It’s The Neighborhoods (Pittsburgh/WQED Public Television)
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Main Program: B
One of the most recent entries in the WQED/Rick Sebak
Pittsburgh Series is one of the riskiest and most personal. It’s The Neighborhoods (2004) does
not have a food or single location focus, but goes all over the present
neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to expose its very rich present and
how the rich past made it possible.
What could have been boring and awkward becomes very
reveling as the usually successful Sebak crew goes in and gets even more
personal interviews than usual about people’s memories and they are willing to
open up about their past and the history of where they live. In an era of horrible so-called “reality TV”,
this program mows over the phoniness, hatred and ugliness of that cycle by
always respecting and never exploiting the interviewees or the audience. Like Things That Aren’t There Anymore,
his much-imitated 1990 classic reviewed elsewhere on this site, Neighborhoods
will likely be imitated over and over by other public TV stations as the show
gets around the country, assisted by syndicati0on and this great DVD.
To people not from Pittsburgh, it might at first be like
tuning into a “superstation” on cable or satellite, or watching TV when you are
on vacation. However, that can also be
a nice change of pace and there is always something interesting to learn if you
have a good attention span and enjoy variety.
Pittsburgh is particularly rich because of so very many immigrants and
how when it was “The Steel City” it could support so many workers like you
would not believe. This show
demonstrates that legacy that has survived long past The Industrial Age into
The Information Age. Pittsburgh is a
survivor and that alone is reason enough to marvel at It’s The Neighborhoods.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is one of the
best transfers we have seen from the WQED series to date, with added depth,
more color richness and a little more detail than the previous full screen
installments in the series, as good as they do look. The change in aspect ratio has not hurt the feel of what Sebak
and company have established over the years in these shows. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo may not have
any real surround information, but it is clean and clear as usual. Why do these simple soundtracks form Public
TV sound better than so many similar professional productions from commercial
venues?
Extras include promos for other programs by Sebak and
company from both The Pittsburgh Series and extended sections on the Bloomfield
street fair and Regent Square running event, plus four similar segments form
other Sebak specials, including the to be issued later Houses Around Here
that we cannot wait to cover. In the
meantime, It’s The Neighborhoods is a little gem and another winner from
The Pittsburgh Series.
- Nicholas Sheffo
