Top Rated Documentary TV Series - Page 289

Castaway 2000

2000

Castaway 2000

2000
4.5
36 volunteers spend the year 2000 on the island of Taransay finding out what happens when a cross-section of British people try to create a new society.
Twentieth Century Battlefields

2007

Twentieth Century Battlefields

2007
8.5
Father-and-son team Peter and Dan Snow embark on an epic journey to describe battles that transformed the 20th century. Known for its extensive use of "sand table" CGI effects to help viewers visualize the battles.
World Tour of Scotland

1994

World Tour of Scotland

1994
8
World Tour of Scotland is a six-part television series — the first of Billy Connolly's "world tours" — originally broadcast by the BBC in late 1994. It involved his touring around his homeland of Scotland for 54 nights during early 1994, beginning in Greenock and visiting cities and towns and performing live on stage to audiences. However, this, like all his other tours, involved more than just shows: he visited numerous places of historic and scenic value, as well as some places that resonate with his own upbringing. The series was dedicated "with much love and thanks to the people of Scotland". It has since been released on VHS and DVD. On the latter format, the six episodes are split across two discs.
Mail Call

2002

Mail Call

2002
6.7
Mail Call was a television program that appeared on the History Channel and hosted by R. Lee Ermey, a retired United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant,. The show debuted on August 4, 2002 as part of the 'Fighting Fridays' lineup. Most episodes were 30 minutes, but from 2007 through the show's end in 2009 some episodes were 60 minutes. During each episode, Ermey read and answered questions submitted by viewers regarding weapons and equipment used by all branches of the U.S. military now or in the past, as well as by other armed forces in history. Ermey often took his viewers on location to military training areas to film demonstrations. When not on location, Ermey broadcast from a set resembling a military outpost, including a tent, a Jeep, and various other pieces of military gear which changed throughout the series. At times, he would also have a bulldog - usually symbolic of Marines, especially drill instructors - on his show as well. Comic relief was provided as Ermey inflicted DI-style verbal abuse on his vi
Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand

2004

Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand

2004
7
Billy Connolly is back with the fourth in his massively popular World Tour series. This time Billy journey's to the other side of the globe to New Zealand, a country he has been visiting since the 1970s and of which he is immensely fond. Billy's extraordinary journey covers the length and breadth of New Zealand and is mixed with the best of his comedy from sell-out shows around the country.Filmed in 2004 during the first leg of his Too Old To Die Young Tour this series is a stunning journey around New Zealand's two islands from the Southern-most tip to the far north where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. Along the way Billy takes in Maori traditions, sand paintings, whale-watching, a 90 mile beach and much more to give us a fascinating insight into the spectacular scenery, culture and people of this amazing country.
Dr. 90210

2004

Dr. 90210

2004
4.5
Dr. 90210 is an American reality television series focusing on plastic surgery in the wealthy suburb of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, Southern California. The series began its run in 2004. Dr. 90210 gets its name from the zip code of the core of Beverly Hills, familiar to most viewers because of the former popular television series Beverly Hills, 90210. The show is produced by E!, but is broadcast on several other basic cable network channels, such as the Style Network. Each episode is approximately one hour long. The show stands out from other programs of this sort in that it also examines the lives of the doctors featured in its lineup.
Airline

1997

Airline

1997
8
Airline is a fly on the wall television programme, produced in the United Kingdom that showcases the daily happenings of passengers, ground workers and on-board staff of Britannia and later EasyJet. The show was broadcast between 1998 and 2006 on ITV, is often repeated on ITV2 and shown on syndication on Pick TV. The programme's success sparked a US version of the series, following American low-cost airline Southwest Airlines.
Springwatch

2005

Springwatch

2005
9
Springwatch is an annual BBC television series which charts the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom.
Sensing Murder

2006

Sensing Murder

2006
8.2
Sensing Murder is a television series from New Zealand and Australia, in which psychics are asked to act as psychic detectives to help provide evidence that might be useful in solving famous unsolved murder cases in each country by communicating with the deceased victims.
Two-A-Days

2006

Two-A-Days

2006
6
Two-A-Days is a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham. It focused on the members of the school's highly-rated Hoover Buccaneers football team during the football season, while they balanced athletics with school and relationships. The show premiered on August 23, 2006, at 10:30 P.M. EDT and subsequently was broadcast weekly on Wednesdays at the same time. The show began on MTV Canada on September 7, 2006, at 10 P.M. EDT. Repeat episodes of the show are also shown on CMT, MTV's sister channel, at various times. In Hoover, the show's premiere episode was shown to the cast, their families and supporters at a local theater; the event was staged as a movie premiere, with the traditional red carpet replaced by a carpet of artificial turf, complete with stripes as would be found on a football field. The second season began on Tuesday, January 30, 2007.
CNN Presents

0000

CNN Presents

0000
5
CNN Presents is an American documentary program on CNN weekends. The program used to be replaced with CNN Special Investigations Unit, which features the same documentary format, but differs from it in a number of ways and is shorter in length. The program was originally a regular weekly series that looks in-depth in the important news stories of the times. More recently, it became a "special event" documentary that airs every time a larger, more long-term special report went into making. Notably, the program has been a winner of a number of different awards, including the International Documentary Association Best Documentary Series award. Previous to his departure from CNN, Presents was hosted and narrated by Aaron Brown. While CNN Presents was broadcast on the network, a specialized CNN Presents logo was shown in the corner without the news ticker on the screen. CNN Presents has been revived since its presentation of God's Warriors by Christiane Amanpour in August 2007, and later with Planet in Peril, Black i
Around the World in 80 Treasures

