The BEST episodes of PBS Specials season 2011
Every episode of PBS Specials season 2011, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of PBS Specials season 2011!
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is the most prominent provider of programming to U.S. public television stations, distributing series such as PBS NewsHour, Masterpiece, and Frontline. Since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as America's most trusted national institution. However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public TV stations; in fact, stations usually receive a large portion of their content (including most pledge drive specials) from third-party sources, such as American Public Television, NETA, and independent producers.
#1 - Stavig Letters
Season 2011 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/8/2011
Two Norwegian brothers exchange letters after one of them emigrates to America. Their letters chronicle their lives from the 1880s to the 1920s.
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#2 - Hockey: More Than a Game
Season 2011 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/1/2011
Hockey: More Than A Game is an hour-long documentary that explores hockey history and culture and offers an insightful, intimate look at the game described as “Canada’s gift to the world.” While capturing the timeless excitement of competition, the film relays the spirit of hockey among Canadians, its traditions, dramatic human stories and family commitment. Viewers also learn how hockey has evolved over nearly 200 years — from open-pond outdoor games to professional play in packed National Hockey League arenas.
#3 - PBS Nature: Elsa's Legacy (The Born Free Story)
Season 2011 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2011
A book and then a film that changed forever the way we think about wildlife. Elsa, an orphaned lion cub raised by George and Joy Adamson then released back into the wild, captivated audiences around the world, and became a symbol for all animals' right to live free. But behind the film and book lies the real story of the Adamson's life with Elsa. Their diaries, home movies, and detailed records reveal an intimate look into their pioneering work and unique relationship with lions. Recollections of the actress who portrayed Joy in the film, and memories of people who knew and worked with the Adamsons leave us with a new appreciation for the world of animals we never knew until Elsa and Born Free opened our eyes.
#4 - Clearing the Smoke: The Science of Cannabis
Season 2011 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/28/2011
MontanaPBS's new documentary, Clearing the Smoke, reveals how cannabis acts on the brain and in the body to treat nausea, pain, epilepsy and potentially even cancer. Extensive interviews with patients, doctors, researchers and skeptics detail the promises and the limitations of medicinal cannabis.
#5 - Hitler On Trial
Season 2011 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/3/2011
In the summer of 1931, a young lawyer called Hans Litten put rising political star, Adolf Hitler, in the witness box of a Berlin court. He wanted to expose Hitler's hypocrisy and secret commitment to violence and shatter the Nazi party's political respectability. In an audacious and hostile cross-examination, Hitler was forced to defend his beliefs, his ambitions, his methods and the essence of Nazism, in open court. Litten wanted to challenge the public as Germany and the rest of Europe seemed to be sleep-walking to fascism. If Litten's warnings had been taken seriously, Hitler's financial support might well have collapsed. There would have been no Nazi election victory. No Reichstag fire, no Third Reich, no Final Solution. Litten didn't win, but Hitler never forgot and once the Nazis were in power, Litten was arrested and imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp where he ultimately committed suicide. A brave and complex individual, Litten was left-wing, Jewish, and passionately committed to the idea of justice. This documentary explores Litten's personal story while also examining the broader historical and ethical debate. It discovers the consequences of Litten's heroism both for himself and for those closest to him, tracking his tragic journey from court room to suicide.
#6 - Behind the Britcoms: From Script to Screen
Season 2011 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/5/2011
Moira Brooker and Philip Bretherton (Judith and Alastair from As Time Goes By (1992)) host this behind-the-scenes look at the work of the writers behind many of our favorite "Britcoms" (British situation comedies), revealing how their ideas make it to the screen.
#7 - Vietnam War Stories
Season 2011 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/10/2011
A portrait of the Vietnam War told entirely from the perspective of veterans, who reflect on their memories of the conflict from five decades ago.
#8 - Spies Beneath Berlin
Season 2011 - Episode 9 - Aired 8/21/2011
This program tells the extraordinary true story of the top-secret mission to build a spy tunnel into the Soviet sector of one of the most heavily guarded cities in history.
#9 - Angle of Attack
Season 2011 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/1/2011
From the very first shipboard landing by Eugene Ely in 1911 to the latest debates surrounding unmanned aerial vehicles, Angle of Attack: How Naval Aviation Changed the Face of War chronicles the triumphs and challenges that Naval Aviation has faced since its invention, and brings to life the largely untold story of one of the pillars in our national defense structure. Angle of Attack tells the story of a hundred years of Naval aviation, from wobbly gliders to supersonic jets. The two-part series charts how technological innovations shaped strategic choices and, conversely, how strategic imperatives propelled Naval aviation toward innovation and reinvention. While chronicling the technological and strategic advancements of Naval aviation, Angle of Attack also highlights the aviators, the people in the cockpits who give life to the machines and their mission.
