Content from KCET

This musical adaptation of the Studs Terkel book examines the average worker's viewpoint--showing that he or she is anything but average. Based on a series of interviews with real working people--construction workers, waitresses, firemen, secretaries, and cleaning women, Working is both an exploration of the individuals' occupations and a lament for lost hopes and dreams.

An anthology film consisting of four shorts with the central theme being life in the United States.

Racial tensions come out of the woodwork when an upper-class white couple puts their suburban home on the market and the listing draws a pair of equally well-to-do African American buyers from Harlem. Fielder Cook directs this Broadway staging of playwright Arkady Leokum's exploration of lingering racial prejudice in 1970s America.

Sing! is a 2001 American short documentary film about the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, directed by Freida Lee Mock. How do squeaky-voiced 8 year olds become amazing singers? Sing! tells the story of how a community group, amid severe cutbacks in the arts, is able to develop a children's chorus that is one of the best in the country. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

A penniless heiress, a disillusioned nun, the suicidal playwright they both love, a hapless art forger and the playwright's wife converge on the empty Long Island home of an aging matriarch and squabble among themselves about their relative success or failure.

A man who wants to move on with his life by moving to California and marry his girlfriend, finds it difficult as he still lives in the towering shadow of his aging father.

Set in Ancient Greece, a street clown Cockian is hired by a Roman Commander to impersonate an imprisoned Christian leader in order to learn the group's secrets, but the clown begins to take his role to heart.

With his parents about to celebrate their wedding anniversary, a middle-aged husband agrees to renew his vows to his longtime wife. But as they assess their relationship, the couple discovers that their marriage no longer has any meaning. A televised production of Robert Anderson's thoughtful play, this fascinating drama deftly examines the institution of marriage and the nature of love.

Is a sensitive and mysterious poet really an IRA gunman in hiding? Set in a Dublin tenement in the 1920s, this was the first part of Sean O'Casey's celebrated "Dublin Trilogy." Equal parts comedy and tragedy, this classic play is brilliantly performed by a stellar cast.

A novel portrait of author Ernest Hemingway, in which four versions of the man from different points of his life exist simultaneously.

A perceptive and funny study about the fantasies, inhibitions and dreams of two frustrated and lonely middle-class matrons who set up competing lemonade stands along a jammed highway. This short play incorporates comedy and tragedy, a touch of the bizarre, and ultimately, a sincere compassion in both women.

Curley Delafield, a young arms merchant, is determined to discover the secret behind the disappearance of his sister Sarah.

Adapted from Arthur Miller's play, film focuses on a group of Frenchmen who are detained at Vichy, the capital of France while under Nazi occupation, and "investigated" under suspicion of secretly being Jewish.

A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.

Gallo Morales is the proud patriach returning home after a seven-year stint for manslaughter. Seeking to re-establish his legendary status as a champion breeder, he comes back for the rooster bred by his father. But it is Hector, his son who inherits the prize-winning bird and neither are about to give in. The fall-out from their conflict has consequences for the whole family, especially for Angela, the sensitive 14-year-old daughter unable to cope with the brutal world that surrounds her and her own emerging womanhood, despite the best efforts of Juana, her strong but long-suffering mother.

Baba Goya is a loudmouth mother who goes through husbands and orphans like the Turkish coffee she makes in a dirty old soup pan. In Queens she presides over a household comprised of a childish orphan who happens to be a cop, an elderly gentleman who explodes every time somebody calls him grandpa, a dying husband and an errant daughter who cries all night. The husband, Baba's fifth, is already submitting an ad for her sixth. The cop catches a Japanese stealing cameras and chains him to a radiator, the daughter guiltily confesses she voted for Nixon and runs off, and the husband-who may not die after all-insists they must wait out Watergate for a Democrat.

The Old Settler is the story of two middle-aged sisters, Elizabeth and Quilly, who share an apartment in Harlem in 1943. The sisters quarrel amiably, but they share a wounded history that becomes revealed as the tale unfolds. An earnest but unworldly young man named Husband travels up from the South to board with the sisters while he searches for his beloved Lou Bessie, who left their small town a few years back to find a new life. Husband would like to bring Lou Bessie back home, but she's enamored with the excitement of the city, and her plans are more complicated. In time, Elizabeth and Husband begin a courtship that may or may not overcome their considerable age difference, while Quilly reacts disapprovingly.

A young paraplegic wants to escape the bonds of gravity by going into outer space.

The Bergers, a blue-collar Jewish family living in an overstuffed tenement and undone by the Depression, struggle through hard times and dream of a better future in this 1972 production of Clifford Odets' pungent play. Personalities and politics clash as Odets' mélange of characters try to survive on pennies a day. Walter Matthau plays cynical World War I amputee Moe Axelrod, and Leo Fuchs portrays the family's iron-willed leftist grandfather.

A musical play based on the early years of actor Paul Muni.

Sid is an "inquisitive youngster" who uses comedy to tackle questions kids have about basic scientific principles and why things work the way they do.

Carl Sagan covers a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.

Growing up can be confusing! When Zach and Annie face difficulties in their lives, they go to special place called Plato’s Peak. There, Plato—a talking buffalo!—and his friends are always willing to lend a helping hand.

