Television Highlights

Secrets of the Dead: Executed in Error In 1910, an American doctor named Hawley Crippen was convicted in England of poisoning and dismembering his wife. The vicious murder — and execution that followed — made international headlines. It was a landmark case: the first trial by media and the first to be dominated by forensic science. But did the prosecutors get it right? Almost 100 years later, investigators have re-opened the files on a murder that became known as one of the crimes of the century. Airs: Wednesday, October 1 at 8 p.m.	Frontline: The Choice 2008 It has been called one of the most historic presidential elections in our nation’s history — Barack Obama versus John McCain. It is a race that pits the iconoclast against the newcomer, the heroic prisoner of war against the first African American nominated by a major party. Frontline’s critically acclaimed series The Choice returns this election season to examine the rich personal and political biographies of these two men. Airs: Tuesday, October 14 at 9 p.m.

Get Ready for Digital TV In a half-hour special, Get Ready for Digital TV, PBS has joined with This Old House’s famous do-it-yourselfers Norm Abram and Kevin O’Connor, along with Maria Hinojosa, award-winning senior correspondent with NOW on PBS, to offer digital television how-to guidance and tips to ensure that viewers across America are prepared to successfully make the switch to digital television in their homes before the analog shutoff in February 2009. Airs: Wednesday, October 1 at 9 p.m.	Presidents in Our Backyard Eight U.S. presidents had close ties to New York State. Presidents in Our Backyard will reveal many little known facts about these presidents, including Chester Arthur, who graduated from Union College in Schenectady; Martin Van Buren, whose home in Kinderhook is open to the public; and Grover Cleveland, who went from being the Mayor of Buffalo to a U.S. President in only 3 years. The “voices” of these presidents will be portrayed by several prominent members of the State Legislature and Executive Chamber. Airs: Saturday, October 18 at 4 p.m.

Election Coverage 2008 WXXI was proud to be the only station in Rochester to bring you complete coverage of the Democratic Convention in August and the Republican Convention in September. In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, PBS’ and WXXI’s trusted news brands and personalities will provide in-depth information and insight into the issues and candidates. This month tune in for debates and forums for President, Vice President, Congress, and the New York State Senate, as well as some political specials. Airs: Starting Thursday, October 2 at 9 p.m.	In the Life The 17th season premiere episode of In the Life, "Civil Rites & Civil Rights", takes an in-depth look at the journey to marriage equality in America's most populous state, and the real possibility that this newly gained right could be erased with the passage of the Proposition 8 referendum in November. In "A Conversation With....", Jonathan Capehart, Pulitzer Prize editorial writer at the Washington Post talks with Julian Bond, Chair of the NAACP about the intersections of gay rights, civil rights, and marriage equality. The episode concludes with Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco presiding at the nuptials of a couple together for over 50 years, who could finally say "We're Married!" Airs: Sunday, October 19 at 11 p.m.

Masterpiece Contemporary: The Last Enemy A mathematical genius takes a wild ride through the boundless paranoia of a surveillance society in The Last Enemy, a five-part thriller set in England in the not-too-distant future. Scripted by award-winning writer Peter Berry (Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness). Airs: Sundays, October 5-November 2 at 9 p.m.	American Experience: LBJ He was one of the most astute, perplexing and larger-than-life figures in modern American history. An accidental president, Lyndon Baines Johnson set out to make his mark by pushing through unprecedented social legislation of a scale that rivaled FDR's New Deal. Bombastic and deeply emotional, Johnson's vision was shattered by the increasing debacle of the Vietnam War, and his presidency began to unravel. Airs: Mondays, October 20 & 27 at 9 p.m.

Doc Martin What happens when a gruff doctor flees big-city life to work as a general doctor in a sleepy, picturesque English coastline town? The cultures clash and the sparks fly in the new series Doc Martin, , a catchy, funny comedy-drama mixing elements of classic British sitcoms with sharp medical drama and a quirky, lovable cast of characters. Airs: Sundays, October 5-November 9 at 10:30 p.m.	Independent Lens: Chicago 10 The year was 1968. A war in a foreign land was tearing people apart, and the president’s approval rating was at an all-time low. The country was divided. Many felt America was lost, without a moral compass. And young Americans took to the streets to change the world. Airs: Wednesday, October 22 at 9 p.m.

