tv real miptv 2011

MIPTV, MIPDOC & HOT DOCSEDITION

Current AffairsWorkplace RealityDiscovery’s John HendricksSimon Schama

www.tvreal.ws THE MAGAZINE OF FACTUAL PROGRAMMING APRIL 2011

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IN THIS ISSUE

Eyes on the WorldCurrent-affairs docs are always in demand 22

On the JobReality series set in the workplace are finding slots worldwide 28

InterviewsDiscovery’s John Hendricks 32Simon Schama 34

• Naked and Funny• Funny and Funnier• Camera of Laughs• Seven Clowns in White Raincoats• Wild & Crazy: Caught on Tape

Funny and Funnier

AFL Productionswww.aflproductions.com

“Our programs grabthe target audience’simmediate attentionand send them soaring through aworld that they havenever experiencedbefore.”

—Yuri Volodarsky

The supermodel turned super-mom Heidi Klum can nowbe seen hosting the new entertainment show SeriouslyFunny Kids,on offer from AETN International. The 20x30-minute series features the German beauty as she interactswith children, bringing out the humorous and insightfulthings they say. There’s also a trio of series from the real-lifegenre that AETN is highlighting: Beyond Scared Straight,Heavy and Storage Wars.

Beyond Scared Straight profiles modern-day inmate-runjuvenile intervention programs, and the measures they’retaking to keep today’s youth from becoming tomorrow’sconvicts. Heavy spotlights people who are facing life-threatening consequences as a result of their obesity. StorageWars features opportunistic individuals who hunt for treas-ures in storage-unit auctions. AETN’s slate is complementedby longer documentary fare, including Gettysburg, whichpresents the events of the U.S. Civil War in a new light.

• Seriously Funny Kids• Beyond Scared Straight• Gettysburg• Heavy• Storage Wars

AETN Internationalwww.aetninternational.com

Beyond Scared Straight

Storage Wars

Having a stable of non-dialogue shows has been key for AFL,since these programs bypass language barriers and are readyfor international broadcast upon purchase. One such show,Naked and Funny, has seven seasons available for immediatedelivery. “Our high-rating hidden-camera show Naked andFunny sold to 50 countries and last year we covered the ter-ritory of the U.S.,” says Yuri Volodarsky, the head of develop-ment and distribution.

The catalogue also includes the non-dialogue series Funnyand Funnier, the hidden-camera show Camera of Laughs,Seven Clowns in White Raincoats and Wild & Crazy: Caughton Tape. “The ratings and shares of our programs during thetime of their premieres have been exceptionally high, andtherefore, they all have great potential and profitable life spansin re-runs and worldwide distribution,” Volodarsky notes.

TV REAL6

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As a leading source for U.S. public-TV programming inthe international market, APT Worldwide focuses onhigh-quality nonfiction content that spans a number ofgenres. Judy Barlow, the VP of international sales, explainsthe appeal of some of the top MIPTV highlights. “The Artist Toolbox is a series that delivers big-name talent

for buyers and satisfies the curiosity of fans who want to gobehind the scenes and see what their favorite artists are like intheir daily lives,” she says.“Bag It is a provocative, funny andshocking film that goes beyond attracting viewers to actuallyengaging them and promoting action on a personal level.” Asfor Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission, Barlow says the story is“truly entertaining—an eccentric, inspiring life which willdraw viewers in with wonder and amazement.” Keeping Scoreis a music franchise, featuring artists such as Gustav Mahler.

• The Artist Toolbox• Bag It• Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission• Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century• Keeping Score: Gustav Mahler

Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission

APT Worldwidewww.aptww.org

• Clunkers• Dream Detectives• Rescue Helicopter• TV with TV’s Jonathan Torrens• Saw Dogs

CABLEreadywww.cableready.net

Rescue Helicopter

“Action/reality serieslike Rescue Helicopterare always popular, andthis one is Finland-produced, a testimonyof how well good seriescan travel.”

—Gary Lico

TV REAL8

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DirectorsSimon Weaver

Online DirectorPhyllis Q. BusellArt DirectorCesar Suero

Sales & MarketingManager

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Group Editorial DirectorMansha DaswaniVP of StrategicDevelopment

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“As new media matures, we’re keepingan eye out for proven revenue streams andpartnerships that will help keep entry costsdown for these platforms.”

—Judy Barlow

As the market continues to fill up with new shows,CABLEready is looking to cut through the clutter by pro-viding programs that put a new twist on established concepts.“How many more property shows or cooking competitionsdo viewers want?” asks Gary Lico, the president and CEO.One title offering a new spin is Dream Detectives. “The para-normal space is crowded,” Lico notes, “so here’s a much morerelatable and fresh approach.”

Saw Dogs, meanwhile, features men with chain saws,passion and vision. Comedian Jonathan Torrens puts hisown personal blend of humor into TV with TV’s JonathanTorrens. In addition, CABLEready is offering the action-packed Rescue Helicopter. The company also has its first sit-com, Clunkers, a semi-scripted comedy about two high-school best friends who reunite to work together asused-car salesmen.


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• Jean Claude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors• Jeremy Kyle USA• Kate & William: A Modern Royal Romance• River Monsters• Animal Cops: Houston

ITV Studios Global Entertainmentwww.itvstudios.com

3D has been a hot topic among the media community andCanamedia is already on board. “Canamedia is now work-ing with Daniel D’Or, one of North America’s foremostexperts on 3D production, to create and develop Canamedia’sown catalogue of original 3D programming,” says AndreaStokes, the international sales and acquisitions manager. Thisslate includes The World’s Greatest Carnivals, a travel and cultureshow; Ice Hotels, featuring a Quebec City attraction with 36themed suites; and Stratton in Time, which puts Maestro KerryStratton face-to-face with luminary composers of the past.

Canamedia has a range of HD factual programming aswell, with Alien Invaders!, a show combining adventure,travel, wildlife and science, and When the Devil Knocks, thestory of a woman suffering from dissociative identity disor-der. Stokes says Canamedia is“focusing on bringing ourupdated company look, feel, distribution and productionteam and 3D knowledge to a new generation of buyers.”

• The World’s Greatest Carnivals• Ice Hotels• Stratton in Time• Alien Invaders!• When the Devil Knocks

CanamediaIce Hotels

“3D is the natural progression of theindustry, and we plan to be front andcenter with thoughtful and intriguingfactual 3D fare.”

—Andrea Stokes

www.canamedia.com

Jean Claude Van Damme:Behind Closed Doors

“As a multigenre distributor,[we have a portfolio with] a wide breadth of factualcontent across the wholespectrum.”

