The Public Broadcast Laboratory (PBL) was a

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

broadcast in the United States, created on November 5, 1967, by

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It o ...

(NET). The program was considered a live Sunday-night magazine program. In 1969, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

withdrew support and the series was cancelled.

History

The ''Public Broadcast Laboratory'' had the financial backing of the

, which put over $292 million into

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...

programs, including ''PBL.'' ''PBL'' contained a program of news and other features, in something of what was at the time considered an experimental approach. The executive director was Av Westin. The initial ''PBL'' program featured

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s with white-painted faces in a one-hour drama. Only 89 of a hoped-for 119 stations aired the debut program. The entire state educational networks of

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

refused due to the controversial content; both states were embroiled then with social conflict over the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. The series aired 53 episodes (including four specials) during its two-year run on NET. Season-one episodes ran two hours long, season-two episodes from December 1, 1968, onward ran only 90 minutes long; the program ended its run at the conclusion of the television season. The entire archive of ''PBL'' programs was donated by NET's successor,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

on January 5, 1994. Episodes of ''PBL'' have been contributed to, and made available in, the

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...

by the Library of Congress, GBH, and

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

References

External links

Archive of ''PBL'' episodes and segments
*{{IMDb title, tt2410986 1967 American television series debuts 1969 American television series endings National Educational Television original programming