The National Parks: America's Best Idea, returns to PBS stations next week/NPS

It was a blockbuster the first time it aired, and if you didn't see it then, tune in to your local PBS television station next week to catch a repeat showing of The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan.

The special is scheduled to run in the 9 p.m. Eastern slot on PBS channels. The 12-hour, six-part documentary series, directed by Burns and co-produced with his longtime colleague Duncan, who also wrote the script, is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns’s exploration of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz.

“One of the great joys of making THE NATIONAL PARKS was not only visiting the most spectacular locations on Earth, but also working with the National Park Service and meeting the men and women who take care of these parks so that they can be enjoyed by everyone,” said Burns. “As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NPS, it’s a fitting time to watch our series, but I also encourage everyone to visit as many parks as possible in 2016. And when you do, be sure to thank the park rangers and staff.”

“We’re thrilled that PBS is showing THE NATIONAL PARKS again, especially during a year that is such an important milestone in the history of the parks,” said Duncan. “Just as the parks themselves represent a geographic timelessness, the story of the parks and the ideas on which they were founded are equally timeless. The debates that were going on a hundred years ago about private enterprise in the parks, how we maximize access to parks without harming them and how we use federal land are still going on today. It’s an active conversation in which we should all participate.”

“When we first aired THE NATIONAL PARKS seven years ago, it was a spectacular success not only in terms of ratings but in how it encouraged people to become engaged with these natural treasures that belong to us all and that we must protect,” said PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager Beth Hoppe. “We’re thrilled to show the series again and know that whether you saw it during its first broadcast and or are seeing it for the first time, it will be an experience to cherish.”

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said, “Ken and Dayton did a fantastic job of not only capturing the awesome beauty of the parks, but also putting together an epic narrative on how the parks came to be and why they matter. The centennial celebration of the National Park Service will be that much more special with this opportunity to experience this story again.”

After its broadcast in 2009, the documentary won two primetime Emmy Awards: for outstanding nonfiction series and for outstanding writing in nonfiction programming. The director of the National Park Service made Burns and Duncan Honorary Park Rangers.

Filmed over the course of more than six years in some of nature’s most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska — the documentary is nonetheless a story of people from every conceivable background — rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. It is a story of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration — set against breathtaking backdrops.

With 411 units (59 national parks, plus 352 national monuments, historic sites and other units), the National Park Service has a presence in each of the 50 states. Like the idea of freedom itself, the national park idea has been constantly tested, is constantly evolving and is inherently full of contradictory tensions: between individual rights and the community, the local and the national; between preservation and exploitation, the sacred and the profitable; between one generation’s immediate desires and the next generation’s legacy.

THE NATIONAL PARKS is a visual feast, featuring some of the most extensive, breathtaking images of the national parks system ever captured on film. It contains the most contemporary footage of any Ken Burns film since LEWIS AND CLARK, shot principally by chief cinematographer Buddy Squires (who has photographed all of Burns’s films), long-time Florentine cameraman Allen Moore, Lincoln Else (who also is a former ranger at Yosemite) and Burns himself.

In addition to Peter Coyote’s narration, THE NATIONAL PARKS features first-person voices read by some of America’s greatest actors. Tom Hanks reads the voices of several characters in the film, including Congressman John F. Lacey, who helped push a bill through Congress to protect Yellowstone’s last wild buffalo herd. Other voices include Andy Garcia, Josh Lucas, Eli Wallach, Campbell Scott, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow, George Takei, Philip Bosco, Carolyn McCormick, Adam Arkin and Kevin Conway.

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, DC. Director/producer: Ken Burns. Producer/writer: Dayton Duncan. Co-producers: Craig Mellish, Julie Dunfey and David McMahon. Supervising editor: Paul Barnes. Episode editors: Paul Barnes, Erik Ewers and Craig Mellish. Cinematography: Buddy Squires, with Allen Moore, Lincoln Else and Ken Burns. Narrator: Peter Coyote.

Traveler footnote: Read our 2009 interview with Ken Burns on the documentary.