Jane Root Preps HISTORY Series

NEW YORK: Jane Root, most recently president of Discovery Channel in the U.S., is working on a 12-part series, America The Story of Us, for HISTORY, which is billing it as a "groundbreaking initiative of epic proportions."

Slated for a 2010 premiere, the series promises an unprecedented look at the U.S., from the origins of the country to infrastructure and technological development, exploring the people, places and things that shaped the country’s history.

"There has never been a time when people are thinking so fervently and passionately about history," said Nancy Dubuc, the executive VP and general manager of HISTORY. "Now is the moment to tell the most epic, essential and groundbreaking story of America in a new way for a new generation. America The Story of Us is not only the biggest project HISTORY has ever undertaken, it is the definitive event of the genre, underlining History’s ownership. This series is bigger than us, it is far broader than TV and we are thrilled to embark on this journey. With this series, we will watch America literally grow before our eyes, as we celebrate the individual stories, the people and events, and the incredible landscape that have become the America of today."

Each hour of the series will help answer pertinent questions while exploring key events with reenactments and CGI, interspersed with interviews with such historians as Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr.  "A complete television history of America has not been attempted since Alistair Cooke in the 1970s," Dubuc continued. "This is a new kind of landmark television. This will be a national television event."

The series is being produced by Nutopia, a new production company started by Jane Root, the former president of Discovery Channel and ex-BBC Two chief.