One of the medium's most beloved and eclectic cultural showcases, this Alistair Cooke-hosted series spanned the arts, covering (among other fields) plays, documentaries, operas, Broadway musicals, ballets and symphonies. Included were pieces based on the works of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Shaw, Chekhov, Eliot and Thurber; a production of 'King Lear' starring Orson Welles; a TV-debut appearance by Leonard Bernstein; and Jacques Cousteau's undersea adventures, his first on network television.
Michael Moore ('Fahrenheit 9/11') guided this nutty mid-'90s take on 'the other side of America', with a typical escapade being his quest to hug all 50 state governors. Moore called it a 'nonfiction, comedic newsmagazine with a point of view.' That point of view was unconfusingly liberal, and his targets were often corporate CEOs. There were also results from a bogus polling organization, person-on-the-street interviews and a team of correspondents that included Janeane Garofalo.