The first entry, titled simply “Challenger,” explores the space shuttle of the same name that tragically exploded seventy-three seconds after takeoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crewmembers onboard: Greg Jarvis, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Ron McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Dick Scobee, and Michael J. Smith.

Forthcoming installments include next Sunday’s “Battle of the Bulge,” which investigates the affect of the fluctuating weather on the outcome of the conflict, and January 20′s “Air Florida Potomac Crash” about the 1982 wintertime Air Florida Flight 90 plane crash that subsequently impacted safety guidelines in the air travel industry.

The When Weather Changed History series is comprised of ten episodes that will air each Sunday night at 9pm EST and 11pm EST. Watch a thirty-second trailer for the series next, as well as an official six-minute, real-time video of the space shuttle Challenger catastrophe.

Tags: television, tv, Weather Channel, When Weather Changed History

The premise of The 11th Hour, which DiCaprio narrates both on- and offscreen, is simple and credible. As New York Times movie critic Manohla Dargis notes in an August 17 review titled “Helpful Hints for Saving the Planet,” the documentary “attempts to stave off helplessness, and the nihilism that often follows it, mostly by appealing to our reason.” In other words, while the issues discussed are both pressing and depressing, The 11th Hour does more than just attempt to guilt-trip audiences with a deluge of dreary statistics and still drearier imagery. Instead, it offers viable solutions that normal people can implement right now to help decrease the threats to our collective environment and restore the robustness of our ecosystems.

It’s nice to know that a celebrity of DiCaprio’s magnitude is concerned about what’s happening in the larger world, and the 11th Hour project may be one situation where his phenomenal fan appeal works decidedly in favor of an excellent cause: Perhaps those admirers who don’t give a hoot about the environment and related matters will still check out the film—because “OMG! It’s Leo!!! Aaah!!!”—and learn something unexpected in the process.

The 11th Hour was cowritten and directed by sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, and cowritten and narrated by DiCaprio. To learn more about the documentary and the social movement it hopes to inspire, visit the 11th Hour Action Community.

You can also watch a trailer for The 11th Hour below, or jump to the video if you can’t see the player.*

*This video does not include closed captions or subtitles for the deaf, hard of hearing, or non-fluent in English.

Tags: documentary, film, Leila Conners Petersen, Leonardo DiCaprio, movies, Nadia Conners, The 11th Hour, Warner Bros

The first installment at 9pm EST tonight, titled “Initial Rituals,” explores rites of passage that incorporate pain as a core component, including one in Australia that requires hanging from the ceiling supported only by hooks through the skin (Yeah—you read that right). Then, at 10pm, “Skin Deep” looks at such body modification procedures as scarification (slicing the flesh to leave permanent raised scars) and tattooing of unusual places. Five subsequent episodes will then delve into the topics of nudity, manhood, group and sexual identity, and other body modification customs.

Below, find three goodies that complement Taboo: a miniature version of the series’ accompanying How Taboo Are You? game, which quizzes players on which unusual traditions they find most or least palatable (play it—it’s fun!); a “Hanged Men” initiation clip highlighting the aforementioned ceiling ritual; and a “Skin Deep” clip featuring a tribal scarification practice among teenage boys who slice their skins to mimic crocodile hides. If you can’t see the videos, then jump to Hanged Men or Skin Deep.*

WARNING: All three extras contain graphic images, particularly the video clips. Do not watch unless, as I said before, you have a diamond-strong constitution. FYI: I played the relatively mild How Taboo Are You? game, watched about twenty seconds of the “Skin Deep” scarification clip, and skipped “Hanged Men” all together; my constitution is made more of opal, one of the least durable of gems.

*These videos do not include closed captions or subtitles for the deaf, hard of hearing, or non-fluent in English.

Taboo premieres tonight at 9pm EST on the National Geographic Channel and will subsequently air Wednesdays at 10pm

Taboo photo courtesy of the National Geographic Channel

Tags: National Geographic Channel, Taboo, television, tv

The premiere episode, Friday’s “Oman,” takes place in the exotic yet blistering Arabian Desert, where MacIntyre braves the sizzling heat to dwell with Bedouin tribesmen. His goal is to learn why the nomadic group continues to shun more comfortable and modern digs in nearby developed communities in favor of remaining in the deadly desert, a quite logical inquiry, indeed.

Next Friday’s second episode, “Papua New Guinea,” finds MacIntyre in an equally unfamiliar and intriguing locale among the so-called Insect Tribe, a group renowned for their amazing skills hunting crocodiles.

