Stephen Fry in America

Stephen Fry in America
Starring Stephen Fry
Narrated by Stephen Fry
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 6
Production
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 the United States, 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 of the U.S. states.

The episodes are regularly repeated in the UK on Dave, lasting an hour and twenty minutes due to advertising breaks. It was aired in the United States 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]

The series was filmed in two segments, the first in October–November 2007, and the second in February–April 2008. Special guests featured on the show include Sting, Jimmy Wales, Morgan Freeman, Buddy Guy, and Ted Turner.

Episode list

# Title Subject States visited Airdate
1 New World Stephen's journey begins in New England, with lobster fishermen in Downeast Maine. In New Hampshire he goes to the top of Mount Washington and attends a primary meeting hosted by Mitt Romney, and in Vermont he is invited to create his own Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavour. He visits deer hunters in the Adirondacks, Wiccans in Salem, and attends a tea party with Harvard professor Peter Gomes. Fry visits stately homes in Rhode Island and moves on to New York City, meeting cabbies, goodfellas, and Sting; before moving on to the nation's capital where he interviews Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and a member of the Capitol Steps. He ends the first leg of his journey at the battlefield in Gettysburg, PA. 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. He begins this leg of his journey with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia. He then finds the Mason-Dixon Line, and tours a coal mine in West Virginia, watches horse trading and bourbon brewing in Kentucky, visits a body farm in Tennessee, rides in a hot-air balloon in the Great Smoky Mountains, experiences the Gullah culture in the South Carolina Low Country, attends a Southern-style Thanksgiving Dinner, tolerates Miami, and attends a massive college football game in Alabama. 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, followed by a visit to Morgan Freeman's blues club in Mississippi. He hitches a canoe up the river to Arkansas, visits hoboes in St. Louis, and after a detour to Detroit, explores Chicago and its place as a center for blues and comedy. He finishes the journey with a sheep's milk cheese farm in Wisconsin and Hmong immigrants and ice fishing in Minnesota. Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 26 October 2008
4 Mountains and Plains National security becomes a recurring theme as Stephen visits Border patrol agents in Montana, a former missile silo in Kansas, and an INS patrol in El Paso. He also sees the Continental Divide, the German American community in North Dakota, Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument, the Lakota people, a major truck stop on Interstate 80, Aspen and Salvation Army work in Oklahoma. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. 2 November 2008
5 True West Stephen explores the ancient city of Santa Fe, sees the cutting edge of scientific research in Los Alamos, eats frybread with Navajos in Monument Valley, and hitches a ride with a B-17 Flying Fortress to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. He sees a wild west show in Tucson, takes a houseboat around Lake Powell, takes part in a team-building exercise in Las Vegas, and sees another legacy of the wild west at the Mustang Ranch before arriving at the shores of the Pacific Ocean. New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. 9 November 2008
6 Pacific Stephen begins in San Francisco, exploring its Chinatown and meeting Apple executive Jonathan Ive. He takes a ride with the Mendocino County sheriff, meets students at Humboldt State University, explores the forests of Oregon with activists and Bigfoot believers, and reaches the end of the Contiguous United States at a cabaret in Seattle. In Alaska, Stephen encounters fishermen and Inupiat whalers. Finally he goes to Hawaii, where he swims with sharks, meets a real-life Magnum, P.I., attends an authentic luau and finishes his journey at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. 16 November 2008

DVD and Blu-ray releases

The UK home video version was released by West Park Pictures through Lace Digital Media Sales on 17 November 2008. Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions are two-disc sets, complete and uncut. A two-disc Region 1 version was released in the United States in July 2010. In Australia, it was released by Madman Entertainment on two-disc DVD and Blu-ray on 19 August 2009.[3]

Book

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.

Announced follow-up

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.

References

  1. ↑ "ABC1 Programming Airdate: Stephen Fry in America (episode one)". ABC Television Publicity. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  2. ↑ Knox, David (6 October 2009). "Airdate: Q.I.". TV Tonight. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "Stephen Fry in America DVD". Madman Entertainment. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  4. ↑ "Digital Spy: Fry to offer thoughts on USA for BBC4".

External links