Best TV Show of the Week
Who Do You Think You Are on NBC
By Ally Matteodo
NBC’s illuminating series Who Do You Think You Are? aired Friday, March
18th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and represents a thoughtful, interesting Best of the Week
that the entire family can enjoy.
This program focuses on celebrities seeking out their family roots. As
they search for clues into their past, sometimes the uncovered photographs and
documents can lead them across the country, or even across the world. This
particular episode focused on actress and TV talk show host Rosie O’ Donnell and
her quest to uncover her ancestry. O’ Donnell uncovers a photograph that
she remembers from her childhood—it is of a woman that no one in her family
could clearly identify. Through her research she discovers that it is her
grandfather’s first wife, who died in a tragic explosion in Ireland. Their
baby, however, survived, and O’Donnell discovers she has cousins living in New
Jersey that she never knew anything about. Her travels ultimately take her
to Kildare, Ireland, the village of her maternal ancestors. There, she
learns more about the great famine during which more than one million people
died of starvation, and walks through the workhouse her relatives toiled in.
Faced with the many trials of her predecessors, O’Donnell expresses gratefulness
for her own good fortune--thanks to their blood, sweat, and tears she has been
able to flourish and soar.
This show holds the viewers interest by framing the stories of the celebrities
in the form of a mystery. They are out to uncover relics and clues that will
lead them on a journey of discovery. Military documents, house deeds, and
census records all contribute to fleshing out a clearer image of who their
ancestors were, and what they went through. History gains a more personal
relevance as dates develop new meaning—when people can place periods of time
within the context of their own life, the world becomes a richer, more
inter-connected space. This program makes one appreciate the sacrifices all of
our ancestors made in order to secure rights we take for granted today, including
freedom from oppressors and equal opportunity. Who Do You Think You Are?
aptly demonstrates that to know where you’re going, sometimes it helps to know
where you’ve been.
Best TV Show
of the Week
The Parents
Television Council -
www.parentstv.org
