New Production Partnership Launches with Two-Hour Special to Premiere This Summer
Film Aligned with Opening of the Smithsonian's New Deep Time Hall at the National Museum of Natural History
PASADENA, CA; February 1, 2019 -- Today at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, PBS and Smithsonian Channel announced their partnership on a two-hour film tracing the evolutionary secrets of some of the world's most majestic creatures. The program will take viewers on a global adventure to uncover the amazing origin stories of some intriguing animals, from crocodiles and birds to whales and elephants. Featuring top scientists from around the world as they follow clues from the fossil record, WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) changes what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.
WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) dives deep into the fascinating origins of some of the world's most incredible creatures, said Bill Gardner, Vice President, PBS Programming & Development. By exploring the latest scientific discoveries, we bring millions of years of natural history alive in some very unexpected ways. We're thrilled to partner with the Smithsonian Channel and Institution to showcase these spectacular new breakthroughs in evolutionary history.
When we marvel at the wonders of the natural world, like an elephant's trunk or the size of a blue whale, we rarely ask, Where did that come from?' It turns out, scientists are finding some truly extraordinary answers, said Charles Poe, SVP of Production, Smithsonian Channel. This film will introduce our viewers to the surprising ancestors of animals we know and love. We're very excited to be launching our first partnership with PBS to take viewers on an utterly unique journey to the deep past.
The film will showcase a dynamic group of scientists making major discoveries in China, Kenya, Argentina and other locations around the world. It will integrate highly creative 3-D graphics and CGI to recreate vanished creatures and their world.
WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) takes us to the frontiers of science, said Michael Rosenfeld, Vice President of National Production for Twin Cities PBS, who originated the project. It shows how researchers are using not just paleontology, but genetics, climate science and ecology to fill in the gaps in the story of life. And it's not just a story of the past-these discoveries carry important lessons for today and even the future.
WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) is a major initiative in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, which will open the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils - Deep Time on June 8, 2019. The project will feature an extensive educational outreach program produced by the National Museum of Natural History and shared with affiliated science museums around the country. Major funding for Lineage is provided by The National Science Foundation.
The National Museum of Natural History is leading a nationwide outreach project for WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t). Three museums and their partner organizations in communities nationwide will implement Family Fossil Festivals which employ the WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) film, a virtual reality game and standards-based activities. PBS stations in these communities, which will be announced in late spring, will be invited to collaborate with the participating museums. Additionally, educational outreach professionals at PBS stations nationwide will be encouraged to access the Lineage activities on 3d.si.edu and videos on PBS Learning Media, and employ them in their own community-based STEM initiatives.
WHEN WHALES WALKED: A DEEP TIME JOURNEY (w.t) is produced by Twin Cities PBS and Shining Red Productions for PBS and Smithsonian Channel. Michael Rosenfeld is executive producer for Twin Cities PBS. Bill Gardner is executive in charge for PBS. Executive producers for Smithsonian Channel are Charles Poe and David Royle.
About Smithsonian Channel
Smithsonian Channel , owned by Smithsonian Networks , a joint venture between Showtime Networks Inc. and the Smithsonian Institution, is where curiosity lives, inspiration strikes and wonders never cease. This is the place for awe-inspiring stories, powerful documentaries and amazing factual entertainment, available in HD and 4K Ultra HD across multiple platforms. Smithsonian Channel, winner of Emmy and Peabody awards for its programming, combines the storytelling prowess of SHOWTIME with the unmatched resources and rich traditions of the Smithsonian, to create programming that shines new light on popular genres such as air and space, travel, history, science, nature and pop culture. Among the network's offerings are series including Aerial America, America in Color, The Lost Tapes, Mighty Ships, Million Dollar American Princesses, The Pacific War in Color and Air Disasters, as well as critically-acclaimed specials that include The Coronation, The Mountain Lion and Me, Earth from Outer Space and Titanoboa: Monster Snake. Smithsonian Networks also operates Smithsonian Channel Plus , a subscription video streaming service delivering over a thousand hours of the Channel's stunning and diverse library of documentaries and series in HD and 4K Ultra HD. Smithsonian Channel is also available internationally in Canada, Singapore and Latin America. To learn more, go to www.smithsonianchannel.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
About Twin Cities PBS
Twin Cities PBS, the PBS affiliate for Minneapolis/St. Paul, is a prominent content producer for the national public television system. TPT's most recent documentaries for PBS include Going to War and The Dictator's Playbook. Other films include the Emmy Award-winning Th
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
New Production Partnership Launches with Two-Hour Special to Premiere This Summer
