Burns' PBS National Parks: Wonders For All to Behold

We couldn't have picked a better time to start watching my advance press copy of Ken Burns' new PBS series on the national parks: We'd just visited Glacier Bay in Alaska. It may well be the ultimate gem of the National Park system, even though relatively few ever get up there to see it.

One is left shaking one's head in disbelief after seeing this wondrous and still-pristine park, and how little man has intruded into it - unlike, say, Yosemite.

Burns' 12-hour, 6-part series, aptly named, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, starts Sunday night on PBS and runs all next week. You should try to watch it in hi-def, but do watch it.

This inspirational new series also about the right length, as opposed to two earlier Burns opuses, Jazz (Wynton Marsalis' and Burns' hyperextended homage to Satchmo) and the ridiculous, seemingly interminable Baseball, which ran for more hours than a home-and-away series -- travel included.

Given the rapaciousness of today's fixers and entrepreneurs and the anything-to-make-a-buck mentality fostered by Ronald Reagan and most of his successors, it's somewhat amazing the National Parks are even still in existence and free of oil and gas leases, to say nothing of clear-cutting. Not that the past few years have been easy on these irreplaceable parks: Most are badly underfunded and have been treated like unwanted orphans. (e.g., the main visitors' center at little-visited but lovely Lassen National Park in California is about the same size as a mobile home).

Burns turns up several little-known historical surprises in Sunday's opener. Such as the way Niagara Falls was turned into a glorified sideshow by sharks and other despoilers.

Or the fact that, in 1864, when Yosemite was first protected by Congress, it was as a California state, not national, park. It was the first time any government had ever reserved a large chunk of land for public use, but the bill's passage received scant notice. (Of course, there was a civil war going on at the time).

Much of the opener focuses on environmental icon John Muir, who walked to Yosemite from his distant San Francisco-area home, and then spent months hiking around the park and even living in its trees. The transplanted Scotsman was a wilderness junkie, and he soon alerted the public to Yosemite's wonders,

In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park - because it was located in what was then a territory, Wyoming, rather than a state.

Even after Yosemite was protected, the developers and promoters tried to move in, and it took a major effort to oust them.

The series employs the well-known Burns formula - a fiddle-driven soundtrack, voice-overs with credits, etc. But here it works and is non-intrusive. It'd be a shame to detract from all the wondrous sights shown here. Burns has noted that it's no small matter to show these natural settings today without a trace of men or their roads.

Peter Coyote provides the dignified narration, and you'll also hear the voices of Tom Hanks, John Lithgow, George Takei (!) and Sam Waterston, among others.

You may actually feel a sense of pride in watching this.

Next time you encounter a right-wing blowhard who's swallowed (as so many have) the Reagan Kool-Aid and insists government can't do anything right, tell him to watch "The National Parks."

Still, even saying that, it's doubtful that trying to create the National Parks in today's lobbyist-infested Washington would ever make it out of a U.S. Senate subcommittee.

Follow Bill Mann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/newsmann

Comments

[ReesieKitty]

We watched this the other night and really enjoyed it. My 10 year old started out wandering into the room, but got completely hooked on it and says he might do a school report on John Muir because he was so interesting. I think our National Parks are a very timely topic and I'm so glad that a documentarian of Mr. Burns' caliber has taken the subject on. We were particularly struck by the fact that even as far back as the late 1800s, there were people concerned about the frantic pace of life and the lack of solitude and places for people to go and just be with nature instead of always working, always trying to change things. There really are no 'new' problems, only new generations.

[springsm]

The work of Ken Burns is very good. However, on this one, he immediately went out to vilivy James Mason Hutchings..which makes a good bit of this segment jaded and not so much fun to watch. I wonder also how Mr Ken Burns likes the idea of loaded weapons on a person in these places of wonderous scenery and peaceful traveling. Surely turns me off and we are frequent visitors to National Parks. His idea tho is to concentrate on stories as well as the parks..and that was interesting in his introductory hour he gave around the country. His object tho is to sanctify John Muir..and altho Muir did the best thing that he could have done...he was no saint. And yes, without John Muir I don't think we would have a national park system.

[NHBill]

I can see 12 hours on The Civil War or The Revolution or WWII but 12 hours on the National Park Service? His Baseball series was ruined by this kind of overkill (I understand he is adding to it!). Yo, Ken! If you going to ask me to devote 12 hours of my life pick a more worthy topic such as Civil Rights, or the Woman's Movement or the Vietnam War all of which need your level of devotion.

[Olampean]

News Flash!

This special series is on the National Parks, not merely the National Park Service. And if you don't already comprehend the premise that such iconic treasures as America's National Parks are worth at least 12 hours, perhaps you've never been to one.

Then again, I once heard a woman describe her impression of the Grand Canyon as a big ditch. If you agree with that type of thinking, I think you will probably find the Ken Burns special unappealing.

And you're not so much being asked to devote12 hours of your incredibly valuable life as you are merely being invited. You're welcome to take a pass. There will be plenty others of us watching.

[Olampean]

Oh, and as Bill Mann suggests, after watching Episode One, I felt a great sense of pride in our National Parks and in our nation's better self.

I have difficulty understanding how anyone could not, but no doubt it's possible.

[sws3030]

Considering the irresponsible way we, as a society, treat the beauty of the world around us, these 12 hours may, unfortunately, be all we have left for the future. The the question will be, Why only 12?

[ella52]

Been waiting months and months. This is appointment viewing at it's best.
Ken Burns is a wonderful documentarian and makes history so easy to digest.

[NPS1916]

Great article, however....Lassen Volcanic NP has a new LEED Platinum certified visitor center, it opened last year. Also, it's not too hard to hike a little into the back-country, away from Tunnel View and the Ahwahnee, and revel in the same pristine wilderness of Yosemite that shook John Muir to his bones.

[newsmann]

Glad to hear that. Tx for the Lassen update.

[3reddogs]

I'd watch a show about the evolution of belly button lint if Ken Burns produced it.

[Artemis34]

I love your work Bill!

Parks are not completely free of oil & gas leases and clear cutting, right?

[AlanOpp]

We're putting out a series of National Parks iPhone apps in parallel with the PBS series. http://shows.we-envision.com/parks/