The "Peeb" has always been one of my favorite networks. Mostly because of the British imports, although one local Peeb station purchases mostly British sitcoms apart from PBS. I believe it was one of our local Peebs that brought in Doctor Who for the first time in America, and broadcasted some Red Dwarf episodes before they were shown in Britain. The Peeb also introduced great actors to TV via stage play productions like True West with John Malkovich and Gary Sinese. And of course there's the documentaries, like The American Experience.
I grew up on Public Television. It's where I first saw not only a slew of British sit-coms, but Monty Python, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and, of course, countless different detectives on Mystery. Recently, I've been glued to Downton Abbey on Masterpiece.
Downton Abbey is like Mad Men, boring, overrated soap. I don't have cable, so I watch if something interesting is on like the baseball program they had.
I watch it every Saturday night for my hour and a half block of Red Dwarf and Doctor Who. I also occasionally catch the News Hour.
As a kid, I watched PBS every day for shows like Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Zoom, and others. During my teenage years, my local PBS station became really cool and started airing Doctor Who, Blake's 7, The Prisoner, Red Dwarf, and even Space Precinct. Added to that were the various cooking shows, This Old House, and even The Joy of Painting, and I guess I was watching my PBS channel more than any other back then. These days, though, I hardly watch PBS at all. I eventually grew out of the kids shows, all of the British sci-fi imports went away, and real life frequently gets in the way of other shows I might still want to see. But my local PBS station has its digital outlets, and I can find many of the PBS cooking, do-it-yourself, and travel shows on the Create channel. Periodically, I'll tune in there.
I enjoy Antiques Roadshow, This Old House, and Nova. Unfortunately Nova is about the last place left on the television landscape where you can still find history and science documentaries.
After I dumped cable, I just stopped thinking about watching any broadcast TV, even PBS, even tho it's free and no ads. But I'm interested in what they show every so often, like American Experience and Nova. I just get it through Netflix, it seems simpler to get everything the same way.
It's the new Doctor Who. They're running through series six right now. They used to run through the Tom Baker era every Saturday night but stopped about 10 years ago.
Except for the ad at the beginning of most shows and the pledge drives, both of which could technically be considered ads.
I used to watch PBS frequently, as the only other show I would watch was Star Trek and news. But I've not had cable since '95, couldn't pick up broadcast well enough with rabbit ears after moving to my current apartment in 2006, and can't pick up anything at all now after everything went digital.
Interesting. My PBS hasn't shown a Doctor Who episode in 20 years. Newshour is the only place in the USA to get actual news.
If there's one regret I have when it comes to PBS, it's that it's too late to discover Downton Abby. I hear how great that show is and it's already in the third season so it's too late to jump in now.