2005

Around the World in 80 Treasures

2005
4
Cruickshank takes a five-month world tour visiting his choices of the eighty greatest man-made treasures, including buildings and artifacts. His tour takes him through 34 countries and 6 of the 7 continents. In addition to seeing some of the world's greatest treasures, Cruickshank tries many different kinds of food including testicle, brain, and insects. His means of transportation included airplanes, trains, camel, donkey, foot, bicycle, scooter, hang glider, and boats.
Billy Connolly's World Tour of Australia

1996

Billy Connolly's World Tour of Australia

1996
7.5
Billy Connolly's World Tour of Australia is the second in a line of ‘world tours’ that follow comedian Billy Connolly on his various travels across the globe. Filmed in 1995, Connolly takes the viewer on a scenic and informative tour of Australia, intercut with scenes from his stand-up comedy act at various venues around the country. The tour takes in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs and Fraser Island. On the way, Connolly also experiences and demonstrates several Australian customs, traditions, and attractions, including swimming with the dolphins in Perth, eating a pie floater in Adelaide, and several museums and galleries, most of which feature some form of Aboriginal art.
Star Gazers

1976

Star Gazers

1976
10
Star Gazers is a five-minute astronomy show on American public television previously hosted by Jack Foley Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. After his death in 2010 from a respiratory illness from which he'd suffered since childhood, a series of guest astronomers hosted until 2011, when Dean Regas, James Albury and Marlene Hidalgo became permanent co-hosts. On the weekly program, the host informs the viewer of significant astronomical events for the upcoming week, including key constellations, stars and planets, lunar eclipses and conjunctions, as well as historical and scientific information about these events. The program is available free to all Public Broadcasting Service public television stations, educational institutions and astronomy clubs. A month of episodes can be recorded from a satellite feed which occurs approximately two weeks before the official broadcast dates.
Beyond Tomorrow

1985

Beyond Tomorrow

1985
7
Beyond Tomorrow is an Australian television series produced by Beyond Television Productions. It began airing in 1981 as Towards 2000, then in 1985 was renamed Beyond 2000, a name the show kept until its cancellation in 1999. It then started airing again in 2005 with the name Beyond Tomorrow.
History Bites

1998

History Bites

1998
6
History Bites was a television series on the History Television network that ran from 1998-2003. Created by Rick Green, History Bites explored what would be on television if the medium had been around for the last 5,000 years of human history. Typically, a significant historical event was chosen and mock news, sports and entertainment programming was created around it. Each episode included several segments of Green offering historical background of the episode's chosen era and otherwise showed frequent shifts from one comedy sketch to another representing a channel-surfing viewer who never watched any one sketch for more than a few minutes at a time. Reruns of History Bites are currently being shown on History Television and The Comedy Network.
Miami Animal Police

2004

Miami Animal Police

2004
8
Miami Animal Police is an American documentary reality television series that premiered on January 5, 2004 on Animal Planet. Produced by Lion Television, the program is set in Miami, Florida and the surrounding Miami-Dade County, an area of more than 2,000 square miles. It depicts the everyday duties of Miami-Dade Police Department Animal Services Unit, focusing on the work of twenty ACOs, five civilian animal cruelty investigators, six Miami-Dade Police Department administrators, and a pitbull investigator. The show also highlights the work of various private companies that remove wild animals from places they shouldn't be, including escaped exotic pets which can pose a hazard to native wildlife and/or local residents if left unchecked. The most frequently featured of these private contractors is Todd Hardwick of Pesky Critters Wildlife Control. Kevin Hefner directs the show, which is the fourth of Animal Planet's top-rated shows and is part of an "umbrella rotation" of shows known collectively as "Animal Planet
Degrassi Talks

1992

Degrassi Talks

1992
1
Degrassi Talks was a Canadian television series which aired in 1992. A sequel to the popular Degrassi series of television shows, Degrassi Talks was a six-episode documentary series which featured popular Degrassi actors discussing health and social issues with teenaged audiences. Each episode was hosted by one Degrassi actor, although other actors participated in the series as well. Topics included drug abuse, gay rights, depression, and teenage pregnancy. The show was produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in cooperation with Health and Welfare Canada. Episodes of Degrassi Talks were packaged in the Degrassi Junior High DVD set.
John Safran's Music Jamboree

2002

John Safran's Music Jamboree

2002
8.5
John Safran's Music Jamboree was a light-hearted Australian music documentary television series, hosted by John Safran for SBS television. The program was produced by Selin Yaman and directed by Craig Melville, Clayton Jacobson and a number of other directors under the production company Ghost of Your Ex-Boyfriend Productions in association with SBS Independent. It screened in 2002, and consisted of sketches and outlandish public stunts, typical of Safran's work. The series won two Australian Film Institute Awards; "Best Comedy Series" and "Most Innovative Program Concept". SBS followed the series up with the similarly styled John Safran vs. God in 2004. An infamous stunt of the series was sneaking nine friends into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by dressing them up as the masked American metal band, Slipknot. The producers arranged entry for the impostors by pretending to be an American management company over the phone. Other stunts included disguising himself as well known entertainers such as Ozzy Osbourne
I Love the '90s

2004

I Love the '90s

2004
7
I Love the '90s is a television mini-series produced by VH1 in which various music and TV personalities talk about the 1990s culture and all it had to offer. The show premiered July 12, 2004 with the episode "I Love 1990" and aired two episodes daily until July 16, 2004, when it ended with "I Love 1999". On January 17, 2005, a sequel was aired in the same fashion.