—Tobias de Graaff

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TV REAL10

The excitement in the run-up to the royal nuptials of PrinceWilliam of Wales and Kate Middleton is sure to drum upinterest in programming spotlighting the young couple,which bodes well for ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

“We’re…excited to be offering buyers Kate & William:A Modern Royal Romance, which we expect to do particu-larly well this market as broadcasters plan to mark the mosttalked about wedding for years,” says Tobias de Graaff, thedirector of global television distribution. He adds that thereare also high hopes for Jeremy Kyle USA, which launchesin U.S. syndication this fall and has already been licensedto ITV in the U.K. The breadth of the catalogue is anotherkey selling point that de Graaff points out, with titles suchas River Monsters, featuring biologist Jeremy Wade, and JeanClaude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors, a glimpse into thepersonal life of the genuine Hollywood legend, along withAnimal Cops: Houston.


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Jelly Bean is passionate about promoting projects from Eastto West and from West to East, bridging the connectionbetween the two. Its catalogue for MIPTV is filled withtitles that further serve this goal. Burma: A Human Tragedy,narrated by Anjelica Huston, is a humanitarian film thatturns a light on what’s happening to the people of Burma.Life, Death, & Reincarnation with the Dalai Lama looks atHis Holiness’s experience with life, what he thinks aboutdeath and reincarnation. The Vanishing City focuses on the“luxurification” of New York City and the effects it’s hav-ing on the middle class and working poor. Jelly Bean is alsohighlighting The Cross Upon the Hill and The Deity Puppets.

“I believe these programs are [focused on] subjectsthat viewers want to know and learn about,” says SabrinaChen-Louie, the president of Jelly Bean. She notes thatthe topics are controversial, based on fact and are “spir-itually interesting.”

• Burma: A Human Tragedy• Life, Death, & Reincarnation with the Dalai Lama• The Vanishing City• The Cross Upon the Hill• The Deity Puppets

The Vanishing City

“Our dream and passionis to take good storiesand produce them intodifferent media soeveryone around theworld can share andlearn about the Eastand the West.”

—Sabrina Chen-Louie

www.jellybeanfilm.com

• Flesh Air: Sexy Gals & Hot Cars • The Four-Faced Liar • An Affirmative Act

MultiVisionnaire

Flesh Air: Sexy Gals & Hot Cars

“Our expectationsfor MIPTV arehigh, and we’relooking forward to connecting withour existing buyers and newbuyers about ouroriginal series.”

—Sean Haley

TV REAL12

www.multivisionnaire.com

Jelly Bean Films & Distribution

MultiVisionnaire, which handles more than 70 titles, isintroducing its original reality series Flesh Air: Sexy Gals &Hot Cars. The show features a popular airbrush artist,Wayne Harrison, as he custom-paints fancy cars forfamous clients. Afterward, Harrison body-paints a nudewoman to complement the car, while celebrity photog-rapher David Anderson takes pictures for a calendar.

The company will also be offering two TV moviesbased on social and gender issues. The Four-Faced Liar, afilm about a young woman who has fallen in love withanother woman while in a long-term relationship with aman, has been airing on pay-TV networks worldwide,including HBO and Cinemax in Central Europe andMTV’s Logo. An Affirmative Act deals with a lesbian couplewho adopt a child and a legal battle that ensues. SeanHaley, managing partner at MultiVisionnaire, says of theofferings, “We’re focusing on sexy programming and sex-uality as alternative content for buyers looking for a moremature product for their audience.”


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As 3D has become a buzz word in the industry, NHU Africais looking forward to showcasing its first 3D production,Dragon’s Feast 3D. This is the latest installment in the “Dra -gons Trilogy” from NHU. Viewers first began to follow thequests of marine photographer Roger Horrocks in Into theDragon’s Lair. His stories of close encounters with crocodileshave extended into Touching the Dragon. In Dragon’s Feast3D, the pieces come together and Horrocks’s adventuresare brought to a conclusion. “The Dragons Trilogy is a thrilling, nail-biting series of films

that will shock and awe, but also take the viewer on a journeyto understand the relationship between man and beast,” saysSophie Vartan, CEO. The catalogue also includes Saving RhinoPhila, Paseka the Easter Elephant and Leopard on My Branch. “Ourprogramming features strong character-driven and human-animal-interaction stories, charismatic wildlife species andfootage that will blow buyers away,”Vartan says.

• Touching the Dragon• Dragon’s Feast 3D• Paseka the Easter Elephant• Saving Rhino Phila• Leopard on My Branch

NHU Africa

“NHU Africa has a catalogue bursting with distinctive African stories that arebreaking new ground in the wildlife documentary genre.”

—Sophie Vartan

www.nhuafrica.com

Viewers worldwide were glued to their TV sets for the res-cue of the trapped miners in Chile last year, and NationalGeographic Channels is now offering Chilean Miners: BuriedAlive. The company has also kept up with pop-culture trendswith programming such as The Truth Behind Zombies. Thecatalogue features programming from the wildlife genre,with Beast Man; travel and adventure series, such as WarriorRoad Trip; and science fare, including Clash of the Continents.“The programs being unveiled at MIPTV represent a

range of genres that perform well across factual schedules andreflect the overall strengths of National Geographic Chan-nels’ productions,” says Germaine Deagan Sweet, the VP ofglobal content sales. “From character-driven wildlife series toexplorations in pop culture, relevant current-affairs storiesand strong science, National Geographic Channels’ catalogueof programming has an increasing volume of fresh [gender-neutral content].”

• Beast Man• The Truth Behind Zombies • Chilean Miners: Buried Alive• Warrior Road Trip • Clash of the Continents

Beast Man

TV REAL14

www.ngcimedia.com

“Our overall slate offers flexibility for buyerslooking for innovative and smart programming.”

—Germaine Deagan Sweet

Paseka the Easter Elephant

National Geographic Channels


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A number of the new series from Passion’sMIPTV slate spotlight real-life happeningsin unique workplace settings. One suchshow is Ice Brigade. Sally Miles, Passion’sCEO, says the show is “going to be our newAce of Cakes, but for ice, with ice sculptors.”Pretty Hurts looks inside a Beverly Hills skin-care clinic, spotlighting “injector to the stars”Rand Rusher and his team. Delving into thefashion world is All on the Line. “We’ve gotother fashion programming that’s going tocomplement that,” Miles says, noting that“buyers like to have [related] programming.”The slate also includes Secrets from a Stylist,helping homeowners unleash their innerpersonal style, and Love/Lust, looking atinnovative products and ideas.

