By April MacIntyre Feb 9, 2010, 21:50 GMT
PBS is set to air "Faces of America - With Henry Louis Gates Jr." beginning February 10, 2010.
US Actress Meryl Streep EPA/PAUL BUCK
The series is part of a trend of smallscreen programming that was highlighted last year by National Geographic Channel's Human Genome Project, and is mirrored by the current NBC effort "Who Do You Think You Are?" beginning March 5.
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was involved in a publicized scuffle in 2009 with a Boston police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, that was mediated by President Barack Obama in what the press dubbed the "beer summit," where the two men were joined by Obama and his VP Joe Biden in a fence mending chat over a pitcher of suds.
Now Prof. Gates hosts an array of personalities, as he told Monsters and Critics at the recent winter press tour for TV critics in Pasadena, CA. that these people selected were who he had always wanted to meet; fascinating personalities in their respective fields. "To sit with Meryl, Dr. Oz and the others and reveal their past to them was an exhilarating moment, these stories are our American fabric, they are worth recording, for everyone too, not just the famous."
Gates revealed at the TCA's that "Faces" participants Stephen Colbert and Elizabeth Alexander were distant cousins.
Stephen Colbert's story began with Gates going through what Stephen already knew: He was born in Washington, DC and raised near Charleston, South Carolina, Colbert graduated from Northwestern University. Then the onion is peeled as Gates takes Colbert back in time to meet his Irish ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. throughout the 19th century.
Stephen’s great-great-grandfather, Michael Garin, arrived with the massive wave triggered by Ireland’s Great Famine, but a number of his ancestors came earlier still. Colbert’s German ancestors arrived in the American colonies in the mid-18th century. The youngest of eleven children, he now lives with his wife Evelyn and their three children in the New York metropolitan area. A devout Catholic, Colbert shares his current family traditions that were handed down in the family.
Gates asks the question: What made America? What makes us?
The PBS series "Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." benefits by the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.
"Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." premieres nationally Wednesdays, February 10 - March 3, 2010 from 8 - 9 p.m. ET on PBS
(check local listings)
Watch the first full-length episode online on Thursday, February 11.
Eva Longoria learns her family goes back well in time before Texas was part of America.
Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks about his past:
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