Welcome to the History Rhymes Timeline.
It’s the Viewers Like Us team’s effort to illustrate milestones and trends in the decades-long battle to diversify public television, the system’s resistance to change, and its overreliance on one filmmaker as “America’s Storyteller.” We encourage you to explore the following entries, and to share your proposed additions and comments at hello@viewerslikeus.com or through the Engage page on our website.
*Source: Timeline: The History of Public Broadcasting in the U.S., via Current
Timeline
President Kennedy signs the Educational Television Facilities Act to fund construction of television broadcasting facilities for educational purposes; it’s the first major federal aid to public broadcasting
The children’s program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuts on Pittsburgh’s WQED; its 895-episode run continues until 2001
President Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act, authorizing federal aid to stations through a new agency, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
The Kerner Commission, created by President Johnson, issues its report on institutional racism in the U.S., noting how the overwhelmingly white news and entertainment media have failed to adequately address matters of race
“Soul!”, a weekly, Black-themed variety program, premieres on New York City public station WNET; it continues, with national distribution, until 1973
“Black Journal,” the first nationally televised public affairs program produced for, about, and (eventually) by African-Americans debuts on National Educational Television
Following a strike by Black staff, African-American documentary filmmaker William Greaves replaces the white host of “Black Journal” — many public stations still carry its successor program, American Black Journal
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) incorporates
“Sesame Street” debuts with a multicultural cast and a goal to educate preschoolers and spread tolerance, love and mutual respect
PBS debuts “The Electric Company,” a fast-paced and funny educational program with a cast including Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman, Irene Cara and Bill Cosby; its original 780-episode run ends in April 1977
WGBH Boston pioneers on-screen captioning technology and uses it for the first time on its popular cooking show with Julia Child, “The French Chef”; in fiscal 2020, captioning and related services add more than $21 million to the station’s revenues
A CPB-commissioned panel finds “the interests and needs of minorities have been neglected in public broadcasting”; it recommends that the CPB board reflect the “racial and ethnic pluralism of the American society”
Several witnesses testify before a Congressional subcommittee about racism in public broadcasting, calling for stations to provide diversity employment data to Congress and the public “in order to evaluate the public broadcasting performance”
The Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium (now Vision Maker Media) forms to develop and increase Native programming for public broadcasting
“¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?” produced by WPBT Miami and billed as the first bilingual situation comedy, debuts on PBS and runs for 39 episodes over four seasons
“Black Journal” transitions to commercial television under the name “Tony Brown’s Journal” after many PBS stations refused to carry it; the series returns to public television in 1982 under the new name, where it airs until 2008
CPB releases “A Formula for Change: The Report of the Task Force on Minorities in Public Broadcasting,” critiquing public broadcasting’s lack of racial diversity
The National Asian American Telecommunications Association (now the Center for Asian American Media) forms to increase Asian American programming on public television
Astrophysicist Carl Sagan’s 13-episode series “Cosmos” debuts; it becomes public television’s most popular program until Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” a decade later
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary “Brooklyn Bridge”; it cost $180,000 to make
WGBH and a consortium of public TV stations launch the investigative documentary program “Frontline”
“Reading Rainbow,” a childrens’ storytime program hosted by LeVar Burton, begins its 22-year run on PBS
PBS’ “American Experience” premieres the 13-part documentary “Vietnam: A Television History”
“The State of Black America,” a co-production of the National Black Programming Consortium and the National Urban League, airs on PBS
Hugh B. Price is named director of national programming for WNET/New York, producer of “Nature,” “Great Performances” and “ American Masters”; a decade later, he becomes president of the National Urban League
“Solomon Northup’s Odyssey,” a film by Gordon Parks based on the memoir “12 Years A Slave,” premieres on PBS’ “American Playhouse”
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary “The Shakers”
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary “The Statue of Liberty”
“Frontline” runs “The Bloods of ‘Nam,” about Black soldiers who suffered some of the highest casualty rates during the U.S. conflict in Southeast Asia
WGBH introduces a Descriptive Video Service, a subsidiary that provides audio description for audiences who are blind or sight-impaired
Documentary series “The Africans: A Triple Heritage,” a BBC and WETA co-production hosted by scholar Ali Mazrui, debuts on PBS
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary “Huey Long”
CPB defunds the National Black Programming Consortium amid federal budget cuts; restores funding four years later
PBS premieres Blackside Productions’ “Eyes on the Prize”, a landmark six-part documentary series about the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s
The Oklahoma Educational Television Authority airs public TV’s first music special, based on the Lawrence Welk Show, a big-band program that ran from 1955 to 1982 on commercial network and syndicated television; in 2021, weekly episodes are on the schedules of 279 PBS affiliates throughout the United States
“Eyes on the Prize” is nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar
Congress passes the Public Telecommunications Act of 1988, affirming that it is in the public interest for CPB “to develop programming that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, especially children and minorities.”
