| Stephen Fry in America | |
|---|---|
| Format | Documentary |
| Starring | Stephen Fry |
| Narrated by | Stephen Fry |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Andre Singer |
| Location(s) | United States |
| Running time | 60 mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One BBC Two (repeat) |
| Original run | 12 October 2008 – 16 November 2008 |
Stephen Fry in America is a six part BBC television series in which Stephen Fry travels across America to reveal a country in which he was almost born. Just before Fry was born, his father was offered a job at Princeton University, in New Jersey, but chose to turn it down in favour of Hampstead. In the six-part series he travels, mostly in a London cab, through all 50 U.S. states of the country that he could have nearly called home and which has always fascinated him.
The episodes are regularly repeated in the UK on Dave, lasting an hour and twenty minutes due to advertising breaks. It was aired in America on HDNet. In Australia, the program screened on ABC1 each Sunday at 7:30pm from 9 August 2009.[1] The ratings were so successful that the broadcaster decided to finally air Fry's other BBC programme, QI the next month.[2]
Morgan Freeman also guest starred in episode 3 and billionaire media mogul Ted Turner on episode 4.
Contents |
| # | Title | Subject | States Visited | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New World | Stephen's journey begins in New England, before moving on to the nation's capital where he interviews Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. | Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.. | 12 October 2008 |
| 2 | Deep South | Stephen Fry tries to find out what makes the South so distinctive. | Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. | 19 October 2008 |
| 3 | Mississippi | A 2000 mile journey up the Mississippi river begins in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. | Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. | 26 October 2008 |
| 4 | Mountains and Plains | A look at the airborne border patrol agents at the Canadian border in the mountains of Montana. | Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. | 2 November 2008 |
| 5 | True West | Stephen Fry continues his American journey, meeting the people of the Southwest. | New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. | 9 November 2008 |
| 6 | Pacific | Stephen meets activists, Bigfoot believers and a real-life Magnum, P.I. as his journey ends. | California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. | 16 November 2008 |
Fry crosses from New Jersey to Delaware, and claims it was at this point that George Washington crossed the Delaware River at the battle of Trenton to deal a heavy blow to the British Army. Fry does not take into account that he is nowhere near Trenton, Washington actually crossed at Washington's Crossing, which is near to Trenton.
In the first episode, Fry incorrectly cites the Fourth Amendment as protecting Americans' right to free speech. Free speech is protected by the First Amendment.
In the second episode, Fry mentions that Thanksgiving Day is on the third Thursday of November when it is actually the fourth Thursday. This has been corrected in the streaming version available on Netflix.
The UK home video version was released by West Park Pictures through Lace Digital Media Sales on Monday 17 November 2008. Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions are two-disc sets, complete and uncut. A 2-Disc Region 1 version was released in the United States in July 2010. In Australia, Madman Entertainment released a two disc DVD & Blu-ray on 19 August 2009.[3]
A book to accompany the series, also called Stephen Fry in America, was published by Harper Collins in 2008. In it Stephen writes in more detail about some of his adventures, as well as some of the ones not featured in the show.
In May 2008, it was announced that a five-part companion series, More Fry in America, had been commissioned for BBC Four; it was to feature in-depth essays excluded from the first series due to time constraints.[4] No further information about the project has since been released.
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