Alzheimer’s Programming Slated for PBS

NEW YORK, July 29: PBS
will present a special evening of programming focused on Alzheimer’s disease,
starting with a national encore broadcast of the Emmy Award-winning The
Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s.

The special will start at
9 p.m. on August 3 and also will include a half-hour program, The Future of
Alzheimer’s, moderated by actor
David Hyde Pierce with a panel of medical experts and scientists discussing the
latest developments in Alzheimer’s.

Combined, the two programs
try to balance scientific information regarding Alzheimer’s with first-hand
stories of families whose lives have been touched by the disease. Produced by
Twin Cities Public Television with funding from the MetLife Foundation, both
programs will be available in Spanish through the SAP channel. An interactive
website designed to serve as a resource center for Alzheimer’s patients and
their families will be available starting today at PBS’s website.

The executive producer is
Naomi S. Boak. The producer and director of The Forgetting is Elizabeth Arledge. The producers of The
Future Of Alzheimer's are Ron
Fried and Lorraine Kreahling. The documentary is based on the book, The
Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic by David Shenk.

—By Jackie Stewart