• Pretty Hurts• Ice Brigade• All on the Line• Secrets from a Stylist • Love/Lust

Passion Distribution

Ice Brigade

“We see these shows selling acrossthe schedule, fromjust slightly off-peak to peak.”

—Sally Miles

www.passiondistribution.com

• Catchin’ Air• Undersea Edens• One Six Right: The Romance of Flying• Rally On!

Solid Entertainmentwww.solidentertainment.com

Catchin’ Air

“We expect that mostof the broadcasters wemeet will be looking fornew programming, andwe’ve got it.”

—Richard Propper

Solid Entertainment’s Catchin’ Air delves intothe extreme sports arena. “Kite-surfing is wellunder way to become the next big water andbeach sport,” says Richard Propper, thefounder and president. Another “extreme”offering is Rally On!, which looks at a cross-country automotive race called the Gum-ball 3000. “While not all audiences want todo something this crazy in their lives, theycertainly want to watch those who do,”Propper says. Further highlights includeUndersea Edens. “This is one of the bestunderwater documentaries I’ve ever seen onour ocean world, and I’ve been selling themfor 16 years!” There’s also One Six Right, ofwhich Propper comments, “I’m not a pilot,but after watching this film, you understandwhy people become private pilots.”


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TV REAL18

Terranoa has 36 fresh hours of factual programming forbuyers, including the 90-minute Facing the Killer Volcano.“Character-based event programs built around a com-memorative date such as Facing the Killer Volcano are idealfor co-production and suited for an international mar-ketplace hungry for big-scale innovative factual-baseddramas,” says Isabelle Graziadey, the head of internationalsales and acquisitions. Also new from Terranoa is The New Faces of Nouvelle

Couture, which Graziadey believes has strong potential forpresales since “well-crafted fashion series and travel showsare always in demand internationally by cable [networks].”She continues, “So are social issues tackling our role as con-sumers and citizens, as embodied by Diaper Dilemma, ahumorous journalistic investigation into an issue eco-friendly parents are facing worldwide.” Baltic Coastlines andMeet My Wild Friend round out the slate.

• Facing the Killer Volcano• Meet My Wild Friend• The New Faces of Nouvelle Couture• Baltic Coastlines• Diaper Dilemma

TerranoaDiaper Dilemma

“Identifying new partners and thechanging needs in the broadcastingrealm [are part of our goals forMIPTV].”

—Isabelle Graziadey

www.terranoa.com


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Stuff happens, to recall the words of Forrest Gump.And it keeps happening, meaning that the one genre that

documentary filmmakers will never have to worry aboutexhausting is current affairs.

To take it one step further, some of the worst stuff that hap-pens makes for some of the most successful current-affairsdocumentaries. Turmoil in the Middle East, earthquakes andvolcanoes, floods and tsunamis, global climate change, wars,the miners trapped in Chile, terrorist attacks—these werethe subjects of multiple documentaries last year and this year.

Many of those documentaries come from public broad-casters with well-funded news operations and mandateswith more emphasis on explaining recent events than onturning profits. But when the events are global in impact,the public broadcasters’ commercial arms bring the docu-mentaries to market.

Alexander Coridass, the president and CEO of ZDFEnterprises, sees high demand in the international market-place for programs that help viewers understand events likecatastrophic accidents and terror attacks.

“We always call them background stories,” he says. “They aremore in depth, with more details. If you know the background,you know it better than if you just knew the event. There isalways an interest in the market for profound analysis.”

UNIQUE INSIGHTCoridass says today’s viewers aren’t as interested in what hecalls “classical documentaries that explain things,” but theywill respond to a strong, well-told story. “We know there areterrorist forces in the world and there are ecological prob-

lems,” he explains. “The question is how you present it. Areyou able to bring something really interesting? Our job is topresent it in a way that is new, exciting, that offers newinsights and information and that brings new techniques. Iwouldn’t say there is something that always works. It dependson your approach and the making of it.”

The Al Qaeda attacks on the United States in 2001spawned dozens of current-affairs documentaries that con-tinue to resonate as the tenth anniversary approaches.

“For us, it’s so interesting that a third of the U.S. populationbelieves the government was involved in the attacks,” Coridasssays. “We are dealing with that with 9/11: Science and Conspiracy.”

The program uses forensic experiments to explore both theofficial story and related conspiracy theories, and examineswhy these theories persist in our culture, despite official gov-ernment reports.

ZDF Enterprises’ recent successes include NataschaKampusch, the story of an Austrian girl who was kidnappedat the age of 10 and held eight years until she escaped. “Itturned out she is a very interesting and intelligent youngwoman,” Coridass says. “We found, at least in Europe, ahuge interest.”

The four-part India Reborn deals with the rise of India inthe last decade. “We did something like that five or ten yearsago with China,” Coridass says. “A lot of people [are interestedin] these developing countries. We try to put emphasis onwhat is happening in these territories.”

The BBC has earned a global reputation for its current-affairs coverage, much of which is made for its Panorama pro-gramming strand, sold internationally by BBC Worldwide.

TV REAL22


WorldEyes

By Bill Dunlap

ZDF Enterprises’India Reborn.

Current-affairs documentariesthat help put complex

world issues into context arealways in demand.

on the

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“There is a market for those big global stories,” says TimMutimer, the senior VP for sales and distribution in Europe,the Middle East and Africa for BBC Worldwide. That doesn’tmake current affairs an easy sell, though.“It’s one of the most difficult genres we sell,” Mutimer says,

“in that current affairs does differ from country to country.Where we have success is in those global stories, and by mak-ing really good programs that stand out and can sit alongsideprograms that are made in each country. Sometimes theresources we have mean that we can do something that theycan’t.” BBC Worldwide has sold Panorama docs in more than70 territories over the years.The sweet spot for Mutimer is found in the combination of

global issues and human-interest stories, as in Panorama’s cov-erage of the trapped Chilean miners last fall. “It makes audi-ences feel closer to news and current affairs,” he says.For Trapped: The Chile Miners’ Story, Panorama followed fam-

ilies and engineers at the surface as they worked to free themen, and probed into mine-safety issues, revealing new evi-dence of massive safety problems in the mine being ignoredjust weeks before the collapse.BP: In Deep Water, on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year,

examined the full consequences of the disaster to fishermenand the ecosystem and the war of words between the Obamaadministration and an embattled BP, asking what went wrongand who was really to blame.Mutimer also has success selling programs from another

BBC strand, This World, which looks at global issues throughhuman stories. “This World has broad appeal becausein addition to the current-affairs interest, there is ahuman story there as well,” he says. “Topics thatpeople really aren’t that aware of can be really inter-esting because of the way the story is told.”Two recent hours from the This World strand are

Surviving Haiti and Pakistan’s Flood Doctor, both ofwhich examine disasters through human stories.Surviving Haiti follows some of the people whowere rescued from death beneath the rubble: athree-year-old child, a musician, a student and agirl who was rescued after nine days.The flood doctor is Dr. Shershah Syed, a famous

surgeon from Karachi caught up in the greatestdisaster to hit his country in living memory. A third major-market public broadcaster, NHK

in Japan, is a big player in current-events documen-taries, and also has a program on the Chilean min-ers which it completed just days after their rescue.

