DVRs prepare to archive unwatched episodes of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts
As the Associated Press reports, PBS has announced the fall premiere of the next Ken Burns miniseries that will pile up on Americans’ DVRs because even though they want to see it—everybody says it’s excellent—they just don’t feel like it tonight. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is a seven-part miniseries by one of the country’s greatest documentary filmmakers, and it spans 14 hours, meaning that the show will reduce the recording capacity of a TiVo Roamio by about 19 percent. According to PBS’ promotional materials, The Roosevelts—which examines “the creation of National Parks, the digging of the Panama Canal, the passage of innovative New Deal programs, the defeat of Hitler, and the postwar struggles for civil rights at home and human rights abroad”—will mark the first time that a major documentary series will cover all three of the best-known Roosevelts (Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor). It will also mark the hundredth time that viewers, with no small measure of guilt, instead re-watch that episode of Friends where Ross dresses up as the Holiday Armadillo.