The breathtaking—and I mean that literally—high-altitude mountains of the South American country “Bolivia” provide the setting for the third episode premiering Friday, June 15, as MacIntyre infiltrates a community in the sky-touching Altiplano region.

And the following week, MacIntyre winds up on the coast of the Southeast Asia island “Borneo” in search of some quality visitation time with a group called the Bajau Laut, sea gypsies who live almost exclusively at sea.

Not only is Edge of Existence an enticing series for curious adults who seek greater understanding of less familiar regions and practices of the world, but it’s also an excellent program for young people craving to broaden their intellectual horizons at a time when doing so can prove most beneficial.

Edge of Existence premieres Friday on Discovery Channel at 8pm EST

Donal MacIntyre photo courtesy of the BBC

Tags: Discovery Channel, documentary, Donal MacIntyre, Edge of Existence, television, tv

The first portion of the program features assorted discussions between Koppel and two men who know cancer intimately—Leroy Sievers, his friend and producer of fifteen years, and Lance Armstrong, Tour de France champion for a record-breaking seven consecutive times. Afterwards, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, will join all three men for a live town hall meeting broadcast from Discovery Communications Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. There, the audience comprised solely of people who are living with cancer, their family members, and their caretakers will have the opportunity to participate in candid exchanges with the panel members.

Producer Siever also maintains an informative firsthand account of his experiences in the blog My Cancer, hosted by NPR since its inauguration in February 2006. The May 3 entry, titled “The Specter of Our Own Deaths,” offers the following stark yet haunting insights, which perfectly exemplify Siever’s talent for amiable commentary that encourages readers to see reality in a slightly different light through the lens of cancer:

There’s really only one thing that’s tougher to talk about than cancer, and that’s death. As we have talked about on this blog before, death is the elephant in the room. When we say we’re fighting cancer, coping with it or trying to live with it, really what we’re talking about is the specter of our own deaths.

…Predictions of our deaths are laid out not in decades, but in years and even months. Death is always in the room, sometimes sitting quietly in the corner, sometimes getting right in our faces. I think the biggest thing that separates us from the people who don’t live in cancer world is not the pain, not the treatments, not the fear or sadness. It’s that we have a pretty good idea of what’s going to kill us, and a pretty good idea of when that might happen. Some of the mystery is taken away.

In its recent review, entertainment publication Variety describes Koppel on Discovery: Living with Cancer as “another triumph of journalistic understatement for Koppel” that “dares to be intelligent and thoughtful as it goes about getting up close and personal.” There’s no doubt that those who decide to watch the presentation will come away with a deeper, clearer understanding of what a cancer diagnosis entails not only for the loss of life, but the celebration of life, as well.

Koppel on Discovery: Living with Cancer premieres Sunday, May 6, at 8pm EST on both Discovery Channel and Discovery Health

Koppel on Discovery logo courtesy of Discovery Channel

Tags: Discovery Channel, Discovery Health, documentary, Elizabeth Edwards, Koppel on Discovery, Lance Armstrong, Leroy Sievers, Living With Cancer, television, tv

In order to accomplish that goal, the prolific, experienced filmmakers—Emmy-winning writer and director William Cran, executive producer Clive Syddall, and co-producer Adam Lively—engage interviewees from a wide spectrum of occupations and nations, ranging from Khaled Batarfi, bin Laden’s childhood friend in Saudi Arabia, to Gary Bernsten, an American and 23-year CIA veteran. The individuals provide varying degrees of insightful commentary as a mostly chronological narrative depicts the evolution of the term jihad—from its roots as a frequent reference among Muslims to the personal struggle for self-improvement to the prevalent negative association with terrorism among Westerners today—under the influence of the Al Qaeda leadership’s continuously shifting ideological preoccupations.

Arguably, the most striking feature of the film, aside from assorted revealing details divulged by the interviewees, is the extensive footage of bin Laden, some previously unseen. His constant presence, especially near the end, gives the documentary a greater sense of immediacy as it covers the defining events that unfolded throughout the last eight decades, going all the way back to Saudi Arabia in 1930, primarily in the Middle East and Africa. Sensitive viewers should also know that while much of the video footage is moderate, there are numerous vivid images that depict active combat—complete with dead and bloody bodies and the jarring sound of weapons firing—and the aftermath of terrorist bombings, in addition to the 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center in New York.

