New History program explores how the states got their shape
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Brian Unger hosts "How the States Got Their Shapes," airing tonight on History.
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After straying from real history with shows such as "Pawn Stars" and "Ice Road Truckers," cable network History shifts back to its namesake with "How the States Got Their Shape" (10 tonight), a new series hosted by Brian Unger, a former reporter for "The Daily Show" in its Craig Kilborn-hosted early years.
"I tried to get the producers to let me pawn something in every town we went to, but they said it wouldn't fit," Mr. Unger said in a phone interview last week. "Maybe I should go around restoring things," a reference to the History series "American Restoration."
"It's difficult to teach and have fun at the same time, and I think, dare I say, we have achieved what we think is a good formula where the shows are informative; they're a funny, eccentric, odd look at America," he said. "At the same time, it's richly dense and packed with trivia and history, not just the kind we learned in school. We debunk a lot of myths and give new historical facts we weren't aware of before."
When: 10 tonight, History.
Host: Brian Unger.
In the series premiere, Mr. Unger visits Southern Tennessee and Northern Georgia where a border dispute involves access to a river that could provide much-needed water to Atlanta if the border between the states is adjusted to where it was intended to be.
"We kind of take our map for granted and think the lines are drawn permanently, but this is an example of a modern-day border dispute," he said. "Atlanta's future hangs in the balance. If they don't get access to some of the Tennessee River, they're going to see some enormous changes in the way people are living in Georgia and Atlanta specifically."
Mr. Unger said he visited 30 states plus the District of Columbia and spent months on the road putting together the show's 10-episode first season. Prior to working on this series he hadn't given much consideration to what the show purports to explain.
"Once I got to understand how much politics shaped our map, which has always been a passion of mine, I was in for the long haul," Mr. Unger said.
First Published May 3, 2011 12:00 am
