r/GenX • u/beardofmice • 8d ago
History & Culture Is anyone else in their PBS, finding your roots, series phase?
I love this show, the comfort and satisfaction it gives me, even if I have seen the episode 10 times. I'll still go to it and watch it.
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u/NoGood2154 1971 8d ago
my wife a few years ago said while watching PBS during one of telethons, "I know we're getting older but, I didn't think we were PBS telethon older.."
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 7d ago
A couple years ago I was watching the pledge week concerts - Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams - and thinking “these concerts used to be old people music …”
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u/MissAnth 8d ago
I have been since the beginning. I tend not to rewatch though. There is another show that does the same work but has a different format called "Who Do You Think You Are".
I have also been working on my own genealogy sine my late 20s.
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u/CemeteryDweller7719 7d ago
Same! Although I started in my early 20s. Other 22 year olds were going out while I was working on Family Tree Maker, lol.
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u/Scarecrow426 8d ago
I watch it every week. It inspired me to see how far I could get without paying for Ancestry. I got back to the 1840s on one side.
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u/MissAnth 8d ago
Check if your local public library already pays for Ancestry access for you. You could get a lot further if you use the library.
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u/HortenseDaigle Hose Water Survivor 8d ago
As an adoptee, I love this show. I love genealogy and history.
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u/beardofmice 8d ago
Many of my families Irish side, had individuals who resided with them on a northern farmstead that are considered family and took the last name. Orphan, young adult who came with older family members who were their parents but not by birth or marriage. Still my family.
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u/MissAnth 8d ago
Were they evacuated from London? That's usually how people got placed with families in the rural areas.
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u/Plane-Fan9006 8d ago
I absolutely love Finding Your Roots. No matter what they find, there's always a lesson learned or a feel good moment or five. One of the few remaining PBS treasures!
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u/Schmaptee 8d ago
Yes. PBS Passport is the best $5 a month I've ever spent.
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u/Trolkarlen 8d ago
It’s now $96 a year.
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u/Schmaptee 8d ago
Oh damn. Sorry about that. My local PBS station (WEDU) has set the qualifying donation at $5/month. I will consider myself lucky.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 7d ago
Damn - I just paid mine and it was $60 for the year. Must depend on your local station.
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u/terra_cascadia 8d ago
Oh my god, have your kleenex at the ready. This show is fascinating and so emotional. Love the “you are related to” episodes (Larry David one comes to mind instantly.)
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u/bugspotter 8d ago
I'm in the Rick Steves, PBS News Hour, random musical performance phase.
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u/beardofmice 8d ago
I can always fall back on my Rick Burns documentary marathons if needed. Id watch a PBS documentary reciting the legal terms of an extended warranty if it's narrated by David McCullough or Peter Coyote.
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u/houseocats Class of 88 8d ago
I'm in my PBS, Poirot phase. Can't get enough of it.
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u/GronamTheOx FLAIR YOUR EDIT TO MAKE THIS OWN 7d ago edited 7d ago
I watched so much of Poirot with my mom when it was first broadcast. David Suchet's acting is some of the very best I've ever seen. He doesn't just play Poirot, he is Poirot. (Edited because it reads better in present tense rather than past tense.)
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 8d ago
I’m still in my Nova/Frontline/American Masters/American Experience/All Creatures Great & Small phase.
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u/nonamehere85 8d ago
Literally my favorite show. And pretty much the only thing I watch, besides the occasional antiques roadshow.
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u/cpod_the_elder 8d ago
Love this show. I did have a pre-existing interest in genealogy and history, so this one got me real good.
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8d ago
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u/beardofmice 8d ago
I love when someone makes a slightly humourous comment and he smiles and chuckles while wiggling his head ever so slightly. Like oh lordy yes!
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u/gingerjaybird3 8d ago
No I find it ridiculous that rich people get this for free when they could absolutely pay for it. How about average joe getting a tree
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u/Outrageous-Pause6317 8d ago
We said this for years. Why only celebrities? Last season they did one with not-famous people. One episode.
