WXXI TV

A Celebration of Hanukkah • WXXI-TV

Host Geoffrey Baer takes you on a fun exploration of the time-honored traditions of this joyous Jewish holiday.

Great Performances: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary airs Thursday, December 11 at 8 p.m. WXXI-TV

Geoffrey shares how Hanukkah came to be, the significance of the season’s cherished dishes, and the ways families continue to celebrate together across generations. Along the way, Geoffrey provides an overview of Hanukkah in popular culture, weaving in his holiday memories through childhood home movies. And, because food plays such a meaningful part of every Hanukkah observance, he also heads into the kitchen with experts to try his hand at creating seasonal culinary delights – including latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (filled donuts) – while explaining how these dishes connect to Hanukkah’s history.

Fleetwood Mac: The Dance • WXXI-TV

Recorded in 1997, this concert marks the return of the band’s most successful line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks, who had not released an album together since 1987’s Tango in the Night.

Fleetwood Mac: The Dance airs Wednesday, December 3 at 9:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the PBS app and the WXXI app.

The group performs “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain,” “Landslide,” “Gold Dust Woman,” and “Gypsy.” The USC Marching Band joins in on “Tusk” and “Don’t Stop.”

Repeats December 7 at 4:30 p.m.

Ball and Vase • WXXI-TV

Follow this ailing professor and magician named Ed Coleman during the holidays.

Ball and Vase airs Friday, December 5 at 10:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the PBS app and the WXXI app.

Ed is a 92-year-old, widowed World War II veteran who lives alone in a small apartment in Hoboken, N.J. He has been all but forgotten, but Ed has one thing that keeps him going – an upcoming visit by his grandson on Christmas. When a change in those plans finds Ed alone at a local pub he used to visit with his late wife, he discovers one last opportunity to reconnect with the world.

Repeats December 13 at 5:30 p.m., December 21 at 5:30 p.m., and December 27 at 10:30 p.m.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at the El Mocambo • WXXI-TV

An intense, high-powered performance from Stevie Ray’s early days, featuring “Testify,” “Texas Flood,” “Wham!,” “Pride and Joy,” and his fiery interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).”

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at the El Mocambo airs Saturday, November 29 at 10:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming on the WXXI and PBS apps.

Filmed at the intimate El Mocambo club in Toronto, Canada, the program showcases the acclaimed rock and blues musician’s raw performance and his virtuoso guitar playing. Repeats December 5 at 9 p.m. ad December 6 at 4:30 p.m.

Deconstructing the Beatles • WXXI-TV

Acclaimed “Beatle-ologist” Scott Freiman guides you, step by step, on an educational journey through several of The Beatles’ milestone albums and the fascinating stories that accompanied them.

Deconstructing the Beatles airs Tuesday, December 2 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming on the WXXI and PBS apps.

No matter how much you know about the Beatles, there’s something new here for you. Episodes include “The Beatles Come to America,” “Deconstructing Rubber Soul,” and “A Trip Through Strawberry Fields.”

Repeats Sunday, December 7 at 10:30 p.m.

Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like • WXXI-TV

Join host Michael Keaton to celebrate “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” the pioneering children’s series that premiered nationally more than 50 years ago.

Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like airs Monday, December 1 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming on the WXXI and PBS apps.

Keaton worked as a stagehand and made appearances on the series in the 1970. Judd Apatow, Joyce DiDonato, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Kratt, John Lithgow, Yo-Yo Ma and son Nicholas Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Silverman, Esperanza Spalding and Caroll Spinney reveal their favorite memories from the series.

The Great Escaper on Masterpiece • WXXI-TV

The Great Escaper tells the true story of Bernard Jordan, who made global headlines in the summer of 2014. He had staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades at the D-Day Landings 70th anniversary.

The Great Escaper airs Sunday, November 23 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Michael Caine and the late, two-time Oscar® winner Glenda Jackson star as Bernard Jordan and his wife, Rene. Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene. While Bernie is on his trip to Normandy, Rene recalls their younger days and falling in love during World War II.

Bernie’s story captured the imagination of the world as he embodied the defiant, “can-do” spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing. But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was an inspirational but sanitized retelling of one man’s need to come to terms with the lasting trauma of war. The Great Escaper celebrates Bernie and Rene’s enduring love but always with an eye to the lessons we might learn from the Greatest Generation.

Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy • WXXI-TV

Join Rick Steves as he delves deep into the Italian heartland.

Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy airs Saturday, November 22 at 4 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

In Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy, Rick delves deep into the Italian heartland – the place where la dolce vita is a way of life. Starting in Umbria, he connects with rustic, traditional culture: sleeping at an agriturismo (a farmhouse inn), seeing how prosciutto and pecorino cheese are made (and eaten), and hiking down into ancient and fragrant wine cellars. Then he tours Assisi, with its inspirational story of St. Francis, its stop-and-smell-God’s-roses spirituality, its delicate Giotto masterpieces, and its awe-inspiring basilica. In Siena, Rick enjoys a front-row seat at its wild horse race – the venerable Palio – and marvels at cultural treasures from the city’s glory days, when it rivaled Florence for dominance in Tuscany. He finishes with the ultimate Riviera getaway: the Cinque Terre, where he gets to know each of the ‘five lands’ – from the dramatic, vineyard-surrounded Vernazza to hardscrabble Riomaggiore, to the pint-sized resort of Monterosso. Fishing for anchovies, sipping wine out of rustic barrels, bringing flowers to hilltop cemeteries, and savoring twinkling Mediterranean vistas, Rick visits his favorite stretch of Mediterranean coastline. From hill towns to harbors, and from vino rosso to Giotto, Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy savors the good life in the Italian heartland.