The function of JIHAD: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda in the America at a Crossroads series is clear: it’s meant to serve as a logical starting point that offers a comprehensive summary of exactly what Al Qaeda is, who its major players are, and why the organization and its members are significant from historical, political, religious, social, and global standpoints. Consequently, people who are already well informed about those matters may find the documentary little more than a tedious overview of the obvious, with occasional new bits of information possibly emerging here and there. Those who have not taken the time or had the opportunity to learn about the driving forces behind the tragedies that occurred on September 11, 2001, however, will likely gain a deeper understanding of the issues and individuals involved. As with all works that attempt to deconstruct the complicated and controversial, not everyone will or does agree with everything the documentary presents. Still, the filmmakers who devoted two years to producing JIHAD: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda have created a relevant, multifaceted account of both jihad and Al Qaeda.

Related Article: America at a Crossroads: PBS Series Contemplates the Post-9/11 World

JIHAD: The Men and Ideas Behind al Qaeda premieres Sunday, April 15, at 9pm EST on PBS
PBS times may vary—Check your local listings to verify them

Ayman Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden photo courtesy of PBS

Tags: 9-11, Al Qaeda, America at a Crossroads, documentary, Iraq War, jihad, PBS, Robert MacNeil, television, terrorism, tv, WETA

When the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—the funding company for next week’s series and the accompanying educational, media, and outreach campaigns—first announced its need for documentaries relevant to its America at a Crossroads concept in 2004, the organization received hundreds of proposals from interested parties. It then chose WETA, the PBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., to manage production of the selected projects in 2006. The final crop of eleven films to premiere over six days is only a portion of the nineteen total documentaries produced as a result of the endeavor. The remainder will air on PBS in coming months as specials.

I was one of the fortunate people who received the opportunity to screen several of the documentaries before they air on PBS. Since I’m thrilled to be directly included in what I consider an especially important television event, I plan to publish my thoughts on all of the films I have access to in advance of their scheduled broadcast date, including Sunday night’s two-hour opener, JIHAD: The Men and Ideas Behind al Qaeda. At the same time, I encourage anyone and everyone with the slightest concern about the state of the world today to free their schedule from 9pm to 11pm EST on April 15 to April 20 and tune into their local PBS station for what promises to be among the most intriguing and relevant television programming of the year.

The scheduled documentaries in the America at a Crossroads series are:

Sunday | April 15

• JIHAD: The Men and Ideas Behind al Qaeda—9–11pm EST

Monday | April 16

• Warriors—9–10pm EST
• Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience—10–11pm EST

Tuesday | April 17

• Gangs of Iraq—9–10pm EST
• The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom—10–11pm EST

Wednesday | April 18

• Europe’s 9/11—9–10pm EST
• The Muslim Americans—10–11pm EST

Thursday | April 19

• Faith Without Fear—9–10pm EST
• Struggle for the Soul of Islam: Inside Indonesia—10–11pm EST

Friday | April 20

• Security Versus Liberty: The Other War—9–10pm EST
• The Brotherhood—10–11pm EST

Warriors photo, which depicts Lieutenant Emily Nay of the U.S. Army with a Sunni woman in Iraq, courtesy of PBS/WETA

*PBS times may vary—Check your local listings to verify them

Tags: 9-11, America at a Crossroads, documentary, Iraq War, PBS, Robert MacNeil, television, terrorism, tv, WETA

While reminding viewers of the very real public health dangers arising in a country where “66 percent of … adults [are] either overweight or obese,” the filmmakers also aim to use “[t]he voices of … real Americans [to] tell the story of the biological barriers, cultural habits, and economic realities that contribute to our nation’s expanding waistline.” This layered, inclusive approach is commendable because it will lead to more comprehensive understanding of why obesity has exploded into such a persistent issue, bringing us one step closer to coming up with workable solutions for combating the problem.

*PBS times may vary—Check your local listings to verify them

Meredith Vieira photo courtesy of the Associated Press

Tags: documentary, FAT: What No One Is Telling You, Meredith Vieira, PBS, Take One Step, television, tv

Tonight, cable network WE presents the scary one-hour documentary Extreme Skinny Celebrities, a fascinating exploration of the cult of boniness that has overtaken too much of the celebrity world. The use of before-and-after images and elaborate CGI effects gives viewers a startling glimpse of how the aging process could affect serially skinny celebs, while discussion of the myriad repercussions of severe weight loss—including dental decay, early menopause, hair loss, heart disease, and osteoporosis—provides a shocking portrait of health decline that is most unglamorous. If that’s not enough to make an intentionally ultra-thin person run to the refrigerator and grab a hearty nutritious snack, maybe this observation will: the longer weight-obsessed people insist on continuing destructive lifestyles focused on remaining emaciated, the earlier they are likely to die from related complications.

