WXXI TV

American Experience “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” • WXXI-TV

Oscar-winning Indigenous artist who rose to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene and has had a six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist.

American Experience “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” airs Saturday, November 1 at 4 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI app.

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On features never-before-seen archival material, new performance footage and interviews with Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, Sonia Manzano, John Kay, Robbie Robertson, Jackson Browne and others. Over a career spanning six decades, Cree musician, artist and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie has used her platform to campaign for Indigenous and women’s rights and inspired multiple generations of musicians, artists and activists.

Photo credit: Tim Ryan/Matt Barnes

The Best of the ’60s • WXXI-TV

The decade of peace, love and happiness is celebrated in this My Music compilation.

The Best of the ‘60s airs Saturday, October 25 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

Legends from Pop, Folk, Rock, The British Beat, Motown, Soul and Great Rock and Roll all perform their biggest 1960s hits, classics and more live on the MY MUSIC stage.

Great Performances: Ann • WXXI-TV

Enjoy a powerful and revealing look at legendary, larger-than-life Texas governor Ann Richards who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family in this critically acclaimed play written by and starring Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor.

Great Performances: Ann airs Friday, October 24 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.About the Episode

Great Performances: Ann is a no-holds-barred theatrical portrait of Ann Richards, legendary Governor of Texas (1991-95). Written and performed by Emmy Award-winning actor Holland Taylor (“Two and a Half Men,” Broadway’s “The Front Page”), the play is a compelling look at the impassioned, inspiring woman who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family. Beginning with a commencement address, the play bursts into a blistering day in the life of the governor, with a cascade of task-wrangling and conversations with everyone from Richards’ friend Bill Clinton to her grandbaby Lily. We see the grit, warmth and depth in her colorful, captivating character, bigger than the state from which she hails. Directed for the stage by Benjamin Endsley Klein (Broadway credits include “The Ferryman” and “Carousel”), this production was recorded at the Zach Theater in Austin, Texas, following its national tour and Broadway run at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in 2013, which earned Taylor a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play.

Neither partisan nor political, Ann began as Taylor’s quest to understand what it was about this housewife, mother, grandmother, leader and iconic patriot who inspired so many people so deeply. Writing the play became a four-year journey for Taylor, crisscrossing the country, interviewing people who knew Richards, watching countless hours of video coverage and pouring over reams of her personal and public papers at the University of Texas. In the end, Taylor’s greatest resources were the family, friends, staff and colleagues of the governor who allowed Taylor to know Ann Richards.

Secrets of the Dead “Field of Vampires” • WXXI-TV

The 2022 discovery in Eastern Europe of more than 50 errant burials that indicate a perceived threat of vampirism in the 17th century.

Secrets of the Dead “Field of Vampires” airs Friday, October 31 at 5 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

In 2022, a terrifying discovery: a female skeleton dating from 1650, buried with a sickle across her neck and giant padlock on her toe — double protection to keep her from rising from the dead. All the evidence points to her being buried as a vampire… and she’s not alone, with more than 50 deviant burials around her. Who was she and what did these burial rituals mean?

Being Texan: A Texas Monthly Special • WXXI-TV

Texas Monthly writers explore people and places at the intersections of identity, history, progress, and change.

Being Texan: A Texas Monthly Special airs Friday, October 24 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI app.

Stories include the ghost town of Terlingua, the last surviving ninepin bowling alleys, a ranching industry under threat, the unexpected discovery of a rare type of coyote, a woman who overturned state braiding laws, and a mild-mannered librarian who fought to save the Big Thicket.

Nature “Walrus: Life on Thin Ice” • WXXI-TV

Follow a paleontologist on an Arctic adventure to uncover the hidden lives of walrus and the threats they face as climate change shrinks the sea ice.

Nature “Walrus: Life on Thin Ice” Season 2 airs Wednesday, October 22 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

The walrus is one of the Arctic’s most enigmatic animals. With three-foot long tusks and a droopy mustache, everyone knows what these marine mammals look like, but few ever see them in the wild. For Kirk Johnson, a paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the walrus has been a creature close to his heart for 40 years.

Most of the world’s walrus, about 250,000 of them, live in the frigid seas between Russia and Alaska. Johnson embarks on an Arctic adventure to uncover the hidden lives of these lumbering giants and the threats they face as climate change shrinks the sea ice. He follows the fate of one young orphan, who is rescued and rehabilitated at the Alaska Sealife Center. What kind of future lies ahead for her, and for the walruses in the wild?

Frontline “The Rise of RFK” • WXXI-TV

The dramatic and controversial rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Frontline “The Rise of RFK” airs Tuesday, October 21 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

How the scion of a storied dynasty endured tragedy and scandal, broke with the Democratic Party and his family, stoked conspiracy theories, and is reshaping government and public health.

America’s Stairway • WXXI-TV

This film places the historic Flight of Five locks on the Erie Canal in Lockport, New York, squarely in the American narrative as a symbol of a young and developing nation.

America’s Stairway airs Monday, October 20 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

It draws a direct line between the Erie Canal, the Flight of Five, and the birth of American tourism to today’s heritage tourism industry, which is inextricably linked to community-based, grassroots preservation efforts and a community’s sense of place. In doing so, this is a story that resonates beyond time and geographic location.

Photo: South Street Seaport : Painting by William James Bennett, “View of South Street from Maiden Lane”
Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of New York