Jonathan Storm: Stars tap roots in best NBC newcomer

Another new one from NBC reaffirms the network's idea that there's more money in reality programming than in those highfalutin dramas, with all their expensive writers and actors.

The network is in copycat mode this month, trying to revive two genres from the '50s. The Marriage Ref has brought back the celebrity-panel game show, to disastrous results. Minute to Win It, premiering March 14, is nothing more than Beat the Clock (which premiered 60 years ago, March 23, 1950) in fresh duds.

Tomorrow's entry is a more modern copycat, drawing from a series of Henry Louis Gates Jr. specials on PBS that drew on genealogy. Unlike the others, however, Who Do You Think You Are?, airing tomorrow night at 8 on NBC10, has some real meat on its bones, despite a hokey, overblown soundtrack and headache-inducing, up-way-too-close-and-personal tight shots of its stars.

Tapping into TV America's fascination with roots (Roots is still the among the highest-rated TV shows ever), it brings history alive in a way rarely seen on television, as celebrities, assisted by historical resources that might be unavailable to the typical genealogy buff, discover secrets hidden in their past.

"This has changed the lens that I see these times through completely," declares Sarah Jessica Parker tomorrow, after tracing two of her ancestors to key events in American history.

More than anything else, Who Do You Think You Are? demonstrates that real people, not arcane dates and facts, are at the heart of history, where so much edification lies.

Parker leads off the festivities, perhaps because the actress, who thought she descended exclusively from relatively recent garden-variety immigrants, discovers deep roots in the American past.

No immigrants are truly mundane, having sacrificed so much in comparison to their stay-at-home neighbors to follow their dream. Who Do You Think You Are? shows that, too.

The lineup for the eight-episode limited series: Parker; her husband, Matthew Broderick; football great Emmitt Smith; Friends' Lisa Kudrow (who's also an executive producer); Brooke Shields; Susan Sarandon; and Spike Lee.

They put faces on slavery and find ancestors they never knew who helped shape history. They find royal and peasant connections in Europe. Frequently, they meet surprising living relatives in scenes as emotional as those in any drama.

Parker is assisted tomorrow by more than a dozen libraries and historical societies, in addition to a couple of genealogy companies that get nice plugs. They turn up astonishing original documents that pinpoint exactly what some of her relatives were doing on specific dates, in one case more than 400 years ago. Like all the participants, she also travels to the scenes of the action, visiting fascinating landmarks not easily spotted by the ordinary naked eye.

Kudrow's trip to Belarus is the longest, but all these stars share satisfying emotional journeys.

As fans of Survivor and The Amazing Race know, there are reality shows, and there are reality shows. Who Do You Think You Are? may not be up to those standards, but although it shares none of the game-show attributes of its new NBC cohorts, it's the clear winner.

Television

Who Do You Think You Are?

Tomorrow night at 8 on NBC10