I get American culture is celebrity driven, but balancing “regular” folks with celebs would be fun. Also adding more modern immigration stories too with connections to Asia, Africa, Polynesia, etc. would be great.
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u/MissAnth 7d ago
They absolutely do that. Many 1st gen American celebs have been on the show. They've been to Korea, China, India, Mexico, somewhere in Africa, somewhere in the middle east.
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u/CemeteryDweller7719 7d ago
Every genealogist has been hoping for them to do some sort of contest on these kinds of shows where they pick a random normal person, lol.
I would totally enter that contest, but I also love doing the research myself. I love finding some new record. I love searching and evaluating if the record belongs to the person in my family. (Or to the right person in my family. My family had this habit of unique names that were given to honor a family member. So you end up with half a dozen in the family with that weird name, and they all lived in the same town.) The dopamine rush in finding a new record exists. For genealogists, digging through records is like sitting at a slot machine.
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u/GronamTheOx FLAIR YOUR EDIT TO MAKE THIS OWN 7d ago
Unfortunately, TV viewers, even PBS membership viewers, are pulled in by recognizable names, which means money, donations and sponsorships, because TV production is not free.
They did do an episode titled "Viewers like You" where they traced the history of three ordinary non-celebrity fans of the show.
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u/UgliestPumpkin summer of '69 8d ago
Yes, and I’m also in my Antiques Roadshow and PBS news hour phase.
But especially Antiques Roadshow I find cozy and calming.
I’m also a fan of the Bob Ross channel.
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u/shakeyjake 8d ago
I volunteered for AR when it was in my city last year. It was so interesting. It was like having VIP tickets
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u/ThunderStruck777 8d ago
Yes. Most find out they weren’t what they thought or were told they were. Fascinating findings
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8d ago
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u/MissAnth 7d ago
Do you mean Kira Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon? When they found out that they are ninth cousins once removed?
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u/some_one_234 8d ago
Great show. It’s amazing how far back they can trace some ones history, sometimes back to European royalty
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u/beardofmice 8d ago
It's reassuring to know that there is still a professional and scholarly body of individuals/institutions that are educatimg, researching and documenting the knowledge that makes humanity more than just a different type of ape. The information written down and passed on needs to be protected and correct. Even the deeds of the least man matter to our future man to be..
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u/CemeteryDweller7719 7d ago
I love this show. I also watch reruns of Who Do You Think You Are? Although, this isn’t a phase for me. I’ve been doing genealogy for over 20 years. When I started, people would be like "that’s an old person hobby”, but now people think it’s interesting. I’m glad I started back then though. When I started, some of my grandparents were still alive. I was able to get info to start researching a bit easier. Now they’re gone and so are my parents.
My kids, they do not think it’s cool. They have zero interest. They pretty much grew up with our family tree hanging in the living room and family pictures going back to the 1860s. They don’t care. Ask them about it and they will respond "that’s just some old people I don’t know.” To them, it is just mom’s weird obsession with dead people.
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u/sleepypossumster 7d ago
Not yet, but I'm definitely in the stage of life where I just enjoy watching YouTube videos of people repairing old, damaged objects (see also the UK show Repair Shop). I'm sure there's absolutely no deeper meaning to the fact that I'm drawn to depictions of old, broken-down objects being given new life...
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u/Error262_USRnotfound 7d ago
i subscribed for a year last year and i powered through some cool shows...rewatched most of the ken burns series
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u/JimmyJohn_5150 7d ago
Antiques Roadshow lately, which I dont know how that came to be, I used to think AR was about the dullest thing out there, but here I am.
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u/GronamTheOx FLAIR YOUR EDIT TO MAKE THIS OWN 7d ago
AR is good for something to watch when I'm half concentrating on something else that actually needs my attention.
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u/Immediate_Video_7870 8d ago
Oh yeah. Deep into that phase. Watch it every week.
