Thursday, April 17, 2008

CARRIER The Series to Premier Next Week on PBS

Milcom enthusiast will be interested in the premier of a new series on PBS tht will air starting next week. Check your local schedule for the date and time this program will air. You can see a preview of the show and other video at the link at the bottom of this post.

CARRIER is a revealing story of daily life on a United States aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz. Filmed from May to November 2005, nearly 2,000 hours of high-definition video were captured aboard the ship during a full six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, of which three months were spent in combat in support of the ground troops. For the first time, a television series takes a raw and honest look at the Navy’s role in this controversial war. CARRIER premieres Sunday, April 27-Thursday, May 1, 2008, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS.

“PBS viewers will get a gripping view of the deployment and operations aboard a carrier during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and emotional accounts of life in the floating city,” said John F. Wilson, senior vice president and chief TV programming executive. “The universal themes that emerge offer compelling insight into the men and women who commit to military service against the extraordinary backdrop of war.”

The USS Nimitz, 24 stories high and three football fields long, carries 5,300 navy personnel and 85 military aircraft. CARRIER follows a core group of film participants, from the admiral of the strike group to the fighter pilots to the youngest sailors, as they navigate personal conflicts around their jobs, families, faith, patriotism, love, the rites of passage and the war on terror.

“CARRIER is a character-driven, edge-of-your-seat, nonfiction drama and a once-in-a-lifetime total immersion in the high stakes world of the nuclear aircraft carrier,” said executive producer and director Maro Chermayeff.

CARRIER is a production of Icon Productions, LLC, and Carrier Project, Inc. Executive producers are Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Nancy Cotton, Mitchell Block and Maro Chermayeff.

Funding for the series is provided by the CPB/PBS Challenge Fund. The presenting station is WETA Washington, DC.

You can see a preview of the show and other video segments including trailers at http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/video.php