Accentuate The Positive

CPTV Premieres a New Episode
of Positively Connecticut™
on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 9 p.m.

(Repeats Thursday, Sept. 14 at 10:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 28 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m.)

HARTFORD, Conn. – Join award-winning broadcast journalist Diane Smith for an array of invigorating autumn adventures around the state when an all-new episode of Positively Connecticut premieres on Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 9 p.m. The program repeats on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 10:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 28 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m.
Positively Connecticut is made possible through leadership funding from People’s Bank. Additional funding comes from Comcast and the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.

This edition of Positively Connecticut features:
Dogged Determination (Bloomfield and Andover, Conn.) – Just as the new Lassie movie hits theaters, Diane finds some amazing collies in real life. A mere 10 miles from downtown Hartford, border collies are herding sheep, a pastime from long ago and far away. The Bloomfield Sheepdog Trial has become the toughest contest east of the Mississippi for dogs and their handlers – thanks to Beverly Lambert, one of the sport’s top competitors, known by most people in town as the director of the Bloomfield Library. Out in the field, the dogs and their people are “reading” the sheep. The action is intense as the dogs work a flock through a grueling half-mile course.

Connecticut’s Unsolved Mysteries (Storrs, Windsor Locks, East Haddam, Griswold, Fairfield, West Haven, Conn.) – Solving history’s mysteries is his favorite part of the job. Nick Bellantoni, Connecticut’s official state archaeologist, is a little bit Indiana Jones and a little bit CSI. In this episode of Positively Connecticut, Diane joins Bellantoni as he uncovers details of the plane crash that gave Bradley International Airport its name. They search for more clues about the life of Venture Smith, a slave who became a free man, a Connecticut landowner and legend. In the middle of the city of West Haven, they find the home of Native Americans who lived there more than 5,000 years ago, and discover evidence of vampires in eastern Connecticut.

That’s Edu-tainment (Milford, Conn.) – When a school evaluation showed tardiness was a problem at Platt Technical High School in Milford, teachers came up with an answer that’s become “must see TV.” Mild-mannered social studies teacher Pat Burke transforms himself into a superhero, a beach bum, an astronaut, a nutty professor or a time traveler when he takes to the airwaves every school day at 7:40 a.m. With the help of students in the school’s television production classes, Burke offers both an entertaining alternative to snoozing through homeroom and a way to boost school spirit.

Talking Music (New Haven, Conn.) – From the people who shaped the musical life of the 20th century, come their thoughts, in their own words, and in their own voices. Aaron Copland explains the unlikely naming of one of the best-known pieces of modern classical music, “Appalachian Spring.” Eubie Blake describes the birth of ragtime. Duke Ellington talks jazz. They told it all to Vivian Perlis, who preserved it for posterity in a priceless collection of oral and video memoirs. The Oral History of American Music (OHAM) project continues to explore the minds of modern music masters. Delve into the archives with Diane at Yale University, and meet the woman who pioneered the practice of recording “oral history.”

Everything Old Is Old Again (Old Lyme, Conn.) – A century ago, Florence Griswold’s boarding house in Old Lyme was home base for an American Impressionist artists’ colony. Later, the Georgian-style mansion became a museum, and now, thanks to a careful restoration, it reverberates again with the life it had in 1910. Through an armchair tour of the Florence Griswold Museum, Positively Connecticut viewers will experience a snippet of a unique era in American art history – and feel the vitality of the artists who lived a bohemian life of camaraderie and creativity.

Positively Connecticut began as a series of features Diane Smith made famous during her 16 years as a news anchor and reporter at WTNH-TV8 (the ABC affiliate in New Haven). After leaving WTNH, Smith joined Ray Dunaway as co-host of the top-rated Morning Show on WTIC-AM NewsTalk 1080 and Positively Connecticut found a new home on CPTV. Smith has received two Emmy Award nominations for her Positively Connecticut series.

The inspiring features from Positively Connecticut are the basis for Smith’s books, which are available in bookstores throughout the United States. Her latest book, Summer in Connecticut, A Positively Connecticut Book (The Globe Pequot Press, 2004), was released in June 2004. Smith is also the author of Positively Connecticut (The Globe Pequot Press, 1998), Absolutely Positively Connecticut (The Globe Pequot Press, 2000) and Christmas in Connecticut (Globe Pequot Press 2001).