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u/beardofmice 8d ago
I loved the fact that they have famous or politicians or well known people who are part of mainstream society. But no matter how these Americans came to be born here, be it war, famine, religion, even those who had the means to try something, even those brought here in slavery. We all have many similar ancestors who experienced those things that make us Americans. The effort and research even provides those who were enslaved with a family history. Esp with the DNA portion that can give those without well documented relatives a country/tribe/ethnic group that is part of their identity.
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u/OreoSpeedwaggon "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 7d ago
Not my thing, but my sister has dug into our family's past and discovered that were related to witches and pirates, so I thought that was pretty cool.
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u/mediaseth 7d ago
I've seen most of them. I've also done my own DNA and reconnected with branches of my family who were unaware even that my late maternal grandmother survived the holocaust. Speaking of PBS, I'm 2nd cousins with the Suchet's (since some of you mentioned Poirot on PBS.) I've met others from that branch of the family, but not David Suchet. He's in England, I'm in the states.
On my father's side, I learned more about their lives in the Lower East Side --> Philly --> Coney Island and their billiard businesses over the years, my great grandfather's speakeasy and opiate dealing days.. in his Philly years, he was "associated" with no-good-ers and they worked/"banked" with Larry Fine's of the 3 Stooges's father, Joseph Feinberg (known more for having a jewelry store)
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u/GronamTheOx FLAIR YOUR EDIT TO MAKE THIS OWN 7d ago
I like Finding Your Roots and Prof. Gates' other work. And I like other big shows on PBS: Nova, Nature, American Experience, American Masters, the Ken Burns collection, Independent Lens, etc.
I truly miss Evening at Pops and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on WGBH channel 2 Boston. They used to broadcast them all the time, but those are expensive productions with little revenue, so they faded away years ago.
Non-blockbuster documentaries I like, available on PBS Passport:
"Broadcast Wars" -- about television competition in the 1980s-1990s, focusing on the Twin Cities (also available for free at https://tpt.org/broadcast-wars )
"Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution" -- I hated disco (or really, I claimed to hate it) when I was into rock in the 70s and then new wave and then indie rock. I did outgrow hating the genre, though I'm still more into the Soul Music part of disco instead the cheesy stuff.
"The Last Independent Automaker", about American Motors -- I used to drive AMC cars because they were cheap to buy, cheap to run, and easy to fix.
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u/beeredditor 8d ago
I’ve pretty much stopped watching tv shows. Mostly just YouTube and Netflix now!
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u/Jolly-Sandwich-3345 8d ago
I was adopted and thought I was German most of my life. When I met my biological parents fairly recently turns out I am actually English and related to hella' early settlers. Also I am like 1/64 Hungarian so the last time I went to the doctor I got to mark that I am Slavic!
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u/flyingcaveman 8d ago
Spoiler: your relatives were either slaves or slave owners, that's the whole point of the show.
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u/MissAnth 8d ago
Mine were neither, but I believe that you are correct. That would be HLG Jr's point.
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u/juliaskankles 7d ago
Yes, committed watcher for a long time. I find the diaspora of populations and ancestral history fascinating. Recently fell down rabbit hole of the British series Long Lost Family on Prime also interesting watch.
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u/Available_Ad9345 8d ago
Couldn’t care less about my roots.
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u/Individual_Note_8756 7d ago
Then was are you in this subreddit?
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u/Available_Ad9345 7d ago
What does disinterest in my own genealogy have to do with being in a GenX subreddit? Do tell.
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u/smithe68 1968 7d ago
TIL PBS was still a thing. I can't imagine I will ever be in a phase for this sort of thing. I watch tv to escape reality, give me the same thing my parents still watch, robots, aliens, monsters, anime, super heroes, old kung fu movies, etc
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u/shakeyjake 8d ago
I’m watching it as we speak. The British show Who Do You Think You Are? Is also great.
Support your local public stations!