RIGHT ON TIMENHK puts a premium on timeliness, according toKazumasa Iida, the head of international programdevelopment. “Our audiences look to NHK forfurther explanations about what they hear in thenews,” Iida says. “So, our in-house team producescurrent-affairs programs as timely as possible toanswer the audience needs. For instance, ten daysafter the rescue of the Chilean miners, we made aspecial program, Out of the Hole: The Untold Story,which included exclusive footage that we gotusing our own source, of the miners as they werestill trapped beneath.”

Similarly, NHK moved quickly last year with WikiLeaks:Who Owns Confidential Documents?, which included NHK’sown interview with WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange.Another program with broad appeal that NHK is bringingto MIPDOC is The Game Revolution, on the video-gamingindustry’s growth and the competition among developers.

DOMESTIC POLICYAt the same time, NHK isn’t shy about tackling subjects thatmight only have limited appeal internationally. “NHK also produces many current-affairs programs on

topics that are not necessarily receiving the highest interest,”Iida says. “There are always important subjects or social issuessurrounding us, such as foreign affairs, an aging society, wel-fare, unemployment, etc., that the public should be aware of.A good example of this is a series of programs under theumbrella title Overcoming ‘The Japan Syndrome’ that NHKlaunched in January. The series offers intensive coverage ofJapan’s national malaise rooted in years of economic andsocial stagnation.”Iida also points to the international success of its 13-part

series China in a Torrent. “This series takes an in-depth look atthe internal affairs of China and its attempts to make historicchanges as it becomes the 21st century’s economic giant,” Iidasays. “The combination of extremely careful coverage and cor-rect contacts revealed the pressing issues in China that had notbeen covered extensively as such. It was a courageous series andhence the program was received well internationally in both

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23TV REAL

On the front lines: Nat Geo’s Afghanistan

war doc Restrepo—nominated for an Oscarthis year—delivered big

numbers in its U.S.debut last November.


sales and awards. The series traveled to more than ten countries,including France, Spain and Korea.”Unlike the public broadcasters, who have a mandate to

produce for the home market first, commercial entitieshave to focus first on the broader, international appeal ofthe current-affairs projects they produce or acquire, and givesome consideration to shelf life.Michael Cascio, the senior VP of production for National

Geographic Channels, has to take into account that NationalGeographic has channels serving 168 different territories. “Most of our programs are meant for National Geographic

internationally or, if not our channel, they may show up else-where”—on a co-production or presale partner’s channel.“We try to make our programs available to all our channels.And, if we do a current-affairs program, we want to be sureit can repeat. We’re not the news and we don’t want to be. Ithas to be deep enough to repeat and live well.”

MATCH POINTCascio sees current affairs as a natural match for the NationalGeographic brand. “If you look at the magazine, there’s alwayssome contemporary piece on what’s happening, say, in Pakistan,”he says. “The brand does allow for current affairs in several cat-egories—actual events happening now, and certain types ofevents warrant a deeper look. So when a volcano blows in Ice-land, as it did a year ago, we happened to have a crew there as itwas blowing. They contacted us and we did a program in twoweeks” for the channel’s Naked Science series. “The world wasaffected. Airports were shut down. On at least two continents,and probably more, it changed lives. Even where it didn’t relatedirectly to a country, there was an interest in it.”Another category is world issues that are ongoing and

need a spotlight or amplification, presented often under theInside rubric. “We got access to Guantánamo and went

inside,” Cascio says. “We did a co- production called Inside the Koran, whichlooked at Islam today and the interpreta-tions of the Koran. We did Iran and the West,an inside look at the changing relationshipsince the revolution in 1978. Those areissues that fit right into the sweet spot ofNational Geographic. They give a more in-depth look at issues of relevance.”National Geographic provided co-

production money for Sebastian Jungerand Tim Hetherington’s Afghan War doc-umentary Restrepo, which was an AcademyAward nominee this year. “It’s a veritélook at life in wartime,” Cascio says. “Itaired in November and was the highest-rated show on our U.S. channel for theyear. It’s contemporary in that it shedslight on what’s going on in Afghanistanand it does it in a way that’s very com-pelling and powerful. It’s stuff you’re notgoing to see elsewhere.”Currently, Cascio is following the devel-

opment of Virgin Galactic, Richard Bran-son’s commercial space-flight venture. “Wehave the rights to follow that. It’s of interestto the world,” Cascio says.

Other upcoming projects include follow-up films on the9/11 attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Richard Propper, the founder and president of the docu-

mentary distributor Solid Entertainment in Los Angeles, callscurrent affairs his most interesting category. As a distributor ofother people’s films, Propper’s first concern is with interna-tional appeal and he rejects some 95 percent of the films he seeseither on grounds of quality or because he doesn’t see a mar-ket for them.

IN-DEPTH ISSUES“Something that’s always been popular is a story that has to dowith law or the breaking of laws,” Propper says. “People wronglyconvicted, justice docs. The challenge is finding good ones. Cur-rent affairs have to stand above the daily static of information.It has to be in depth; it has to have a point of view; it has to bewell researched. What we look for are stories that aren’t part ofthat normal, daily static of information.”As an example, Propper offers Juanita Castro: Fidel’s Sister

in Exile. “Juanita Castro is a woman who’s been on TV a cou-ple of times but has never told her entire story,” Propper says.“It’s a perfect example of something you couldn’t just pick upon the Internet. This is only available in this film.”As a pure distributor of documentaries, Propper is attentive

to a program’s shelf life. “Docs related to ‘ripped from theheadlines’ events and new movies that are just out have veryshort shelf lives,” he says. “I don’t want a film that’s old news.We look for films that straddle a big range. Timing also playsa part. I picked up the documentary on Fidel’s sister aboutnine months ago. It was a Spanish production”—from Dis-covery Latin America—“and a great film. Fidel is not goingto be around for a long time. This will become a ‘ripped fromthe headlines’ documentary. People will want informationon him and we will have it.”


TV REAL24

Survival tactics: Solid Entertainment’sWhat Would DarwinThink? looks at thecurrent ecologicalthreats to the Galápagos Islands.


