TVSquad

If you haven't checked out Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS yet, now you can actually buy it. The 12-hour series hit DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 6, and offers a stunning look at our national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and the Gates of Arctic in Alaska.

When you think about it, it's truly amazing how these natural wonders have become part of our lives, even if we've never been to them. Burns covers 150 years of the parks, starting with the concept in the mid-1800s and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia, Sam Waterston and others.

The cool thing about the DVD / Blu-ray sets is that you get three hours of bonus material, including a making-of featurette, Musical Journeys Through the National Parks, Contemporary Stories and Outtakes.

At today's TCA session for his new documentary series on the national parks, Ken Burns was asked if he was working on a "tenth inning" addition to his iconic Baseball series, which ended in 1992. As he is wont to do, Burns took about five or so minutes to answer that question. What it boils down to is that, yes, a tenth inning is coming, scheduled to air sometime in 2010.

As one of our commenters below pointed out, this was announced awhile ago. But it was good to hear Burns talk a little about what they're going to explore in the new episode. So much has gone on in the last seventeen years, from exploding economics, new stadia, steroids, HGH, labor strife, and steroids (yes, I said steroids twice), that a tenth inning was inevitable. Unlike some of Burns' other series, which only go up to a point in history because anything after that would seem redundant -- the national parks doc, for instance, will only cover until 1980 -- Baseball was aching for an update.

Oh, and by the way, Burns' euphemism for the steroids issue was "exploring human frailties." Can't really reconcile Roger Clemens shooting 'roids into his butt with being frail, but whatever.

General Motors has made a lot of dumb decisions in their day, and three-quarters of them are still being sold to gullible car-buyers across the globe.

However, one of their biggest, boneheaded moves doesn't involve a car at all. The soon-to-be-former car manufacturing giant has announced that it's ending its 22-year run as primary sponsor for PBS filmmaker Ken Burns, and it just might end Burns' career in television as we know it.

America's preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, the guy that made the Civil War must-see viewing, is hard at work on a new project. PBS will broadcast Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea in Fall 2009. In 12-hours, divided over six episodes, Burns will explore the places like Yellowstone, the Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, et al, as well as the people who were instrumental in the creation of these landmarks.

Like who? Start with Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. In the Ken Burns style, you can be sure to learn things about the parks that you never knew, stuff that were not in the tour books from the AAA.

Time for one of the best ironic Bush moments in recent weeks! Yep, it's the president's very educational slip-up. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation, but I spent most of the episode quietly chuckling at Jon's "'Childrens do learn'? Oh, does they?!" Damn sleep deprivation.

"Straight Outta Congress": Congress is taking on the popular language of the hip-hop genre. Congress and hip-hop! The two go hand-in-hand, like trout and peanut butter. Anyway, this was the first time in a long time that I've heard anybody say "the H-word". And Jon mocking the NWA question was absolutely beautiful.

The new season really kicks into gear starting tonight...

• At 7, CBS has the 40th season premiere of 60 Minutes, followed by a new Power of 10 and the season premieres of Cold Case and Shark.
• NBC has a new Football Night In America at 7, then the Cowboys/Bears game.
• The series premiere of The CW Now airs on the The CW at 7, followed by the series premiere of Online Nation.
• At 8, PBS has the premiere Ken Burns miniseries The War.
• FOX has the season premiere of The Simpsons at 8 (or after football), then the season premieres of King of the Hill and Family Guy.
• Nick has a new Zoey 101 at 8, then a new Unfabulous.
• Also at 8: TCM has the original War of the Worlds, then the original Time Machine.
• At 9, ABC has clip shows for Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.
• There's a new Side Order of Life on Lifetime at 9.
• VH-1 has a new Rock of Love at 9, then new eps of The Pick Up Artist and Hogan Knows Best.
• HBO has a new Tell Me You Love Me at 9, then a new Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• At 11, IFC has the season finales of The Business and The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman.

Check your local TV listings for more.

"Gee whiz, that crazy nut just shot at me! I'd like to give that silly so-and-so a bop on the noggin, by golly!"

