Saturday, April 29, 2006

Back in Rotation...

I've just gotten my hand on a series of re-broadcasts for DECLASSIFIED...and our last premiere!

Here's what's coming up...all these times are Eastern. Check your local listings: different cable and satellite providers run shows at different times...

Declassified: Godfathers of Havana. Monday, May 01 @ 10am ET
Declassified: Godfathers of Havana. Monday, May 01 @ 4pm ET

(And this is the Premiere...)
Declassified: Secrets of World War I. Thursday, May 04 @ 10pm ET
Declassified: Secrets of World War I. Friday, May 05 @ 2am ET

Declassified: The Taliban. Thursday, May 11 @ 10pm ET
Declassified: The Taliban. Friday, May 12 @ 2am ET

Monday, April 17, 2006

Premiere #12, Show #1

This Thursday will see the premiere of the first regular episode of DECLASSIFIED that we created: THE TET OFFENSIVE. It's an important show because it was the one on which we created the template for everything that came afterwards.

We were very lucky in terms of our interview subjects: it was really pretty stunning (as it always it) to hear from the troops who took the time to talk with us. It was a frightening story to work on because those guys really give you a sense of how bloody and desperate Hue and Khe Sanh were. We also had the luck to talk to Allan Wendt, who was actually in the US Embassy when the attack began: now that is a story. Two journalists, Jack Languuth and Don Oberdorfer, were tremendously helpful on this episode and our program about the Viet Cong.

Perhaps the most dizzying interview I got to do all year is the one that closes out this show: Daniel Ellsberg. My one regret about the series is that I never found the answer to his challenge: find out who leaked LBJ's troop increases to the NY Times.

This one was our first baby: I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching it with fresh eyes this Thursday, April 20.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Change is in the air...

In recent weeks I've been shooting more material for the new Cornerstone video, working on a few other proposals, and prepping the next "DE-" series while the lawyers work out the details. It's been quite a whirl.

One rather interesting island was the Wende Museum, which I've visited the last couple of Fridays. I wish I'd known about this collection when we started DECLASSIFIED. It's a private archive/museum consisting of about 50,000 items from the USSR and GDR: socialist realist art, Checkpoint Charlie artifacts, uniforms, books, medals, photos, banners, plates, and on and on.

What's wild is that it's all in an office park in Culver City, just around the hill from my house. A recreation of a section of Eric Hoenneker's office right here in Mayberry, L.A.

I've had a chance to talk to the Wende's curator Kelly Ann Kolar a couple of times, and I'm hoping we can work with her on our next couple of programs. What she and her colleagues have put together is really a treasure.