Results tagged “pbs”

Serialized gem / siren song Tales of the City drew many folks to SF. Well, it brought us here, anyway. And the character of Mary Ann Singleton acted as a temporary stand-in until many of us arrived. To wit:

Some local PBS affiliate stations will be re-airing two San Francisco-centric episodes of "American Experience" this weekend.

arlyck, following-sean, pov, pbs

There were a lot of locals in the world of reality TV this week!

Green is the new black. And it's taking over your television set.

We have never seen the filming of any TV show before. Not a sitcom, not a talk show, not even a public access show. The only thing close to seeing something filmed live was one of those PBS pledge breaks and who really cares about them? All of this means that we were pretty excited to see the filming of Conan's first night in San Francisco.

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond handicaps the SF mayor's race (they're becoming disenchanted with Matt Gonzalez?). It's the all Chris Daly news section: Chris on the How Weird Street Faire, Chris on campaign finance reform, Chris and the ethics commission. Why didn't they also ask Chris for a quote on the Mission street cleaning proposal? Cover article: "Where do stolen bikes go? Can they find their way home? Back to the open arms, of a love that's waiting theeeeeeeere?" (YouTube clip of the Whitney Houston version here.) Former Examiner writer Justin Jouvenal goes on a quest to find his stolen Fuji bike -- they need to option this article for a movie, it's really good. Also -- Chris Daly's had six bikes stolen. Events listings: why not just print Chris Daly's schedule? Kimberly Chun goes to the Grammies and reports that people asked Christina Aguilera about crotch shots. Hey, our own SFist Elaine has a blurb about Ralph Nader! Too bad the Guardian didn't let her Caption Action the picture of Ralph. (We'd go with "Cannoli, anyone?") And Gavin Newsom's horoscope: "You're exhausting yourself trying to shake this monkey off your back." Team Rippey-Tourk!

A few years back, we were flipping the channels, and we ended up on a program on PBS. We recognized Michael Tilson-Thomas and at first, we were thinking, hey, it’s our MTT, what is he up to? We stayed a while for the local angle, as we would have had we caught, say, the Warriors on ESPN, or Gavin on a Sunday morning political show, or SFist Jer on Check Please!. But then we got hooked: we had to watch the thing till the end. It was a behind the scene look at how MTT and the orchestra prepare for a Tchaikovksy symphony, and boy was it well made: the piece was placed in a historical context, there were ample excerpts of the orchestra playing, you would get a good feel for the piece, and the things to notice in the score and in its interpretation were highlighted, with MTT or the orchestra members giving a short yet articulate explanation.

May has come upon us, and in the TV world that can only mean one thing: Sweeps! Many shows will be gearing up for season and series finales, but we're not really interested in any of that right now. Instead, we're psyched about PBS's entry into the sweeps machine, "Texas Ranch House," which premieres tonight at 8 p.m. with a two-hour episode.

was an exuberant and charged affair. Many of the subjects of this documentary revolving around one season with Students Run Oakland, (an athletic mentoring program that trains Oakland public high school students for the mental and physical demands of a marathon) were in the Kabuki's Theater One (Note to the SFIFF staff: what is the deal keeping the balcony closed until people threaten to riot? Just open the damn balcony, already!) laughing at and cheering for the onscreen versions of themselves.

Faithful readers, you've probably noticed that this SFist watches the same types of movies over and over again: Is it a documentary about something weird and/or in San Francisco? Gosh, who could SFist possibly get to watch that? So we figured we'd mix it up a little bit and go watch something a little less provincial for a change -- which is how we ended up at the 9:00 p.m. screening of the Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela at the SFIFF. First of all, the audience for a historical and personal documentary about South Africans in exile from 1960-1990 as apartheid was being dismantled is very different from the usual scruffians we see at our wacky movies about, say, the history of the Mission hipster told through burritos used as puppets -- there were a lot of earnest expressions on faces, internationalist people carrying Global Exchange backpacks, and in the audience, we ran into a friend from New York who's devoted her life to public interest law. Boy, we're usually pretty shallow in our movie picks, aren't we? Filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris told the audience that the documentary itself is a eulogy to his stepfather, who fled South Africa with a group of 11 friends and helped found the African National Congress, and an attempt to tell his story and to resolve posthumously the sometimes-strained nature of their relationship. His stepfather's story is pretty amazing (he fled, mostly by foot, from South Africa to Tanzania, and then emigrated to the Bronx). We started out dubious about the premise, and even more dubious about the dramatic "reenactments," but as the movie progressed, it all of a sudden didn't really matter. It's a great story. We wish there'd been a little more information about modern African history (the movie presumes a fair amount of knowledge) and we also got the sense that Harris was pulling some punches about the conflicts between him and his stepfather, but that's all pretty minor stuff. 12 Disciples plays again tonight at 6:30 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and it'll also be airing on PBS in September.

was nominated for an Oscar, is familiar with the festival circuit where lesser known players are shuttled from hotel room to screenings without ever making contact with festival organizers. He declared that SFIFF festival organizers made him feel like family. The audience was rooting for him even more after that.

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines.

We really got a kick out of reading everyone's TiVo (or plain old TV) top tens last week. The presence of "Lost" and "Arrested Development" on many of the lists was pleasing, while the avid devotion to "Dancing With the Stars" continues to perplex some of us at SFist. Perhaps we'll tune in to Fox's rip-off "Skating with Celebrities" next week instead, as it seems to have even more comedic potential (Todd Bridges on ice!)

The Year 2005 has finally come to an end, and none too soon. It kind of blew. We have higher hopes for 2006.

Last week has left us a little exhausted. There was a lot of TV to sample, and precious little time. But we're glad to learn that the cancellation bug has begun to spread, and some of these new shows will meet the fate they, in many cases, rightly deserve, (we're talking to you, "Head Cases.") But it's not over yet: There are even more season premieres coming our way this week!

SFist is fine without cable, really we are. We're on the eight-at-a-time plan with Netflix, so we know we'll get to see all the good stuff when it comes out on DVD. Anyway, SFist Rain's TV column is better than being there. We're fine with the networks, PBS, and Univision.

Postcards From Buster is about Buster's adventures travelling to real places and meeting real people. And no, we don't think it's because he should have made a left at Albuquerque, it's because he's trying to show all the kiddies out there all the different types of people and religions out there. Let's see Pokemon try and do that!

at home, but a tad embarrasssing for public transit.

We'll make this simple: Vote. And then go watch some TV.

We at SFist love the City. But did you know we love it so much that when we aren't outside exploring and enjoying it, we are inside exploring and enjoying it on TV? Hell, sometimes we even prefer the TV version. It's only on those Streets of San Francisco reruns (Sundays at 10:00pm on KBHK channel 44) that the streets are relatively free of cars, and full of available street parking. Not to mention the fact that Michael Douglas and Karl Malden aren't afraid to pair plaid jackets with firearms, a combo that would no doubt lead to their severe beating these days.