The Puzzle Place is an American children's television series produced by KCET in Los Angeles, California and Lancit Media in New York City, New York. It premiered on the Public Broadcasting Service on January 16, 1995, and ran for about four years, airing its final episode on December 4, 1998. Reruns were continued until March 31, 2000. The show followed a multi-ethnic group of kids from different parts of the United States who hung out at "the Puzzle Place", which is a teen hangout themed around jigsaw puzzle pieces. In each episode the characters were confronted with an everyday conflict usually encountered in childhood and even early teenagerdom, such as making moral decisions, sharing, racism, sexism, etc.

The head of the household, Jess Gonzalez (Edward James Olmos), is your average father who is forced to fight everyday troubles, following the death of his loving wife Berta (Sônia Braga). Their beloved daughter Nina (Constance Marie) has recently graduated from law school and decides to work for Legal Services on behalf of immigrant rights, although Jess does not agree with her decision. The rest of the Gonzalez family just tries to go with the flow, but they find their own problems down the road.

The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century is a 1996 documentary series that aired on PBS. It chronicles World War I over eight episodes. It was narrated by Dame Judi Dench in the UK and Salome Jens in the United States. The series won two Primetime Emmy Awards: one for Jeremy Irons for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, the other for Outstanding Informational Series. In 1997, it was given a Peabody Award.

Kino's Storytime, also known as Storytime, is a children's reading television series aired on Public Broadcasting Service Public television from June 6, 1994 to September 16, 1997. On each episode, adults and young people, often celebrities, read quality children's books aloud to children in the audience and viewers at home.

This half-hour sitcom anthology series that aired on PBS from 1987 to 1989 is about people struggling with the daily routines of life.

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza is a children's television show that was shown on PBS in the United States from January to May 1998. Re-runs aired until late 1999, with infrequent airings throughout 2000. It is a spin-off of the series Lamb Chop's Play-Along and was hosted by Shari Lewis, whose strong belief in the benefits of music education for children led to the creation of the series. The show takes place around a pizzeria on the beach. Alongside the original cast of Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and Shari, Charlie Horse Music Pizza introduced four new characters – Take-Out, a big anthropomorphized orangutan who makes deliveries on roller skates; Fingers, a giant purple raccoon that lives in the dumpster behind the pizzeria; Cookie the soft-hearted, opera-loving cook; and Junior, who works at the pizzeria part-time, and plays musical instruments, such as the tuba for his high school marching band. The series was put on hiatus after the May 30 episode aired due to Lewis' treatment in a local hospital. It was then cancelled when she died on August 2.

This series explores the lives and work of noted modern-day astronomers, taking the viewer into the farthest reaches of outer space in search of black holes, quasars, dark matter, gravity waves, stars and evidence of planets outside our solar system. Intriguing celestial phenomena are examined from the perspectives of the experts: the men and women that are uncovering the secrets of the cosmos. Further, the series focuses not only on professional achievements, but on the scientists' personal lives as well.

The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey includes all 12 episodes of the 1978 television series featuring the research adventures of Cousteau, a celebrated documentarian and public conscience of mankind's stewardship of our oceans. Alongside his son Philippe Cousteau, Jacques's adventures begin with an ambitious expedition (on Cousteau's famous Calypso ship and a seaplane called the Catalina) following the course of the Nile River from Central Africa to the Mediterranean.

13 episode series created by PBS to commemorate 100 years of movie-going. The history of Hollywood and filmmaking comes alive in this spectacular celebration of movie magic. It's a mesmerizing, epic analysis that combines rare archival film, key scenes from immortal movies, interviews with leading filmmakers and commentary from noted film scholars and critics. As seen on PBS, this series is the definitive chronicle of the American cinema, from its beginning to today. Includes interviews with Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Spike Lee, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Gene Siskel, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and many more.

Much of Los Angeles's past is lost to history, but through the region's archives, we can uncover the inspiring dreams and bitter realities that built the modern-day metropolis.

Four-part documentary miniseries showcasing a century of aerospace in Southern California and exploring the intersection of aerospace and Southern California from multiple perspectives.

The Body in Question is a landmark British medical documentary series of 13 shows made for the BBC. It was a groundbreaking show, being the first to ever televise an autopsy (in the final show on 29 Jan 1979). Dr Jonathan Miller considers the functioning of the body as a subject of private experience. He explores our attitudes towards our bodies, our ignorance of them, and our inability to read our body's signals. The first episode starts with vox populi asking where various organs in the body are located. By the final episode we are left in no doubt. Taking as his starting point the experience of pain, Dr Miller analyses the elaborate social process of "falling ill", considers the physical foundations of "disease" and looks at the types of individuals humankind has historically attributed with the power of healing. The series was nominated for two 1979 BAFTAs: Best Factual Television Series and Most Original Programme/Series.

An examination of the environment and environmental change, which is forcing all living creatures to adapt in order to survive.

Series of 54 original televised plays and classic dramas produced by public television station KCET in Los Angeles, featuring all-star talent, was broadcast nationally on the National Educational Television (NET) network and its successor PBS between 1970 and 1978.