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Another current project with broad appeal is What WouldDarwin Think?, a film on ecological threats to the GalápagosIslands. “There are problems because of trash coming into theecosystem and nonnative plants and animals. If anything hap-pens in the Galápagos, where there is a larger concern aboutthat area, we have the right film.”

CRYSTAL-BALL GAZINGFilmmakers are always trying to anticipate what will be hot inthe coming year, Propper says, with mixed results. As of late Feb-ruary, he hadn’t seen anything yet on the turmoil in Egypt or theMiddle East. “If you had a doc on Mubarak, that would be saleableright now, but probably for a very small window,” he says.

Recent strong sellers have been Terra Antarctica, which looksat the South Pole region in terms of global warming, mineralrights and tourism, and Barack: Evolution of a Leader.

“Terra Antarctica is selling because there is a lot of curiosityabout the polar ice caps melting,” Propper says. “It’s currentaffairs, but it has an undertow of being sort of a natural- history documentary at the same time. Our Barack Obamadocumentary contained the oldest known television inter-view he had ever done and it traveled quite a bit. It took hisaudio book as the narrative to paint the story.”

Current-affairs filmmakers face several challenges, includ-ing time constraints, shelf-life issues and tight budgets. On the

plus side, though, they can berelatively inexpensive.

The need to be timely gen-erally precludes use of expen-sive CGI effects or dramaticre- creations. And while pro-ducers aspire to high produc-tion values, the acceptance ofhome video, cell-phone video,You Tube clips and Skypetransmissions on the air todaymake it easier to incorporatesuch content into current-affairs programs.

“We’re a high-def channel,”says Cascio, “but if there is avail-able video that works, in thesecategories that’s what it’s allabout. We did an interestingproject on Hurricane Katrinafive years later, where we tookhome-video footage andpatched it together in a way thatmade you feel you were thereand you hadn’t seen it before.”

Shelf life is an inherent prob-lem with current affairs, natu-rally. “When thinking of shelflife, the best way is to find theuniversal message,” NHK’s Iidasays. “Instead of just focusing onthe issue, we try to focus on thebackground—why and how itall occurred, which usually givesus a more universal approach tothe subject.”

Aside from obvious things like not mentioning specificdates, Cascio says you need to put the emphasis on provid-ing relatively timeless information.

“You want to look at, say, the Iceland volcano, but youwant to make sure you’re giving information that will beuseful and relevant six months from now,” he says.

Budgets can vary widely, with broadcasters like BBC, ZDFand NHK willing to spend lavishly on important stories andindependent producers counting every penny.

Propper has seen current-affairs docs come in withbudgets as low as $25,000, but many he handles are tentimes that. “There are some fantastic films being done now,and probably more of them because the technology is soinexpensive,” he says.

Cascio points out that current-affairs docs often require alot of planning and shooting, which can drive up costs. “Wedid a show on the counterterrorism force in New York,” henotes. “We followed them for eight or nine months, includingNew Year’s Eve.”

“The BBC doesn’t care if a program is profitable or not,”Mutimer says. “They care about the subject.”

Coridass says ZDF’s budgets are almost as high as for bigdramas, ranging from €200,000 to €1 million euros an hour.“Sometimes producing current-affairs programs is like gam-bling on the stock market,” he says.


On the scene: TheBBC’s signature current-affairs strand,Panorama, recentlyfeatured a special onchild labor in thecocoa trade in West Africa.

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Whether facing the icy open road in an 18-wheel truck ornavigating treacherous waters in a small fishing vessel,everyday heroes in extraordinary situations make for cap-tivating reality television. This subgenre of factual pro-gramming presents the stories of the unheralded everymanin high-risk, high-reward professions and tells themthrough authentic narratives. Many of these shows havetranslated into ratings gold for broadcasters and are topmoneymakers for distributors.

Thom Beers and his Original Productions have homedin on this segment’s popularity, becoming a powerhousein unscripted television focused on dangerous jobs. Thecompany is the driving force behind such hits as Discov-

ery’s Deadliest Catch, truTV’s Black Gold andHISTORY’s Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men.Fremantle Media took note of Original’s ability totell these stories and in 2009 bought a majoritystake in the company. The two already had anestablished distr ibution relationship, withFremantle Media Enterprises (FME) having sold anumber of ser ies from the Original portfolio,including LA HardHats, Verminators and Ameri-ca’s Toughest Jobs, worldwide.

Original’s storytelling skills within this genre are“second to none,” says Jeff Tahler, the senior VPof acquisitions and development at FME. “Thereare others out there that now try to replicate thattype of storytelling, but it’s pretty widely acknowl-edged in the industry that Thom and the teamover at Original Productions are the pioneers, andstill really do the best job out there.”

DANGEROUS LIAISONS The popularity of shows focused on blue-collarheroism can be attributed to a number of factors,Tahler says. “The biggest reason is that they’re veryvisual. You don’t really need to speak the languageto understand what these people are goingthrough. Also, it takes you into these worlds thatvery few people know a lot about....You neverreally think about the dangerous roles that thesepeople get into. Those of us who work what Iwould call ‘normal jobs’ look at what these peo-ple do and are fairly amazed at all that it takes toget these jobs done. It’s action-packed.”

David McKillop, the senior VP of developmentand programming at HISTORY, also notes theallure that shows on exploring the unknownhave. “Each of these shows brings viewers into aworld that they’ve never experienced before, onethat is immersive, surprising and engaging,” hesays. “The people in those worlds are guys whoembody the pioneering spirit—men who are liv-ing life on their own terms and by their ownrules, facing the danger of their jobs fearlessly. Itplays to the frontier ‘do-it-yourself ’ spirit of his-

tory, which is missing in many people’s daily lives.”McKillop points out that jobs don’t necessarily have to

be dangerous to make for good television. “The secret tothe success of these shows is that the appeal is actually builtvery carefully on much more than just danger,” he notes.“If danger were the only essential [element], then any‘dangerous job’ show would succeed, and that hasn’t beenthe case. These series are aspirational; there is nothingmany males would rather be doing than facing down thechallenges of the wild—ice, forests and alligators—with alarge truck, saw, boat or gun.”

Passion Distribution has found success with shows thatfeature a range of occupations that aren’t dangerous, fromcustom- cake makers to industr ial clean-up crews. SallyMiles, Passion’s CEO, explains, “Whether it’s Ace of Cakesor The Real Filth Fighters, these shows are dealing withreal life and real people going about a real situation—be itfluffy or be it grimy.”

