MAKING STUFF CLEANER

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 @ 10:00PM

Can innovations in materials science help clean up our world? In “Making Stuff: Cleaner,” David Pogue explores the rapidly developing science and business of clean energy and examines alternative ways to generate it, store it, and distribute it. Is hydrogen the way to go? What about lithium batteries? Does this solve an energy problem or create a new dependency? Pogue investigates the latest developments in bio-based fuels and in harnessing solar energy for our cars, homes, and industry in a program full of the stuff of a sustainable future.

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CRIME DRAMAS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 @ 6:00PM

Pioneering television crime dramas established new rules for viewers, amping up the violence and the flash-quick dialogue; and delivering reluctant, but likeable, heroes who solve complex crimes in an hour of delicious television. Today, the genre has never been more popular, but it owes much of its winning formula to industry innovations developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

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AN AMERICAN NARRATIVE

MONDAY, JANUARY 30 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

The Chautauqua Institution is a rich community of ideas, where the arts, education, and religion all blend together to enrich the mind and the spirit. For nine weeks every summer, the Chautauqua Institution is a place where thought and culture converge in an open public platform for discussion and debate. There is no other place quite like it in America.

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MAKING STUFF SMALLER

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

How small can we go? Could we one day have robots taking “fantastic voyages” in our bodies to kill rogue cells? The triumphs of tiny are seen all around us in the Information Age: transistors, microchips, laptops, cell phones. Now, David Pogue takes NOVA viewers to an even smaller world in “Making Stuff: Smaller,” examining the latest in high-powered nano-circuits and micro-robots that may one day hold the key to saving lives.

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WESTERNS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27 @7:00PM & 10:00PM

For years, sprawling Westerns had been popular in the cinema, making rugged, plain-speaking actors such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood huge stars. During the Golden Age of Television — the early 1940s through 1961 — and into the 1970s, Westerns were produced for the small screen with success. In 1959 alone more than 30 different Westerns were on the television schedule.

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PANAMA CANAL

TUESDAY, APRIL 3 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM

On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as a global superpower. American ingenuity and innovation had succeeded where, just a few years earlier, the French had failed disastrously. But the U.S. paid a price for victory.

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MAKING STUFF STRONGER

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21 @ 10:00PM

Invisibility cloaks. Spider silk that is stronger than steel. Plastics made of sugar that dissolve in landfills. Self-healing military vehicles. Smart pills and micro-robots that zap diseases. Clothes that monitor your mood. What will the future bring, and what will it be made of? In NOVA’s four-hour series, “Making Stuff,” popular New York Times technology reporter David Pogue takes viewers on a fun-filled tour of the material world we live in, and the one that may lie ahead. Get a behind-the-scenes look at scientific innovations ushering in a new generation of materials that are stronger, smaller, cleaner, and smarter than anything we’ve ever seen.

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SCIENCE FICTION

SATURDAY, JANUARY 22 @ 6:00PM

It’s no wonder that Gene Rodenberry, creator of “Star Trek,” turned to science fiction when he wanted to delve into dicey subjects on television such as race relations and the value of war. It’s  easier to unearth tough subjects when creatures from another planet or another time deliver the truisms. Humans have always gazed up at the stars or stared deep into the black, rolling ocean with equal parts fascination and fear. The unexplored frontiers at the edges of our existence beckon and repel in equal measure.

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DINOSAUR WARS

MONDAY, JANUARY 17 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

In the late 19th century, paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh uncovered the remains of hundreds of prehistoric animals in the American West, including dozens of previously undiscovered dinosaur species. But the rivalry that developed between them would spiral out of control, permanently damaging their careers and threatening the future of American paleontology.

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JEFF BRIDGES: THE DUDE ABIDES

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM

American Masters opens its 25th season with Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides giving viewers an unexpected window into the life of the actor whose easy going style has endeared him to audiences for almost 40 years. The 90-minute film, airing nationally Wednesday, January 12 at 6 p.m. (MST) on MCPTV, debuts less than a year after Bridges’ game-changing Best Actor Academy Award-winning role as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. It also coincides with his return to the screen in Tron Legacy – reprising his role as Kevin Flynn from Tron (1982) – and as Rooster Cogburn in the remake of True Grit, directed by the Coen Brothers, reuniting him with The Big Lebowski (1998) writer-directors, where his iconic role as “the Dude” originated.

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