Friday, December 28, 2007

Jane Austen on PBS

Frustrated at not being able to find the schedule of the Jane shows for next month, I sent the following mail to KCTS, our local PBS station..............
I have eagerly been awaiting the Jane Austen Shows that will be aired beginning in January, since last march when they were on ITV in England, but not in a format for American TV. I am finding it hard to get any information from your website about the Jane Austen Season. I know many of my friends are excited as well but nobody knows what is being aired, and when. Why is this PBS's best kept secret? Can you give me any information on when the shows will air? All I can find by forwarding in your little gray schedule are the new Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park. I am anxious to see the new Sense and Sensibility and the Jane Austen Biography, and frankly, I'm very suprised, with Jane Austen being so hot right now, that more isn't being done to promote the episodes. It is obvious PBS is not a commercial endeavor. With the rest of the television world on a writer's strike, and nothing to look forward to but a January filled with reruns and reality shows, your channel is preparing to air brand new adaptations by one of the best writers in history, and I can't even find a blurb about it on your website. Please send me any scheduling information you can regarding these Jane Austen shows.
........................................................................................................................................And for emphasis, I signed it 'Mrs. Ashton Dennis' but I'm sure there are no Janeites there, or there would not be this problem.
Anyway, the shows I could find on the schedule were....
9:00pm Sunday January 13th Persuasion

9:00pm Sunday January 20th Northanger Abbey

9:00pm Sunday January 27th Mansfield Park
I'll let you know what else I can find out.(I am editing this a little later with the link to the preview from the pbs websitehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/preview_wm.html )
P.S. I got the 'Frank Churchill'