TV REAL28


By Kristin Brzoznowski

AETN’s Ice Road Truckers.

Reality series set within the workplace aresecuring slots on a range of networks,across a variety of time periods.

JobOnthe

REAL_411_JOBS_REAL_408_NIGHT 3/15/11 6:01 PM Page 2

Miles attr ibutes much of the success of series such asGrimefighters to the “dirtiest jobs” phenomenon, which isalso quite popular in the workplace genre. “Combinedwith the window the viewer gets into how other peoplelive, something like Grimefighters is alluring because it cer-tainly makes us feel better about ourselves,” she says. Beyond Distribution, too, has seen a strong appetite for

workplace shows, though ones that aren’t necessarily dan-gerous or dirty. “None of the jobs [featured in our] prop-erties are dangerous, unless you chop off a finger in thekitchen!” quips Munia Kanna-Konsek, Beyond’s head ofsales, referring to the slew of cookery series in the cata-logue. Shows such as Chuck’s Day Off, Fink and Chef Schoolcover everything from learning to be a chef or runningyour own restaurant to increasing young people’s selfesteem through the art of cooking, Kanna-Konsekexplains. There are also real-estate titles like Big City Brokerand Property Shop on Beyond’s slate, along with the entre-preneur-focused Masters’ Apprentice, You’ve Got the Job andBest Job in the World.

THE RIGHT RÉSUMÉ While Kanna-Konsek says the success of these shows is duein part to the popularity of the home renovation, propertyand food categories, she also admits that strong charactersare what’s key. “Most successful programs are characterdriven. Audiences love to love or hate them, identify withand aspire to be like them. It is the characters that give theprogram depth and soul.” HISTORY’s McKillop agrees: “The strength and authen-

ticity of the characters, along with telling compelling sto-ries, play a huge role in determining the success of a series.”

He adds, “These series are a perfect blend of the two…. Thecharacters are revealed through their jobs—there isn’t anice-road trucker without a truck and some ice!” FME’s Tahler says it’s the jobs that bring viewers to the

series, but it’s the characters who keep them coming back.“It’s a tr ied-and-true formula for any television show,”Tahler explains. “You come for the concept—in this caseit’s the job. Whether it’s the crab fisherman or the ice-roadtrucker or the coal miners or the guys on the oil rigs, youlook at those jobs and you say, Wow, I’d really like to learnmore about that. What keeps you [hooked] are the char-acters and their dramatic stories.” Whether it’s the jobs that have the allure or the larger-

than-life personalities working in them, there’s no doubtthese shows have struck a chord with viewers. Many work-place programs have been ratings leaders, drawing in bigaudience numbers and giving broadcasters even moreincentive for pickups. Paul Heaney, the president and man-aging director of Cineflix International, says, “These typesof shows, irrespective of their subject, are gems for thebroadcasters, as they are frequently high-volume series thatcan lock in a slot and command high ratings over a sus-tained period. They also have a secondary role as ‘blottingpaper,’ soaking up the floating viewer.”

JOB PLACEMENTS Heaney also points out that these shows can play across a rangeof networks, from general-entertainment channels to nichelifestyle services. “There is an observational doc series out therefor every broadcaster,” he says. “With our own shows, we havePython Hunters for the natural-history/adventure channels,Cash & Cari for the female audience, The Cupcake Girls forthe more upscale entertainment slots,” and the list goes on.

29TV REAL

Standing tall: Beyondrepresents a wide

range of workplace-based series, like

Big City Broker.

Heavy lifting: FremantleMedia owns a majority stake in OriginalProductions, producer of the hit show Black Gold.

4/11 World Screen 189


Another advantage for broadcasters, Heaney says, is thatthese workplace-focused subjects can easily be stacked tocreate thematic blocks. “I’ve noticed broadcasters tackingtogether more than one show to create a strand, whetherit’s an animals-and-vets theme (Python Hunters, AnimalSquad, Animal Rescue, Zoo Tales), saving lives and security(Surf Patrol, Border Security) or comedic factual (Air Ways,Dussault Inc., The Cupcake Girls).” Heaney further highlights these series’ broad schedul-

ing potential. He says that the shows play mainly in primetime or weekend daytime, “but I’ve also seen shows of thisilk appear in the most unpredictable time slots.”

AT THEIR PEAKPassion’s Miles agrees that depending on the broadcaster,these shows can be placed into slots ranging from justslightly off-peak to peak. One example of a workplace reality series dominating

in prime time is Studio Lambert’s Undercover Boss, soldby ALL3MEDIA International. The series was commis-sioned by Channel 4 in 2008 and was piloted for the U.S.in early 2009. CBS placed a full order for the show, whichfollows members of management as they slip into front-line jobs incognito, and decided to debut the series imme-diately following the 2010 Super Bowl. “It was anextraordinary way to launch a show,” says Stephen Lam-bert, the founder and chief executive of Studio Lambert.“The first episode was seen by almost 40 million viewersand the first series was the most popular new show of the2009–10 tele vision season, with an average audience of 17million viewers.” The show has sold into nearly 200 ter-ritories, with the majority of the pickups coming fromleading commercial networks.

“We conceived of the show as a format,and it was always intended to be somethingthat could be made in other terr itories,”Lambert explains of Undercover Boss. Yetreviews are mixed on whether all series inthis genre have format potential.

WORKING OVERSEAS Passion believes its new series Pretty Hurts, areality workplace comedy set in a BeverlyHills skin-care clinic, could be replicated as aformat. “I think you could go out and find abusiness very similar to that” outside of Bev-erly Hills, says Miles. “We would sell that as aformat, but with the original producersworking closely with the potential new pro-ducers to help them with what’s necessary forhow you need to cast the show and how youneed to film the show, the amount of charac-ters and story lines per episode.” HISTORY’s McKillop agrees that with the

right cast, workplace series are transportable.“The Pawn Stars format has been optioned inCanada by History Television and by SevenNetwork in Australia, while the American Pickersformat has also been optioned by History Tele-vision in Canada,” he points out. “We arespeaking with a number of broadcasters about

the format rights to these and other series.”There are others, however, who are not as optimistic

about the idea of formatting this style of programming.“These shows are really dependent on the location,” arguesFME’s Tahler. “These are jobs that happen in specificplaces. Can you bring people over? I guess. But would it beauthentic? Probably not.” Aside from often being location-based, job-centered

reality series also rely heavily on the strength of the per-sonalities they showcase. Trying to replicate the archetypeof these bold characters, or to recreate the unique settingsthese shows are set in can diminish the original appeal,Tahler says. “What really is the key to these shows is theauthenticity, and I think you lose that if you try to formatmost of these ideas.” From jobs that are dangerous or dirty to family-run

businesses to start-up companies dealing in fashion, cook-ing or real estate, the workplace genre runs the gamut.Given the proven success of these series, and their flexiblescheduling potential, the trend doesn’t seem to be losingmomentum, either. “Every time you think that there isn’t anything more to

tell, somebody unearths a job that you didn’t know verymuch about or a group of people who are so compellingthat you have to tell their story,” says Tahler. “A lot of pro-duction companies, including Original Productions, areout looking for what the next big thing is.”He adds, “People have shown that they like to sit on

their couch in the comfort of their own home and watchthese types of programs, so I don’t think they’re goingaway. There are always interesting worlds out there thatpeople don’t know about—these subcultures and smallerindustries—and they are very much still in demand.”


