Ken Tucker reviews the new Pee Wee Herman video that's culled from three episodes from his Saturday morning TV show. Herman is the twitty host of the popular show, and the star of the hit film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."
George Whitmore, author of Someone Was Here, profiles of people whose lives have been transformed by AIDS, like the 32-year-old New York advertising executive, a counselor in a gay men's health center, health workers at an AIDS clinic in a municipal hospital. The book grew out of a highly acclaimed 1985 article in The New York Times Magazine about a man with AIDS and his counselor at a health center.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "The Manchurian Candidate," starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh. The film was originally produced in 1962 but was never distributed because of a squabble between Sinatra, who owned the rights to the film, and the producers.
Comic Sandra Bernhard. She's best known for her appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and in the Martin Scorsese film "The King of Comedy." She's now starring in the Off-Broadway one-woman show "Without You I'm Nothing," that is part stand-up comedy, part satire on the "women of rock and roll."
Essayist Harry Stein. Stein wrote the popular "Ethics" column for Esquire Magazine. He writes a syndicated column for the United Features Syndicate. He's written a book titled One of the Guys: The Wising Up of an American Man. In it, he shares his thoughts on why men are the way they are.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the first two compact discs of Stravinsky conducting his own music. Included are two of Stravinsky's most accessible works, "The Rite of Spring" and "Petrushka." Also included are three abstract scores, "Symphony in C," "Symphony in Three Movements," and "Symphony of Psalms."
Actress Patricia Neal. A star of stage and film, Neal is almost as well known for her private life - her love affair with the married Gary Cooper, the tragedies that befell several of her children, the breakup of her 30-year marriage to the British writer Roald Dahl, and the stroke that almost took away her speech. Her films include "The Breaking Point," "The Fountainhead," "A Face in the Crowd," and "Hud," for which she won the Oscar.
Pianist Ursula Oppens. She's widely regarded as one of the leading interpreters of new music. Many contemporary composers, like John Adams, have written works for her.
Tango innovator Astor Piazzolla. Since the early 60s, Piazzolla has been leading groups that play an updated tango that connects this Argentinian form with the musical innovations from Europe and America, both classical and contemporary. The adjustments have earned him the enmity of Argentinians, and for most of the 70s he lived in France where he wrote film scores. Piazzolla is a classically trained composer who wrote symphonies and studied with Nadia Boulanger, the renown French instructor of composition.
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles Alan Freed, one of the most famous, and most notorious, disc jockeys of the 50s and 60s. Freed was one of the first disc jockeys on a mainstream station (WJW in Cleveland) to play the black rhythm and blues that was the foundation of early rock and roll.
Jazz singer Chris Connor. She was best known for the work she did during a brief stint with the Stan Kenton band. Connor recorded sparingly throughout the 70s and for many jazz fans it was as though she ended her career. She's now performing again and has just completed work on a new album.
Television critic David Bianculli discusses how the writer's strike has benefitted "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," and what the show's revival means for the concept of a weekly variety show.
Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. He is one of the leading figures in the recent boom in Latin American fiction. His novels include Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter and The War of the End of the World. The latter won the Ritz Paris Hemingway Award. Vargas Llosa's books were banned and burned in Peru by the military in the late 60s.
Film director Alan Rudolph. His films include "Choose Me," "Trouble in Mind," "Welcome to L.A." and "Made in Heaven." His latest film, "The Moderns," which took ten years to make, is set in the ex-patriot community in Paris in the 1920s and features many actors and actresses who have appeared in his earlier films, such as Keith Carradine and Genevieve Bujold and Geraldine Chaplin.
Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone discusses the new ABC show "Home." The format is similar to the morning news shows, like "Good Morning America," and "The Today Show," mixing live interviews with pre-produced segments, all of which revolve around domestic issues, like how to make pot scrubbers out of onion bags.
New Orleans pianist and singer Mac Rebennack pays tribute to one of his own, the New Orleans pianist and singer Cousin Joe. This is the fifth of a seven-part performance series with Rebennack, who is also known as Dr. John.
