Masterpiece Theater Airdates

December 30, 2007 7:38 PM

Starting January 13th, the retooled Masterpiece Theater is showing adaptations of all six Jane Austen novels. Does anyone know in what order they're being shown, along with air dates? I thought it would be fun to read or re-read each novel in advance of the movie, but I can't figure out when each novel is going to be shown.

There's http://pbs.org/janeausten (sorry, can't make links when posting from a Blackberry), but it doesn't say anything, as far as I can tell. The novels are listed on there, but they're just in alphabetical.order. I have a sinking suspicion the info I need is in the Reading Guide PDFs, but my Blackberry can't read them.

And yeah, I realize that not all PBS stations show things at the same time the way, say, NBC does.

Ahem: My most heartfelt thanks to all who attempt to answer this admittedly trifling query; in advance of your research, allow me to reiterate that I remain, as always,

your faithful friend and servant,
Ian A.T.

posted by Ian A.T. to media & arts (5 comments total)

It's great news, isn't it? At least some of them are new adaptations. My local affiliate's schedule:

1/13 - Persuasion
1/20 - Northanger Abbey
1/27 - Mansfield Park

That's all they have so far. More info in this NYT article.
posted by mediareport at 8:00 PM on December 30, 2007

All the dates and times
posted by Nickel at 8:01 PM on December 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

Thanks, guys! Of course the ones I've already read are clumped up at the end...I have a lot of reading ahead of me. It'll be like college all over again.

If anyone wants to join me, send me a MeFi mail; maybe I'll set some sort of discussion board up. (Sample discussion: "Leave me alone! I have to read all of Mansfield Park in one week!")

I'm actually sort of excited about Masterpiece Contemporary, the new series focusing only on modern-day stories. I hope that will mean more adaptations of contemporary plays I wouldn't otherwise see, and not novels about middle-aged women at turning points in their lives who discover their grandmothers' diaries in the attic.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:26 PM on December 30, 2007

Thanks from me, too...we were just asking ourselves about this.

But TOO bad to discover that the new productions are ONLY 90 MINUTES long! ALL of Mansfield Park in an hour and a half!?! That seems entirely against the spirit of Masterpiece Theater; worse even than Hollywood...boo.
posted by dpcoffin at 2:24 PM on December 31, 2007

If anyone's still following this thread, I thought you may be interested in knowing that, to everyone's surprise--mine most of all--I actually did read all of Austen's books in advance of the PBS airings.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:47 PM on March 30, 2008