Do you remember where you were when president John F. Kennedy was shot? Too young, perhaps? How about Sept. 11, or even Sidney Crosby’s gold-medal goal at the 2010 Olympics? All are poignant historical moments we likely recall, but we tend to ignore others. Like those in our own family histories.
Who Do You Think You Are, the latest personal history series from NBC, aims to change that by educating and urging North Americans to find out more about their pasts.
It comes after the success of PBS’s History Detectives (which has explored the history of people’s personal items since 2003), Oprah’s Roots: An African American Lives Special (2007) and its U.S. version of Antiques Roadshow (which debuted in 1997).
With HBO poised to debut the mini-series The Pacific on March 14 – documenting the Second World War from the side of the Pacific Theatre – and the recent passing of Canada’s last First World War veteran, Jack Babcock, history is top of mind for North Americans.
Former Friends star Lisa Kudrow has swapped her acting hat for an executive-producing one to capitalize on the trend, teaming with Dan Bucatinsky (Lipstick Jungle) to create a U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are from the original U.K. hit.
The show takes historical journeys with some of the entertainment world’s biggest names. Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Spike Lee, Emmitt Smith, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and even Kudrow herself explore their family trees, with surprising results.
“Anyone who sees the show (is) impacted in different ways because it works on a lot of levels,” Kudrow told media recently. “It’s inspirational, and then it’s interesting … some of the details of history you didn’t know about that have a huge impact on a family line.”
The first episode, which spotlights Sex and the City star Parker, begins with the actress and her brother lamenting that they probably have a boring history. As it turns out, their family line goes back as far as the first settlers at Plymouth Rock, the birthplace of America.
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Her hubby Matthew Broderick knew his grandfather was in the Civil War, but had no clue he received one its highest honours in one of its bloodiest campaigns. Sarandon suspected that her family might have ties in Italy, but was shocked to discover how far back her family name stretched.
It’s all done in a palatable and entertaining way to prompt Americans to embrace their history, explains Kudrow, who got hooked on the show while visiting Ireland and wondered why it wouldn’t work in America.
And by using celebrities as the subjects, Who Do You Think You Are increases its chances for ratings success. (Kudrow and Bucatinsky acknowledge that they had to merely give their Rolodexes a spin to get their industry friends to take part.) |
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The BBC version has aired seven seasons featuring such U.K. celebrities and sports figures as Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, Stephen Fry, David Tennant, Jeremy Irons, Nigella Lawson, Kim Cattrall, Jerry Springer, Patsy Kensit and John Hurt.
In Canada, CBC did one season of the series with Canadian stars Don Cherry, Chantal Kreviazuk, Shaun Majumder, Sonja Smits, Randy Bachman, Mary Walsh, Margot Kidder, Lewis MacKenzie, Steven Page, Avi Lewis, Margaret Trudeau, Scott Thompson and Measha Brueggergosman.
Kudrow’s own history was well-documented, but it was rounded out during her segment on the show. Her father had done extensive geneology work on a family tree (“a 46-page family tree,” she laughs), which documented the death of her great-grandmother at the hands of the Nazis in Belarus, but he still had blanks that couldn’t be filled.
It wasn’t until Kudrow hopped on a plane with the Who Do You Think You Are cameras in tow that she learned rest of the story, and made the shocking discovery that a family member still resides overseas.
“(The) show is really about ‘you dig, you scratch the surface of a person whom you believe you know who’s well-known and has won awards in whatever their field,’” Bucatinsky says. “You start to go back in time into something that we’re all a part of and personalize a story.”
The duo hope enough people are interested and NBC orders another season of the series, as they have more names to cross off their wish list (which they refused to divulge to media), and more information to present to viewers.
“It’s not just dry history – it’s back story that’s essential once you’re invested in these characters like Sarah Jessica,” Kudrow explains. “It has more impact. We’re supposed to study history. We’re supposed to know what we’ve done before.”
Who Do You Think You Are premières Friday, March 5 at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv/NBC. History Detectives airs on PBS; check TVGuide.ca listings for days and times in your area.
Have you put together your own family tree? greg@tvguide.ca or comment below.
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VIDEO: A PREVIEW OF WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE
