Friday, February 19, 2010
'Faces of America'
NBC's new “Who Do You Think You Are?” show has its work cut out for it, if it's going to compete quality-wise with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates's new "Faces of America." I saw Gates's show the other night -- and it was first rate. I couldn't stop watching. The stories of Queen Noor and Kristi Yamaguchi's ancestors were quite moving. Both seemed stunned to learn what relatives went through when they first arrived in America. ... The reactions of Mario Batali and Meryl Streep were peculiar. Their initial responses were basically: But why did our ancestors leave those cute little European towns? Gates had a patient, almost puzzled look on his face that seemed to say, Are you that clueless? But luckily he didn't say it out loud.
NBC's new “Who Do You Think You Are?” show has its work cut out for it, if it's going to compete quality-wise with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates's new "Faces of America." I saw Gates's show the other night -- and it was first rate. I couldn't stop watching. The stories of Queen Noor and Kristi Yamaguchi's ancestors were quite moving. Both seemed stunned to learn what relatives went through when they first arrived in America. ... The reactions of Mario Batali and Meryl Streep were peculiar. Their initial responses were basically: But why did our ancestors leave those cute little European towns? Gates had a patient, almost puzzled look on his face that seemed to say, Are you that clueless? But luckily he didn't say it out loud.