In the shot: Cineflix’s slate includes Dussault Inc.

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Discovery Channel was born of John Hendricks’s desire back in1985 to make television better and to satisfy viewers’ curiosity.More than 25 years later, Discovery Communications has become aleading nonfiction media company that reaches more than 1.5 billionsubscribers in more than 170 countries through 100-plus networks.In this exclusive interview, Hendricks explains how remaining faith-ful to that original mission of satisfying curiosity has fueled busi-nesses and programming, including an ambitious upcoming seriescalled, of course, Curiosity.

TV REAL: What is Discovery’s philosophy for extending theviewing experience onto other devices?HENDRICKS: If you think about our business at Discovery asfundamentally helping people satisfy their curiosity, we want todo that in all forms of visual media. Television is certainly our firsttarget, but we know that people are able to access video ondemand on their personal viewing devices, whether it’s theirnew iPad or their PC, and we want to be there with our content.There’s certainly going to be competition to the iPad, from Sam-sung and Motorola, and all the others that are coming out withtablet devices. And these are devices that uniquely mix text,video, audio resources, interactive resources, so we’ll be making abig strategic move into programming for the tablet devices.

TV REAL: In our first interview with you, back in 1999, youtalked about the importance of securing shelf space in the cableuniverse. How do you apply that concept in the digital world?HENDRICKS: Shelf space is critical, so any new platform thatmaterializes and makes it more cost-efficient to be able to breakapart your large category into sub-niches [offers potential]. That’salways a good rule of thumb—to try to anticipate the platformthat will allow you to subdivide your program offering. That’s

what we did when digital started.We realized that in the spectrumthat used to take six MHz to deliverone channel, that same six MHzthrough digital compression candeliver eight channels.

First, you have to anticipate thatthat’s going to happen. Then you haveto develop the content and try to befirst to secure that shelf space, becausethere’s a huge advantage if you arefirst in a large category, like sports.ESPN was first in that category andhad a huge advantage going forward.We were first in that large nonfiction-documentary [category] and had ahuge advantage. That’s why as westarted to break up the category ofnonfiction, we knew that if we didn’tcreate a science channel, somebodyelse would. Strategically you need toanticipate what shelf-space opportu-nities will be created by technologyadvances, then you have to decidewhat content can ride on that.

In the digital world, as we take thatdigital content on to the Internet andthe new tablet devices, we can godown to very, very specific needs and

curiosities. There may be someplace in America where someoneis asking, “How did they build the Panama Canal?”Well, wehave a wonderful one-hour documentary on the building of thePanama Canal, and that’s why we want to have it reside on afile server for people who can go to a menu that carries the Dis-covery brand and be able to access not only episodes of theirfavorite shows that they may have missed on the linear stream ofa channel of ours, but be able to dive into a 30,000-hour libraryof Discovery content that we’ve built over the years and reallybe able to satisfy a burning curiosity of a moment. Whetherthat’s history or the space shuttle or sharks, we have a wealth ofcontent that we can digitize and put online for the convenienceof our viewers and consumers.

TV REAL: As those platforms continue to multiply, is it diffi-cult to continue to find content to “feed the beast”?HENDRICKS: No. We have the whole world as our stage.There are so many interesting things that are happening andthat have happened in the past, that we can identify the topicsand craft wonderful stories.

We have another advantage. We created over the years thisinternational self-syndicated network so that we can plow$500,000 per hour to $1 million per hour quite readily behinda topic. That’s very difficult if you’re in one market, with onechannel in Germany or South Korea. If you look at the eco-nomics of those markets, what do they allow you to produceper hour? What is your per-hour investment limit? In many ofthese markets, you might do the math and it’s only $62,000. Butwith all of our networks internationally, we’re able to use theworld’s economics to put together a very powerful productionengine that’s fueled by the world’s resources. That gives us anadvantage in the marketplace. We’re investing more and more in

By Anna Carugati

Discovery’sJohn Hendricks

32 TV REAL

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4/11 World Screen

33TV REAL

content as each year goes by and we’ve got this engine now,this self-syndicated network, that we’re very pleased about.

TV REAL: Discovery was one of the first companies to launchinternationally. Are those businesses still very important today,and do you see considerable growth in international markets?HENDRICKS: Yes, absolutely. International for us is key, andwe’re so glad we took that gamble back in the late ’80s andearly ’90s to first launch in Europe and then to go worldwide.At the time, there were a lot of people who doubted the wis-dom of that, but we were always convinced that multichanneltelevision would just sweep the planet. We knew that in someinstances it would be via cable, in other instances it would be viasatellite direct to the home. But everywhere, whether in China,Korea, Austria, you name it, people would want their sportschannel; they would want a Discovery-type service. So, we werefortunate to get there first and claim that shelf space. We think the international marketplace is where the U.S. mar-

ketplace might have been ten years ago or even more. There’s somuch penetration growth that’s going to happen over the next 10to 15 years internationally, and we’re going to ride that wave withall of our services. So international is critical to us. I think it’sone of the defining advantages of Discovery Communications.

TV REAL: How did the idea for the series Curiosity comeabout, and why is this project important to you?HENDRICKS: When you think about our mission as a com-pany, we’ve always tried to keep that mission carefully definedand separate from a particular delivery technology. For instance,we think a lot of people that were running the networks in the’80s made a huge mistake by defining their business as being inthe broadcasting business. They didn’t foresee cable. It might’vebeen NBC that created an ESPN or CBS that...created aDiscovery-type service. Defining your business for growth isvery important, so we’ve defined ourselves as, “We’re inthe business of satisfying curiosity.” I think that givesyou a genetic advantage; in other words, it’s not a busi-ness that’s based on a fad, that’s here today and gonetomorrow. As a species, curiosity fuels our advance-ment. That’s why we invented the wheel, why weinvented spacecraft. It keeps us going forward. If weappeal to that, then we’ve got a long-term business. So I thought, Wouldn’t it be great if we had a

weekly series that really spoke to the heart of the Dis-covery mission? That was the genesis of the Curiosityidea, that we would have a long-term franchise,brandedCuriosity, that people could rely on week afterweek that would be a permanent fixture on a Sundaynight, the way that 60 Minutes is a permanent fixtureon CBS on Sunday night. Viewers come to expectthat 60 Minutes is going to bring them two or threegreat stories about what’s happening in the world.That’s what we want to do with Curiosity.This will be a series that will appeal to young peo-

ple as well as people who are lifelong learners. It willdebut late next summer. Our initial planning is for 60episodes, so it’s a big production agenda. It will be ourlargest programming investment, exceeding that evenof Planet Earth as well as Life. Each episode will bebased on trying to answer some big question: Are wealone in the universe? Or, why is cancer so desper-

ately hard to cure? We’ve been huddling with major universi-ties across the country, ranging from Princeton, the Universityof Maryland, Cornell, getting some of the top experts to firstidentify the huge questions and then come up with the bestanswers that we can provide at this time. So that’ll be the prom-ise of the series. You’ll see promos during the week that willsay, “Coming up on Sunday night, Curiosity addresses a certainquestion.”We have a lot of hopes for the series.

TV REAL: Is it important to take scientific topics and make themmore accessible to the general public, especially children?HENDRICKS: Absolutely. Especially as kids start their teenageyears, there’s a magic time like in middle school, where if kidshave an interest and they’re very curious, you really want tointrigue them at that moment to consider exploring science,technology or medicine. We’ve had a number of projects throughthe years that address education in the classroom, and DiscoveryStreaming is now a service that’s in more than half of the nation’sclassrooms. It’s a tool that the teachers can use to really excite kids,especially students in the seventh, eighth or ninth grade. With the Science Channel, we want to excite parents as

well as their kids about these scientific topics. It’s getting kidsat the seventh, eighth and ninth grade to be excited aboutscience. Michio Kaku, one of our scientists working on Dis-covery specials, talks about making sure that schools don’tdestroy curiosity by focusing on memorization of facts, ratherthan on these huge questions like are we alone in the universe.It may be a question like that that will get a kid excited aboutastronomy, for example. That’s what we’re going to try to dothrough Curiosity—have dimensions of curiosity that are foradults who are just lifelong learners, as well as packages forthe classroom and for kids in their leisure time, so they canenjoy it on their tablet devices or PCs or their laptops onweekends or at night.

193

Unmasking culture:Discovery has teamedup with the BBC on a

string of high-endblue-chip docs, mostrecently investing in

Human Planet.

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Professor Schama (he is on the faculty at Columbia University) hasan in-depth knowledge of history, art and culture, surpassed only byhis exquisite and elegant command of the English language—not tomention his passion for making important historical and contempo-rary issues accessible to the general public. After bringing to televi-sion numerous series for the BBC and PBS—A History of Britain,Power of Art and The American Future: A History—he is nowworking on a history of the Jews, Muslims and Christians. He talksabout the urgent need to give today’s viewers an understanding of thepast and its influence on present issues.

TV REAL: There seems to be an appetite for history on televi-sion, some say because the subject is taught so poorly in school.Are you seeing an appetite for history on television? SCHAMA:Yes, I think so. Regarding the school question I thinkthe problem is textbooks. There are often brilliantly good story-telling teachers—that is what makes all the difference in thesocial studies class, really—that are prepared to tell a story as away of opening up kids to questions. They do that very well,but they don’t do that well enough; it tends to be throttled by thegigantism of the impossible textbooks. So you are right, the dis-placed energy moves into the appetite for history.

There is something else, too, though. We live in a world of dig-ital short attention spans. The tweet world, which weirdly—andthis is entirely speculative and subjective—does tend to gener-ate a demand for the opposite: for the epic, for the lengthy, for theslow, for the reflective, for the connected. It’s exactly the oppo-site. Being human, it’s just the way that our ganglia are organized.So that feeds into the appetite for history on television.

The other thing is that there is not much in contemporaryhistory in the news now, whether it is the election of BarackObama or the rise of the Tea Party, which doesn’t extraordi-

narily plug itself into issuesand concerns that come fromthe past. The real challenge isto connect the contemporaryto storytelling about the pastin a way which isn’t too forcedand artificial.

TV REAL: Isn’t that difficult toaccomplish?SCHAMA: It’s not that hard todo, it requires essentially a con-ceptual jump. When you do sto-ries from the past they shouldn’tsimply be discrete—in otherwords, just men in wigs. It’smuch easier to do, say, FrederickDouglass and his connection toMartin Luther King. But there isalmost no topic that really is ofmore urgent concern to kidsand to our contemporary gener-ations than the connectionbetween the economic mael-strom we just passed throughand 1929. Both its similaritiesand dissimilarities are absolutelyfundamental to what becomesof us. The question “Was John

Maynard Keynes right?” sounds impossibly academic but canbe made amazingly available and accessible and exciting andpowerful. I can go to foreign policy—wherever I go, if you wantto [make the connection between past and present] you can.

TV REAL:What are you working on now?SCHAMA: It’s the most insanely ambitious thing and also it’sfraught with every conceivable kind of peril! It’s a history of thetriangulation between Jews, Muslims and Christians. I’m alsomaking two short films this year, which will be lovely, on Shake-speare’s history plays. Again, it’s the relationship between thepolitics of Shakespeare’s time, what we know about his ownangle on that politics, and his history plays, particularly [thecharacter of ] Falstaff. Falstaff is a figure pregnant with histori-cal significance.

TV REAL: Is TV doing a good job with history programming?SCHAMA: [Television executives] always fret about “the tele-vision of complexity” being an entertainment turn-off. Andwhatever is left of my life is devoted to making that a non-issue. I’ve been lucky that the BBC has let me do this, andthe Jewish series will be no exception. You must aim veryhigh in every respect. More important that you aim highand the audience may come. We did a really complicatedfilm about Obama and the economy and Williams JenningsBryan and J. P. Morgan, and two and a half million peoplewatched it pretty late at night—that was pretty damn good.So you aim high rather than actually listen to [those whosay] no one’s going to get this. It absolutely depends on howyou film it; above all it depends on how you edit it. And ofcourse you have to be aware that it must be understood byyour Aunt Ethel, too.

By Anna Carugati

34 TV REAL

Simon Schama

BBC’s Obama’s America with Simon Schama.

REAL_411_SCHAMA_DOC_0407_NIGHT 3/17/11 12:16 PM Page 2

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