempt. In his persistent hunt for a passage to the Orient, he made three return trips, and the History Channel's "Columbus: The Lost Voyage" provides an account of his final crossing, in 1502.
He didn't get any closer to China (and he lost naming rights for the New World to a fellow Italian, Amerigo Vespucci). Still, Columbus scored Americans a long October weekend, and, on this Columbus Day, he's well remembered on TV.
Other shows to look out for:
_ Comparing a California prison to Harvard seems a stretch. But, according to a new Ted Koppel documentary, it costs about as much to contain one prisoner for a year as does an academic year's tuition, meals and housing at Harvard. And neither has vacancies. Built to accommodate no more than 100,000 inmates, California's prison system now holds 173,000, reports Koppel, which potentially could lead to a court-mandated release of inmates to ease the crush. How did the situation reach this extreme? That's what Koppel explores in his new documentary, "Breaking Point." This latest "Koppel on Discovery" edition premieres 9 p.m. Sunday on Discovery Channel.
_ It began with "Seven Up!" _ a 1964 documentary about a diverse group of British 7-year-olds. Six films and 42 years later, "49 Up" is the latest chapter in the social portrait by director Michael Apted. Now the "Up" Series children are middle-aged adults, voicing a new round of opinions on love, marriage, work, class and the "Up" series itself. The 66-year-old Apted (also the director of such features as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Gorillas in the Mist") took over the project with the second installment, and has revisited his subjects every seven years. This cumulative saga has kept its fans riveted. Even so, "49 Up" is a self-contained work, drawing on past films to bring vivid perspective to the present. It's a crash course in its subjects' lives _ and in an era. Part of the "P.O.V." documentary series, "49 Up" airs 9 p.m. Tuesday on PBS (check local listings).
_ His wife disappears. The police are no help. Michael Foster has nothing to go on but cryptic visions that afflicted him the night his wife vanished. Peter Gallagher ("The O.C.") stars in "The Gathering," a chilling Lifetime miniseries that chronicles his desperate search. Also starring: Jamie-Lynn Sigler ("The Sopranos") as one of his daughter's teachers, who tells Michael that his wife may be involved with an ancient religious sect of witches set on dominating the world. And the mystery deepens further when he discovers the involvement of all-too-powerful people like a wealthy real estate magnate (Peter Fonda). The first half of the four-hour miniseries premieres 9 p.m. Saturday, concluding at the same time the next night.
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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org
