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COVER STORY NBC series goes to the roots of celebrity family trees By Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it ‘‘Who Do You Think You Are?” - NBC’s version of a British show, debuting Friday March 5 - sounds more like parents admonishing snotty kids than life-altering journeys. ‘‘I was hooked with the first one I saw, and I didn’t know who the person was, and I was riveted,” says Lisa Kudrow (‘‘Friends”), an executive producer and subject of one of the seven episodes tracing people’s ancestry. ‘‘We learn about history, and we don’t think how, on a very intimate level, how it impacts families and sets them on a different course, and how we end up being us because of it,” she says. In the first episode, Sarah Jessica Parker discovers her roots in the United States stretch back to 1630. Her ancestor, Esther Elwell, accused of being a witch, was remarkably lucky. Days before her trial, the court, which had executed everyone accused, was disbanded. Like the others who uncover their past, Parker is deeply moved. ‘‘It has changed everything about who I thought I was,” Parker says. Former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith and Kudrow, in separate interviews, talk about their emotional journeys. Like Parker, they begin with their parents. Smith travels around the South, including Burnt Corn, Ala., and eventually to Benin, Africa. ‘‘It opened my eyes to the times and struggle of a certain group of people in this country,” he says. ‘‘It was an emotional and spiritual ride.” Genealogists provide documents, and celebrities marvel as they examine papers that provide some answers to the question of who they think they are. Additional episodes focus on Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Matthew Broderick. As compelling as the documentaries are, the NBC version has its flaws, mainly the annoying tendency to repeat itself as if viewers could not possibly recall what happened before commercial breaks. By repeating so much, it squanders time better used detailing each subject’s heritage. Still, what is shown is incredibly moving. The harsh realities of how his ancestors had to live is driven home to Smith when a clerk hands him a record book about his relatives marked ‘‘colored.” His great-great-grandparents were born into slavery. Kudrow’s great-grandmother was killed when Nazis invaded her town, forced the Jews into a building, made them strip, shot them, then torched the area. Remarkably, Kudrow not only finds a very old woman who knew her great-grandmother, she also finds a distant relative who had delivered the news of what had happened. Kudrow’s father remembered him telling the story in 1940. When Kudrow meets the old Page 3 man, it’s remarkable. ‘‘I knew about the Holocaust since I was really young,” Kudrow says. ‘‘I knew I didn’t want to explore it personally, and it wasn’t my first choice to go to Belarus to find where they were all shot.” Her voice trails off as she considers her relatives’ hideous fate. ‘‘It was as hard as I thought it would be,” Kudrow says. ‘‘I was not so surprised, but boy, disappointed that there is a rage that comes up. I didn’t see a rage in Emmitt. Maybe he worked to get through to the other side.” Smith is even-keeled as he says, ‘‘I just hope my story is inspiring and impactful in a positive way to hopefully encourage younger people to get on the crusade. The crusade is not to be negative: to continue to advance the ball of freedom, the ball of equality, and make yourself a better person because of the efforts of so many others who have come before you and died.” <strong>TV</strong> QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Latest Grammer lesson: Don’t bank on ‘Hank’ By Jay Bobbin, Zap2it Q: What happened to the sitcom ‘‘Hank”? It didn’t seem to last long. Will it be back? --Tammy Virden, Toronto, Ohio A: If so, it will return only to burn off the few remaining episodes that weren’t broadcast already. ABC canceled the show in November, and title star Kelsey Grammer apparently had anticipated it. Shortly afterward, he told Jay Leno in an onair interview that he actually had requested the cancellation, because he thought ‘‘Hank” wasn’t funny enough. Q: Please tell me who is married to Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. Is it Josh Duhamel or Cameron Mathison? And who did Josh play on ‘‘All My Children,” and when did he leave? - -Joyce Stoudt, Sinking Spring, Pa. A: It’s Duhamel, who’s currently on the big screen with Kristen Bell in the romantic comedy ‘‘When in Rome.” And the veteran of television’s ‘‘Las Vegas” and the ‘‘Transformers” movies was Leo du Pres on ABC’s ‘‘All My Children” from 1999 to 2002. Q: Where is Chris Cuomo? He seems to have disappeared from ‘‘Good Morning America.” Maybe I missed an announcement. --Mary Ann Bittner, Belleville, Mich. A: You did. Cuomo became a factor in the recent changing of the guard on the ABC program, since he turned over the news anchor position to Juju Chang when George Stephanopoulos replaced Diane Sawyer as the program’s co-host. Cuomo -- a son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and brother of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- now shares anchor duties with Elizabeth Vargas on the ABC newsmagazine ‘‘20/20” Fridays. He also remains on call to cover breaking stories for ABC News, for which he continues to serve as chief law and justice correspondent as well. Q: I don’t get Showtime. Is there a Web site where I can watch ‘‘Henry VIII”? --Don Poulin, Port Saint Lucie, Fla. A: We assume you mean ‘‘The Tudors.” Certain episodes can be found at the network’s Web site, www.sho.com -- but a pay network obviously doesn’t want to give away a lot of what it wants you to pay for. Thus, you can find a lot more episode excerpts for free than full episodes (which are available for purchase at iTunes, and also in full-season DVD sets of the series that have been released). The fourth and final ‘‘Tudors” season debuts on Showtime April 11. Q: Will we get to see more of ‘‘The Cleaner” with Benjamin Bratt? -- Kathy Ford, Chanute, Kan. A: In terms of new episodes, no. When the drama’s second season concluded in September, A&E Network announced the show had been canceled. Since then, Bratt has done a guest shot on the ABC comedy ‘‘Modern Family.” Q: Can you give us an idea of what kinds of factors go into whether additional seasons of a television series are released on DVD? And who should we lobby for it? I’ve encountered many instances where only one season has been released, I watched all those episodes, and I am left lingering waiting for the next season to be released. -- Brian Doennebrink, Shoreline, Wash. A: One of the top factors is sales. If a season of a show has been released, but the buying market isn’t there to support it - - at least in the view of the studio that has released it -- it’ll take a long while for another season to be released, if indeed it ever is. The threshold for acceptable sales depends on the series. Big hits such as ‘‘ER” and ‘‘Dallas” were virtually guaranteed to have strong sales, so in those two cases, Warner Home Video would have little reservation about planning full releases for them. On the other hand, ‘‘Murphy Brown” evidently didn’t fulfill the expectation Warner had for it, so nothing has been released of the sitcom beyond the first season. (At least not yet.) ‘‘Cult” buying potential also can factor in. The company Shout! Factory specializes in releasing shows that might not have huge sales, but it knows what to expect, which might not have to be as large for Shout! - - which has issued ‘‘The Patty Duke Show” and ‘‘thirtysomething” lately -- as for a Warner or a Paramount. Basically, then, there isn’t a ‘‘one size fits all” answer. It depends on the show and the expectations of the company that holds the rights to release it.
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