Latino Public Broadcasting is formed
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary film “The Congress”
ITVS — The Independent Television Service — a program service to aid independent producers, is incorporated
PBS airs Ken Burns’ documentary film “Thomas Hart Benton”
Ken Burns’ nine-episode documentary “The Civil War” airs; it breaks PBS audience records
Pacific Islanders in Communications is founded
The National Black Programming Consortium (now Black Public Media) forms to produce, fund, and distribute media content about the African American and global Black experience
PBS airs “Tongues Untied,” a critically-acclaimed documentary about Black gay identity directed by Marlon T. Riggs. Many PBS stations refuse to run it; some cultural gatekeepers vilify the film and use it to rebuke federal arts funding
The National Minority Consortium (NMC) is created to develop and support diverse programming for public television
PBS airs Ken Burns’ “Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio” and rebroadcasts “Brooklyn Bridge”
“Eyes on the Prize” Season Two debuts on PBS; the eight-episode documentary series continues the civil rights story into the 1980s
President George H.W. Bush signs CPB reauthorization that includes a requirement for monitoring “objectivity and balance” in programming
PBS airs Ken Burns’ four-episode documentary series “Baseball”
Loni Ding’s three-part “Ancestors in the Americas,” the first in-depth documentary about Asian Americans, premieres at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and later on PBS
The four-part documentary series “Chicano!” debuts on PBS; episodes address key moments in Mexican American political and cultural movements between 1965-1975, including the 1970 Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War, the efforts of Hispanic New Mexicans to claim land granted to them in the Treaty of Hidalgo and the formation of the United Farm Workers. (Entry added with thanks to Mylène Moreno.)
PBS airs Ken Burns’ nine-episode series “The West”
PBS airs Ken Burns two-episode documentary “Thomas Jefferson”
PBS airs Ken Burns’ two-part documentary “Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery”
PBS airs Ken Burns’ two-episode documentary “Frank Lloyd Wright”
“Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery,” a four-part documentary, runs on PBS
Veteran journalist Gwen Ifill becomes moderator of “Washington Week,” the first African American woman to host a national public affairs TV program; in 2013 she forms the first all-female national nightly anchor team with Judy Woodruff at the “PBS NewsHour”
PBS airs Ken Burns’ two-episode documentary “Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony”
PBS launches “Ken Burns’ American Stories,” a weekly series featuring Ken Burns’ filmography to date, remastered and underwritten by General Motors
In its first Roper Poll, PBS finds that Americans rank the organization among the most trustworthy institutions
PBS runs Ken Burns’ two-part documentary “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson”
“Slavery and the Making of America,” a four-episode series produced by WNET, debuts on PBS
CPB elects Pat Harrison, former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, as its president
PBS hires Paula Kerger, an executive at New York public television station WNET, as president and CEO
PBS airs “African American LIves,” a four-part series hosted by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
At an advance screening of Burns’ 14-hour documentary “The War,” a producer acknowledges that Latinos were one of several minority groups not represented in the film
Leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists send a letter to PBS CEO Paula Kerger criticizing the absence of Latinos in “The War”
PBS and WETA announce an unprecedented initiative in which CPB pays stations in all 50 states to produce local programming and do educational outreach around Burns’ film “The War”
Vme, a Spanish-language multicast channel, launches on public TV stations in 16 markets; PBS and the channel part ways a decade later
Kerger defends Burns, saying “we do not agree that going back into production to revise a completed series that represents one filmmaker’s vision is the appropriate solution”
The chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus asks Kerger to withdraw “The War” “until the omission [of Latinos] is corrected”
PBS and Burns agree to add one half-hour of footage on Hispanic and American Indian veterans to “The War,” before the final credits
The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility asks representatives of General Motors and Anheuser-Busch to disavow their sponsorship and remove their corporate logos from “The War”
Kerger says making changes to “The War” was “the right choice” that represents the kind of responsiveness PBS owes to the public
Latino organizations call on Burns, his production company Florentine Pictures, Kerger, and CEO and president Sharon Percy Rockefeller of WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., to explain how they will ensure such a gross exclusion of the Latino community does not occur again
“The War” begins airing on PBS during Hispanic Heritage Month
PBS completes a yearlong study, prompted by turmoil over “The War,” but refuses to release it publicly
NALIP calls out PBS for the lack of verifiable diversity data in the PBS Diversity Initiative on Content report — data it has sought from PBS since 2005
General Motors withdraws as a major sponsor of Burns’ films, ending its 22-year relationship as primary underwriter
PBS airs Burns’ six-episode series “National Parks: America’s Best Idea”