Latinos '08 Latinos '08 examines the 2008 election through the prism of ethnic politics. Latinos are less cohesive than other voting blocs, and they do not fit the black/white racial binary that has long shaped American politics. Airs: Wednesday, October 8 at 9 p.m.	Nature: White Falcon, White Wolf On Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic winter arrives in September and stays for nine cold and dark months. The other seasons get just one month each. June is spring. July is summer. August is autumn. A pair of snowy white gyrfalcons and a pack of Arctic wolves must work hard to raise their families during the brief respite the sun provides. By the end of August, their jobs as parents must be complete, their young ready to take on the return of the snows. Airs: Sunday, October 26 at 8 p.m.

P.O.V.: Up the Yangtze Everything is booming, Olympic-hosting China becomes huge — especially the Three Gorges Dam. Imagining the Colorado River dammed up and the Grand Canyon turned into a vast lake might give you an idea of the physical scale of the project. It might even give you a sense of what it would feel like to see one of your country’s iconic landscapes being drowned in the name of progress. But, as revealed in Up the Yangtze, such an imaginative exercise would hardly capture the scale of social and economic dislocation caused by the dam, especially for the peasants who have farmed the Yangtze River Valley for millennia. Nor would it capture the hope for a strong, prosperous China that Three Gorges represents for many other Chinese. Airs: Wednesday, October 8 at 10 p.m.	Frontline: The War Briefing The next president of the United States will inherit some of the greatest foreign policy challenges in American history — an overstretched military, frayed alliances, and wars on two fronts. Frontline gives viewers a hard, inside look at the real policy choices the next president will face. The report features strategists and diplomats giving their best advice about how to correct past failures and how to shape a realistic foreign policy approach in the Middle East. Airs: Tuesday, October 28 at 9 p.m.

Second Opinion, Season 5 This year, the TV series launches an initiative to empower the more than 44 million Americans caring for a family member, friend or loved one. For years, Second Opinion has improved viewers' health literacy by providing insight into how doctors make decisions. In addition to tackling new cases that illustrate some of today's most prevalent health issues, this season looks at the specific situations of caring for someone with a cognitive disease (Alzheimer's disease), a chronic disease (kidney disease), and shines a light on the very real danger of caregiver burnout. Airs: Saturday, October 11 at 3 p.m.	A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway was established in 1913 as America’s first transcontinental highway. An attentive driver with the right books and guides (and software) can still travel its route from New York City to San Francisco (or vice versa) and get a surprising view of this land and its people. Airs: Wednesday, October 29 at 8 p.m.

America at a Crossroads: The Trial of Saddam Hussein The Trial of Saddam Hussein is a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at what really happened at the trial of Iraq's former dictator. With rarely seen footage and original interviews with Iraqi witnesses and officials, along with defense attorneys for Saddam and officials from the U.S. Justice Department's Regime Crimes Liaisons Office (RCLO), the office mandated to assist the Iraqi High Tribunal, The Trial of Saddam Hussein discloses a grossly mismanaged and political trial. As John Burns, the New York Times reporter who covered the trial, says in the film: "This invasion was poorly thought through and the aftermath was poorly managed, and a lot of the original objectives became unachievable, including the idea of having a trial which met Western judicial standards." Airs: Sunday, October 12 at 11 p.m.	Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008 Opera stars Dawn Upshaw and Thomas Hampson, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Broadway’s Christine Ebersole join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in the all-Bernstein Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008, airing on Great Performances Airs: Wednesday, October 29 at 9 p.m.

NOVA: Space Shuttle Disaster At the end of a nearly flawless 15-day mission in early 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, killing the crew of seven. On Space Shuttle Disaster, NOVA probes the accident and the decisions stretching back four decades that made the tragedy almost inevitable. Airs: Tuesday, October 14 at 8 p.m.

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