The Roosevelts TV Show - The big comeback of quality television comes from the hand of PBS presenting a production by Ken Burns that makes a private portrait of the lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The TV Show is called The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and it tells, just like its title nicely puts, the intimate story behind these three people of the same family that changed the History of USA, each one in a different way.
Its first airing was last night, Sunday 14th and it goes on for seven straight days. Each day, the episode lasts for two hours. They are in total fourteen hours of stories, lives and History in the making.
The most interesting of all and what makes The Roosevelts TV Show different from any other documentary done before about this subject is that when talking about politicians, any sort of story built around them tends to be political. There are interesting facts shared, sure, but the facts can be searched for in mostly anywhere.
What stands out and what cannot be found easily are personal details. And that is something that in these times especially, when people want to share more about themselves online and seek recognition from the world, this comes in. Meaning, everyone wants the latest scoop. And the Roosevelts changed History with political and social movements, but what do we all really know about them?
So, the Roosevelts TV Show is mainly a fourteen-hour documentary that focuses on their lives and how they really were, not just how the papers and History books later on painted them.
To do so, there is archive footage that Ken Burns looked thoroughly and "acting" or more like lending their voices for these historical figures are Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti and Edward Herrmann.
In order to provide a very basic view of The Roosevelts in question, Theodore was the 26th President of USA from 1901 and 1909. Franklin was the 32nd one from 1933 to 1945 and Eleanor was with him the entire time as she was the First lady those years.
The Roosevelts TV Show covers not only this span of time, but it actually starts with Theodore's birth in 1858 and finishes with Eleanor's death in 1962. This means that it covers more than a hundred years of history.
Some of the facts that have been shared by Geoffrey Ward, a Historian that has been collaborating for years with Ken Burns and appear in The New York Daily News are:
"He was doing what we'd refer today as outrunning his demons...Eleanor Roosevelt stayed compulsively busy for much the same reason. To pause meant the darkness would come."
This statement refers to the fact that apparently, depression ran in the family and they all had many issues and too many deaths. As a matter of fact, Theodore Roosevelt lost his wife and his mother in the same day. This is recounted in the First Instalment that aired yesterday.
It is also assumed that they were so incredible in politics due to this fact. There was so much drama in their lives that they had to do things and to keep active not to think so much in their own issues.
Franklin Roosevelt had suffered polio when he was younger and he couldn't move much or do anything at all on his own. He actually depended on too many people all the time.
Burns said about it, "One of the most moving aspects was to realizing how hard it was for Franklin Roosevelt just to get out of bed in the morning and do anything at all."
The Roosevelts TV Show is a struggle of three different lives that were led and they all succeeded against problems and became three of the most important people in the entire History.
Ken Burns and PBS clearly want to share The Roosevelts and this remarkable project with everyone. In the documentary's page there are multiple ways of watching it. It informs with your zip code at which time it will be aired and where, then you can also download it to the computer.
And if that wasn't enough, in the page there is also a timeline made with each birth and important facts to educate people and genuinely share the knowledge. There is that and much more in The Roosevelts TV Show web page.
Do yourself a favor and don't miss this unique opportunity to watch something with intensity, passion and hard work like The Roosevelts TV Show. You will not regret it as it is the best of the best in TV today.
