The Public Broadcast Laboratory (PBL) was a

television program A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via Terrestrial television, over-the-air, Satellite television, satellite, and cable te ...

broadcast in the United States, created on November 5, 1967, by

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It op ...

(NET). The program was considered a live Sunday-night magazine program. In 1969, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

withdrew support and the series was cancelled.

History

The ''Public Broadcast Laboratory'' had the financial backing of the

, which put over $292 million into

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that are often associated with cable televi ...

programs, including ''PBL.'' ''PBL'' contained a program of news and other features, in something of what was at the time considered an experimental approach. The executive director was

Av Westin Avram Westin (July 29, 1929 – March 12, 2022) was an American television producer. Westin began his career as a copy boy at CBS Radio News in 1947. He moved to CBS Television News in 1953, where he went on to co-create the CBS Morning News with ...

. The initial ''PBL'' program featured

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s with white-painted faces in a one-hour drama. Only 89 of a hoped-for 119 stations aired the debut program. The entire state educational networks of

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

refused due to the controversial content; both states were embroiled then with social conflict over the Civil Rights Movement. The series aired 53 episodes (including four specials) during its two-year run on NET. Season-one episodes ran two hours long, season-two episodes from December 1, 1968, onward ran only 90 minutes long; the program ended its run at the conclusion of the television season. The entire archive of ''PBL'' programs was donated by NET's successor,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

on January 5, 1994. Episodes of ''PBL'' have been contributed to, and made available in, the

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The AAPB is a national effort to di ...

by the Library of Congress, GBH, and

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...

References

External links

Archive of ''PBL'' episodes and segments
on

* {{authority control 1967 American television series debuts 1969 American television series endings National Educational Television original programming