WGBH-produced series American Experience airs “We Shall Remain,” a five-episode documentary on Native Americans
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters asks the Federal Communications Commission to collect race and gender data about public broadcasting governing boards to facilitate policies that promote diversity
PBS airs Burns’ two-part documentary “The Tenth Inning,” an update to his 1994 series “Baseball”
The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy calls on public media to make increasing diversity a priority
PBS airs Burns’ three-part documentary series “Prohibition”
The British drama series “Downton Abbey” becomes the highest rated PBS prime-time program since the September 2009 airing of Ken Burns’ documentary, “National Parks”
PBS premieres “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,” a multi-season series about the genealogy and genetics of famous Americans
PBS airs Burns’ two-part documentary “The Dust Bowl”
PBS runs the documentary “The Central Park Five”; Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon are credited as its writers and producers
CPB reduces funding for the National Minority Media Consortium, citing shifting priorities and reductions to its congressional appropriation
PBS runs the six-hour documentary “Latino Americans” with a website in Spanish and English
PBS airs Burns’ documentary “The Address,” about a Vermont school that encourages students to rehearse, memorize, and recite the Gettysburg Address
PBS premieres Burns’ seven-episode documentary series “The Roosevelts”
Tensions over diversity in programming erupt when WNET announces it is going to move programs that often feature National Minority Consortium-funded films from its main channel and replace them with reruns of PBS arts programming
A CPB-funded report highlights the need for more diversity in public television
Sesame Workshop, producer of the popular children’s program Sesame Street, strikes a deal to produce and premiere new episodes on HBO nine months before they run on PBS
The public media trade publication Current produces a multimedia package on the state of diversity in public media showing that its track record had barely budged in the previous decade
PBS premieres “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” directed by Stanley Nelson
PBS airs Burns’ two-episode documentary “Jackie Robinson”
PBS carries Burns’ documentary “Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War”
CPB promotes its support of Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary on the Vietnam War, including grants to 74 public media stations to partner with local libraries, theaters, veterans’ service organizations, schools and others to explore the war’s repercussions
PBS premieres Burns’ 10-episode documentary series “The Vietnam War”
PBS runs Burns’ documentary “The Mayo Clinic”
CPB announces it will grant $366,200 to 37 public radio and television stations to engage communities in the upcoming Ken Burns documentary series “Country Music”
PBS airs Burns’ eight-episode documentary series “Country Music”
PBS premieres “Asian Americans,” a five-episode documentary series about 150 years of Asian Americans’ influence and contributions to American history
The executive director of the public media trade publication Current, Julie Drizin, calls for diversity data to be made public in a searchable database
Filmmaker Grace Lee writes an essay calling out PBS for its over-reliance on Ken Burns as “America’s Storyteller” at the expense of opportunities for filmmakers of color
CPB announces that it will increase annual grants to five public media organizations that fund and distribute TV content created by nonwhite filmmakers by $500,000 — the first such funding increase in more than 10 years
Kerger “respectfully disagrees” with Lee’s argument that PBS has cultivated its relationship with Burns at the expense of diversity
PBS airs “The Black Church,” a four-hour documentary hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Beyond Inclusion collective calls on Kerger and PBS to release 10 years of data around staff diversity, hours of non-fiction programming directed or produced by BIPOC filmmakers, and how much funding has gone to them versus white filmmakers
Public Media for All, a BIPOC-led coalition of public media workers, highlights persistent gaps in public media diversity and calls on CPB to be more transparent about its efforts to expand diversity
Ken Burns says PBS can “do better” on racial diversity
On live television, WGBH Boston program host Emily Rooney criticizes Lee and Beyond Inclusion for asserting that PBS allows Burns more primetime broadcast hours, promotion and other support than it does for filmmakers of color
PBS runs Burns’ three-part, six-hour documentary series “Hemingway”
Streaming service HBO Max announces it’s acquired rights to the first six episodes of documentary series “Eyes on the Prize,” and its commitment to create additional content that advances the civil rights story to the present
PBS hires a senior vice president (SVP) for diversity, equity and inclusion, earmarks more money for diversity initiatives, and announces new diversity criteria for producers
Boston-based GBH, the biggest producer of public television programs in the U.S., releases diversity statistics showing its workforce is 80% white and its executive team is 89% white
PBS debuts Burns’ four-episode documentary series “Ali”
Viewers Like Us, an independent podcast series hosted by Grace Lee and Akintunde Ahmad, premieres; it investigates systemic inequities at PBS, and documents the growing disconnect between PBS’s founding mission and the increasingly diverse public it was created to serve