Yeah, I just can't imagine a World War II veteran talking about his experiences and not using a few expletives, and there are more than a few curse words bandied about in Ken Burns' seven-part documentary The War. The swearing comes not only from the soldiers themselves who use phrases like "holy s**t" and "***hole," but from the narrator, who explains what the military acronyms "FUBAR" and "SNAFU" stand for (if you don't know, Google it).

Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to the end of summer reruns, and for the new fall season to kick off over the next several weeks. In addition to returning shows and new offerings from the networks and studios, I'm also quite interested in Ken Burns' new documentary for PBS, The War, which debuts on September 23 at 8:00 p.m. and is scheduled to air in seven parts. Check your listings for airtimes in your area.

I've been drawn to the idea of a lengthy documentary about World War II partially for the historical aspect, but moreso because of the human aspect. Growing up, my exposure to that era was through films featuring rugged heroes and clean, bloodless battles. Combine this with the solipsism inherent in all young people, and the result is a skewed --if not completely false-- perspective on what it was really like to be alive during that era, not only for the soldiers on the battlefields overseas, but also for the people back home.

PBS recently posted a teaser clip of the new Ken Burns documentary about World War II, The War, on YouTube. I've placed it at the end of this post.

Based on my past posts about this upcoming documentary (it airs for two weeks starting September 23), people have differing opinions about Burns' talent as a documentary filmmaker. As a layman, I thought his Civil War was well-made and very interesting, though certainly not the most exciting documentary I've ever seen.

I didn't even realize this until just now, when I was surfing around doing my "What's On" post, but Stephen Colbert is going to be on C-SPAN2 at 11:30 tonight. He's going to be part of a breakfast panel at BookExpo America, along with Ken Burns, Khaled Housseini, and Lisa See. Should be fun.

Colbert has a new book coming out on October 9, but it looks like he's doing promotion for it a little early, which is good news for us. I'm not sure if this is a brand new show or something repeated from the past week or so, but if you haven't seen it, it's new to you (to borrow an old NBC phrase)!

You'll recall my recent post where I said Ken Burns documentary about World War II angered some in the Latino community for its lack of coverage of Latinos who fought in the war. Well, Burns apparently took the protest to heart and has decided to not only go back and retool his 14-hour documentary to include the overlooked footage, but has also hired a Latino producer to help him create the new content. The War is scheduled to hit PBS in September. The series will focus on four communities in the United States and how they were impacted by the war.

As I said in my previous post, it has to be almost impossible to make a documentary about something as substantial as World War II and not inadvertently leave some stuff out. I do think it's admirable that Burns has decided to go back and amend his documentary, but at the same time I wonder what else he may have overlooked, and whether or not more people will come forward to accuse his documentary of being incomplete. People have the right to protest, of course, but I imagine pleasing everyone is almost impossible.

Ken Burns' upcoming PBS documentary about World War II has angered some veterans and leaders in the Latino community.

The protest was sparked by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, who runs an oral history project about Latino veterans for the University of Texas.

Burns points out that not every story could be told in The War, his 14-hour documentary slated to air on PBS this September, but the documentary contains no interviews with Latino soldiers whatsoever. Unfortunately, going back and splicing in stories from Latino veterans is easier said than done, and satisfying Rivas-Rodriguez's desire to have at least an additional two hours dedicated to Latino veterans is a rather tall order, considering the documentary focuses on four specific communities and Latino veterans from each of those communities would have to be found and their stories spliced in to fit the overall narrative.

War, what is it good for?

It's good for Ken Burns, we know that much. The documentary filmmaker behind the hugely popular Civil War documentary series is preparing to delve into war yet again with a new PBS documentary about World War II. Burns originaly didn't want to do another war documentary, but decided the story needed to be told while there were still people alive who fought in the war.

The War will air starting on September 17 and will be the first new series created by Burns after he inked a deal to have his work shown exclusively on PBS until 2022. The 14-hour documentary does include some swearing from soldiers who describe their time serving during the war, which means two versions of the series might be offered to stations who want to avoid any FCC problems. I would hope stations opt to show the uncensored version, since a few curse words seems perfectly appropriate when describing one's personal war experiences.