It’s really unfortunate that young girls today have to contend with a celebrity-crazed society that places so much undue importance on the scrawny actresses and models who receive an extraordinary amount of press coverage. In the United States at least, there’s virtually nowhere to hide from images of gaunt women photographed everywhere they go. Given this reality, Extreme: Skinny Celebrities serves as a chilling wake-up call to reinforce the fact that although unhealthy dieting may make someone look good in the short term, the long-term consequences are what actually matter most. Thanks to all of the Kate Winslets and Jennifer Hudsons of the entertainment world who directly demonstrate that a woman can become successful in the industry without selling herself short through ridiculously restrictive eating and exercise regimens.

Other popular female figures examined in the documentary include Victoria Beckham (also known as the present spouse of British soccer star David Beckham and the former Posh Spice of the 1990s British pop group Spice Girls), Golden Globe recipient Teri Hatcher of ABC’s hit dramedy Desperate Housewives, and Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger. [On TV: Wednesday, 21 March 2007, WE, 9pm EST]

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Other Good Stuff on TV Tonight

• Cheerleader U.: In the latest pom-pom reality series to hit the tube, the University of Kentucky’s cheerleading squad brings it on in order to triumph at the National Championship. [Series debut/WE/9:30]
• Lost—THE MAN FROM TALLAHASSEE: Kate finds out about Jack’s deal with The Others, which doesn’t go down too well, while Locke’s past is finally unlocked when viewers learn all about his wheelchair phase. [ABC/10:00]
• South Park—LICE CAPADES: The title pretty much says it all. [Comedy Central/10:00]
• Survivor: Fiji—I’VE STRENGTH NOW TO CARRY THE FLAG: The island reality show gets a special Wednesday airing since it was knocked off the schedule last week by March Madness college b-ball. [CBS/8:00]
• Through Deaf Eyes: The lives of hearing impaired Americans over the past 200 years are explored through insightful interviews with members of the Deaf community. [Documentary Debut/PBS/9:00*]
• ‘Til Death—I HEART WOODCOCKS: Coupling rivalry strikes when actor-comics Margaret Cho and Anthony Anderson return once more to guest star as the Cofelds, who raise the Starks’ Ugly Green Monster after they become chummy with the Woodcocks. [Fox/9:30]

*PBS times may vary—Check your local listings to verify them
  All times are PM and EST/Eastern Standard Time

Following at 10:15pm, British director Michael Winterbottom and co-director Mat Whitecross‘ 2006 docudrama The Road to Guantánamo explores the complicated predicament of three British Muslims of Pakastani descent: Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul. During a 2001 visit to Afghanistan, the so-called “Tipton Three” were taken prisoner by the Northern Alliance in a sweep of suspected enemy combatants and terrorists, transferred to the United States’ infamous prison camp at the Guantánamo Bay Naval base in Cuba, and subsequently held for almost three years without charges or legal representation and under constant interrogation and torture. Sundance obviously aims not to sugarcoat the present situation, an admirable stance given the number of soldiers and civilians from all around the world who remain caught up in the continual violence and despair of the Middle East’s unrest. [On TV: Monday, 19 March 2007, Sundance, 9pm & 10:15pm EST]

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Other Good Stuff on TV Tonight

• Dancing with the Stars: The highly anticipated fourth season of the celebrity dance-off starts with a roster of fresh faces from the entertainment and sports industries, in addition to a bevy of enthusiastic trained dancers. [4th-Season Premiere/ABC/8:00]
• Deal or No Deal: Oh, yes, it’s ladies night on NBC’s hit game show, a special two-hour edition made even better for female viewers by the 26 hunky firemen who’ll replace the customary briefcase models. [NBC/8:00]
• Everybody Hates Chris—EVERYBODY HATES DJs: You’ve got that right, especially when you mess up your mom’s favorite album while filling in for one, opening the doorway for guaranteed painful punishment. [The CW/8:00]
• I, Robot: Two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith stars in yet another entertaining, action-packed big-screen flick, this one loosely based on the science fiction works of author Isaac Asimov. [FX/7:30]
• The New Adventures of Old Christine—STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: It looks like Old Christine will finally meet her match in the form of a polar-opposite political activist-slash-foe, played by razor-tongued actress-comic Sandra Bernhard. Uh-oh… [CBS/8:30]
• ‘Til Death Do Us Part—THE AIRPLANE MURDER/FUNERAL PARLOR MURDER: B-movie legend John Waters plays the Groom Reaper—Get it? Grim versus groom?—in Court TV’s first-ever original scripted series, which uses dramatizations and Waters’ omniscient commentary to enact tales of marital mayhem and murder. [Series Debut/Court TV/10:00 & 10:30]

All times are PM and EST/Eastern Standard Time
The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends photo courtesy of Focus Features