#10 - Sky Island
Season 2011 - Episode 8 - Aired 7/1/2011
In Northern New Mexico, a range of mountains rises up from the high desert: a wild, rugged land of the Faraway Nearby. The volcanic Jemez are isolated from all other mountain ranges — an island in the sky, surrounded by a desert sea.
#11 - The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies
Season 2011 - Episode 15 - Aired 11/30/2011
Orange-and-black wings fill the sky as NOVA charts one of nature's most remarkable phenomena: the epic migration of monarch butterflies across North America. To capture a butterfly's point of view, NOVA’s filmmakers used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon for aerial views along the transcontinental route. This wondrous annual migration, which scientists are just beginning to fathom, is an endangered phenomenon that could dwindle to insignificance if the giant firs that the butterflies cling to during the winter disappear.
#12 - Alone in the Wilderness, Part 2
Season 2011 - Episode 24 - Aired 11/27/2011
Dick Proenneke's simple, yet profound account of his 30-year adventure in the remote Alaska wilderness continues in this sequel to Alone in the Wilderness. He continues to document his journey through his 16mm wind-up Bolex camera, capturing his own amazing craftsmanship, the stunning Alaskan wildlife and scenery, and even a visit from his brother, Jake.
#13 - Nazi Hunt: Elusive Justice
Season 2011 - Episode 14 - Aired 11/15/2011
The effort to identify, prosecute and punish Nazi fugitives continues for 65 years.
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Season 2011 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/10/2011
The War 1812 is a two-hour film history of a deeply significant event in North American and world history. The war shaped American, Canadian and British destiny in the most literal way possible: had one or two battles or decisions gone a different way, a map of the United States today would look entirely (and shockingly) different. The U.S. could well have included Canada - but was also on the verge of losing much of the Midwest, and perhaps the entire West to boot. The New England states, meanwhile, were poised on the brink of secession just months before a peace treaty was signed. The fires of this war forged the nation of Canada; at the same time, the result tolled the end of Native American dreams of a separate nation. By war's end, the process of Native nation removal had already begun in the southeast, paving the way for a Cotton Kingdom powered by slavery, and a United States that had been on the verge of collapse was ready to announce its arrival as a global power. The U.S. did not win the War of 1812, but the noble experiment of democracy had managed to survive intense pressure from without, and within.
#15 - Steve Jobs: One Last Thing
Season 2011 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/2/2011
Few men have changed our everyday world of work, leisure and human communication in the way that Steve Jobs, Apple's former CEO, has done. The scope of his impact was evident in the outpouring of tributes from around the world — voiced on Twitter as well as through makeshift memorials in front of Apple stores — following his death, from complications of pancreatic cancer, on October 5, 2011. Steve Jobs – One Last Thing not only examines how his talent, style and imagination have shaped all of our lives, but the influences that shaped and molded the man himself. The documentary takes an unflinching look at Jobs' difficult, controlling reputation and through interviews with the people who worked closely with him or chronicled his life, provides unique insight into what made him tick. Among those interviewed for the film are Ronald Wayne, co-founder of Apple Computer, Co. with Jobs and Steve Wozniak; Bill Fernandez, who is credited with introducing Jobs to Wozniak and was also Apple Computer's first employee; Robert Palladino, calligraphy professor at Reed College whose classes Jobs acknowledged with inspiring his typography design for the Apple Mac; Walt Mossberg, who covered Jobs as the principal technical journalist for The Wall Street Journal; Dean Hovey, who designed the mouse for Apple; Robert Cringley, who interviewed Jobs for his documentary Triumph of the Nerds; and Dr. Alvy Smith, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, which Jobs acquired in 1986.
Watch Now:Amazon#16 - Earth: The Operators' Manual
Season 2011 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/10/2011
Earth: The Operators' Manual presents an objective, accessible assessment of the Earth’s problems and possibilities that will leave viewers informed, energized and optimistic. Host Richard Alley, a geologist, contributor to the United Nations panel on climate change and former oil company employee, leads the audience on this engaging one-hour special about climate change and sustainable energy.
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#17 - Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton
Season 2011 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/12/2011
Alexander Hamilton, America's first treasury secretary, is on the ten dollar bill, and he was killed in a duel. Now see the rest of an amazing life in a remarkable film.