Pbs

Change is coming to "Downton Abbey" -- British actor Dan Stevens is leaving the hit PBS drama. "From a personal point of view, I wanted a chance to do other things," the 30-year-old actor, who plays the handsome hero Matthew Crawley, told The Telegraph. "It is a very monopolising job. " Warning for fans: The Telegraph story contains a gigantic spoiler for American viewers, because this week "Downton Abbey" aired a Christmas special that wrapped up season 3 on Britain's ITV. However, the third season won't start airing on PBS until next month.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 14 -20, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES Suburgatory The season wraps up with two new episodes. First, Dallas (Cheryl Hines) offers to help George (Jeremy Sisto) tell Tessa (Jane Levy) that they're combining households, but it doesn't go well. In the second episode, Tessa moves out. 8 p.m. ABC Nature In the new episode "The Mystery of Eels," artist, writer and naturalist James Prosek sheds light on the shadowy creature.

Re "Republicans for 'Sesame Street,'" Oct. 16 Jo Ellen Chatham's Op-Ed article is a compelling argument for maintaining federal funding for PBS. I would also like to hear her views on Mitt Romney's desire to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood and to switch Medicaid to a block-grant program. Surely Chatham's compassionate stance on early childhood education for the disadvantaged is reflected in her feelings about healthcare for low-income women and others. Assuming she expresses similar compassion for these people, I would like to know why she is voting for Romney and encouraging others to do the same.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 14 -20, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES The Voice The battle rounds continue. 8 p.m. NBC Hart of Dixie Zoe and George (Rachel Bilson, Scott Porte) try to prove that they don't have feelings for each other in this new episode. 8 p.m. KTLA Hell's Kitchen Chef Martin Yan judges six Chinese dishes.

Long before any of us had heard the words YouTube, there was Bob Ross, the soft-spoken, much-Afroed man who tried to teach a generation of Americans how to paint -- or, as he might put it, "make love to the canvas. " Ross didn't exactly have a huge platform. He aired on local PBS affiliates for 11 years starting in 1983. But thanks to his unusual appearance, soothingly square manner and wet-on-wet technique that turned a blank page into a landscape painting in less than 30 minutes, he was not only entrancing but something of a phenomenon.

David Sutherland is the director of three remarkable documentary films - I should say at least three, having seen only the last three - notable for their length and their depth: "The Farmer's Wife," from 1998, a 61/2-hour look at a farm family in crisis; the six-hour "Country Boys," from 2005, about two teenagers in Appalachia; and now "Kind Hearted Woman," set in North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Canada, which follows a Native American woman and...

Re "Executive at CNN Taking Helm at PBS" (by Elizabeth Jensen, Feb. 7): I've watched KCET programming move progressively to the left, and with the naming of Pat Mitchell as president of PBS, that liberal bias appears likely to accelerate. The recent interview of President Clinton on the "NewsHour" exemplifies the liberal bias on PBS programs: a softball interview designed to provide a forum for Clinton to do what he does best--spin and lie. Obvious, tough follow-up questions were never asked.

Thanks to Robert Lloyd for a fun but well-written commentary about PBS ["PBS and Its Grand Ambitions," July 17]. I agree with his comments, especially regarding the "NewsHour." The only palpable left-leaning bias that existed on PBS was with Bill Moyers. Occasionally a leftward imbalance shows up on "Washington Week," but it isn't nearly as overbearing as it was until Mr. Moyers departed. However the issue I have with PBS isn't editorial as much as funding. I still don't understand why my tax dollars, which are taken by force of law, are needed to support entertainment television of any kind, especially when there is such a plethora of choices on the dial.

Reading Robert Lloyd's story about how public television ["PBS and Its Grand Ambitions," July 16] was created in 1967 as "a rebuke to free-market television" because the latter was depriving families of "a concert hall, a museum, a university, a forum," I was reminded of some of the schlock shows we peons of a certain age had to suffer through in front of our 19-inch screens when only three or four crassly commercial networks ruled. To name a few: Leonard Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts," Alistair Cooke's "Omnibus," "Playhouse 90," Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone," David Susskind's "Open End."

PBS flexed its usual strength when the News and Documentary Emmy nominations were announced Thursday, racking up 37 nods for its coverage of Taliban youth, the death of Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan and a community battle over a mosque in West Virginia, among other topics. The public television system was followed closely by CBS, which had a particularly good showing, scoring 31 nominations, including 16 for its long-running Sunday newsmagazine " 60 Minutes." HBO placed third with 20 nominations, one of its largest hauls ever, followed by National Geographic, which earned 19. NBC had 17 and ABC got 9. For the third year in a row, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is recognizing "new approaches" to news, documentary and arts programming, categories that require entrants to demonstrate some form of innovation.

