Wednesday, March 12, 2008

"Who Do You Think You Are?" coming to NBC TV in USA

Leland Meitzler's Genealogy Blog post links to a (UK) Guardian article titled "BBC genealogy show bought by NBC." This refers to the very popular "Who do you think you are" series on BBC TV in the UK, which has also haa programs on Canadian and Australian TV. The "money" graphs in the Guardian article are:

"NBC is to make a US version of the hit BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, which will be co-executive produced by Friends star Lisa Kudrow."

and ...

"Producers are researching the family trees of several interested candidates to see if they have compelling enough backgrounds."

and ...

"It's great storytelling, a journey of self-discovery for these celebrities and truly moving and life-changing," the NBC executive vice-president of alternative programming, Craig Plestis, told the Hollywood Reporter. "You often see a very different side of them."

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I have some suggestions - just trying to help the NBC folks, and Lisa Kudrow, out:

* Tom Seaver (Hall of Fame pitcher) - I listed his Seaver ancestry here.

* Pat Boone (actor, singer) - I listed his Boone ancestry here (hint - he's not descended from Daniel Boone)

* a descendant of Santa Claus - see my story here.

* William Jefferson Blythe (Clinton)

* Teddy Kennedy (classic immigrant story?)

* John Kerry (not Irish!)

* Homer Simpson (cartoon character)

* George Foreman - any of them!

* Mitt Romney (former governor of MA)

* Anna Nicole Smith (might be interesting)

* Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean!)

* Donald Trump

The field of potential "candidates" is rich - politicians, movie/TV stars, sports figures, business people, etc.

Chris Dunham on his The Genealogue blog has had over 100 contests trying to find obscure ancestors of famous persons.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has done quite a bit of research on some of the presidential candidates.

There are whole web sites with many genealogies of famous or infamous people - such as http://www.wargs.com/

As far as I'm concerned, any TV show that advances knowledge about family history and genealogy is good - genealogists will get more recognition, more people will pursue their ancestry, and genealogy societies, businesses, publications, web sites and bloggers will thrive!

Who would you suggest? Who do you want to know the ancestry of?

1 comment:

Questors said...

Randy,

I think they should do the family trees of all those people I have never heard of but the younger generation knows. I'd like to see the kids get turned on by genealogy and they will tune in if it is some American Idol or People star. I will watch no matter who it is about!