PBS Nova

One PBS night: from frontier horse to bionic limbs

As the Olympics finally fade away, we can rediscover the rest of the TV universe.
That includes PBS, which has a remarkable night of non-fiction Wednesday (Feb. 23). In one night, it takes us from horses – the heroes of the American frontier – to a new generation of bionic limbs.
That starts at 8 p.m. with a beautifully filmed edition of “Nature.” Horses were here 40 million years ago, filmmaker Eric Bendick told the Television Critics Association, then disappeared from North America. “They actually came back with the Spanish conquistadores, (leading to) the arrival of the mustang” (shown here). Read more…

Film has Cuba’s against-the-odds medical success

At 63, George Keays seemed to have an enviable life – good health, great setting, solid finances.
He had retired as a telecom executive and returned to his previous field of real estate. He lived in Boulder, Colo., a place that emphasizes outdoor living.
“I was a healthy person” who never smoked, he told the Television Critics Association in January. “I have run a marathon. I have always been exercising regularly, eating right.”
Then doctors said he had stage-4 lung cancer, with little time left. “They were ‘six to nine months.’”
That was four years ago. Now Keays is featured in “Cuba’s Cancer Hope” (shown here) a “Nova” documentary (9 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, on PBS) that includes some American doctors who were startled by the island’s medical progress Read more…