Mari Edelman called upstairs to the caretaker, asking if her husband was awake and in good enough shape to handle a visitor. As we ascended the stairs of their Westwood home, Mari explained that her husband's cruel condition - an advancing neurological disease - has left him sharp mentally but withered physically, and barely able to speak. Edmund D. Edelman, who put in 29 years as an elected official in Los Angeles, first as a City Councilman and then as a member of the county Board of Supervisors, lay on his back against a window, a blanket draped over him. He squeezed out an acknowledgment, barely audible, and I sat down to talk to him, with Mari doing her best to interpret his responses.

David Sutherland is the director of three remarkable documentary films - I should say at least three, having seen only the last three - notable for their length and their depth: "The Farmer's Wife," from 1998, a 61/2-hour look at a farm family in crisis; the six-hour "Country Boys," from 2005, about two teenagers in Appalachia; and now "Kind Hearted Woman," set in North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Canada, which follows a Native American woman and...

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of March 31 - April 5, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SUNDAY Technically, it's the day before opening day. But that's not too early for "Major League Baseball" to get the ball rolling. The Rangers welcome the Astros to the American League in the season's first official game. 5 p.m. ESPN They know something about birthing some babies: Nurse Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine)

I'm of two minds about “Philip Roth: Unmasked,” the “American Masters” documentary that airs Friday night on PBS. On the one hand, it's always a pleasure to hear Roth, who turned 80 this month and recently announced his retirement, speak - about the push and pull of family, the consolations (or lack thereof) of sex and literature and the never-to-be-resolved issue of identity, all subjects that have infused his writing for more than 50 years. On the other, the film, which marks the first time Roth has given an extended interview on camera, is oddly toothless, a by-the numbers hagiography.

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," the 2012 feature documentary about the outspoken Chinese artist, will air on PBS Monday night as part of the Independent Lens series. In Southern California, the movie is scheduled to air on PBS SoCal (KOCE) at 10 p.m. The documentary, directed by Alison Klayman, debuted last year at the Sundance Film Festival where it won a special jury prize, and was later released in movie theaters in the U.S.  Ai has risen to fame in recent years for his conceptual art but more so for his online activism, which has gotten him into trouble with Beijing officials on a number of occasions.

"Raising Adam Lanza," which premieres Tuesday as part of the PBS series "Frontline," is one of a number of programs the network is airing this week under the banner "After Newtown. " Undertaken in concert with the Hartford Courant, it focuses on Nancy Lanza, the mother of the Sandy Hook Elementary School killer and also his first victim, to try to make a senseless act more sensible. It fails, of course. There are some nuggets of new information, to be sure, which "Frontline" and the Courant had jealously guarded; reviewers were forbidden to publish these facts before the paper unveiled them in a more detailed print story last Sunday.

Opera fans who haven't yet had the opportunity to weigh in on the Metropolitan Opera's new -- and divisive -- production of Wagner's "Ring" cycle, take note: PBS will air the four operas on consecutive evenings beginning  Sept. 11. A multimillion-dollar effort directed by Robert Lepage, the Met's "Ring" cycle become something of a punching bag for some of New York City's critics, with much of the harsh words reserved for the production's ambitious staging, which included a 45-ton set of revolving planks.

Mitt Romney has vowed to cut government funding for Big Bird and his PBS friends, but the results of a new poll indicate the Republican candidate is out of step with most Americans on this issue. A survey of 800 likely voters, commissioned by the Washington Times and conducted by the polling firm Zogby from Friday through Sunday, found that  55% of voters oppose cuts in spending to public television and consider it a “worthwhile” use of federal funds. In contrast, only 35% of voters believe “the government cannot afford to subsidize public television.” Although defunding PBS has been a conservative legislative priority since at least the mid-'90s , the poll's results suggest that public television enjoys more bipartisan support than, well, just about anything does these days.

PBS SoCal, the local home of "Downton Abbey," is bringing in a network veteran to help beef up operations. The former KOCE-TV - which became Southern California's leading PBS outlet after KCET-TV left the network more than two years ago - has tapped Andy Russell as chief operating officer. He will report to PBS SoCal President and Chief Executive Mel Rogers. Russell, a native Californian and Stanford grad, has spent 18 years working at PBS and the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.

Longtime Public Broadcasting Service executive Andrew Russell is joining PBS SoCal as chief operating officer as the public television station ramps up its operations to better serve Southern California. Russell, who currently serves as PBS' senior vice president for strategy and research, has more than 18 years' experience with PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where he helped shape PBS' prime-time schedule and developed the Ready-to-Learn service for pre-school children.