(Subscriber Report) Ed Martin Live at TCA: PBS at TCA: Ken Burns Returns! Plus: Alan Alda, Jimmy Smits, Joan Baez, David Tennant, Norman Lear and More

One usually associates the mini-series of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns with subjects of obvious historical importance. At first blush, Burns' latest production for PBS, the six-part, 12-hour film Ken Burns' National Parks: America's Best Idea, might not seem to carry the same dramatic weight as his earlier efforts The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz or The War, to name a few. But when Burns appeared at TCA this weekend to promote his latest project, which will debut September 27, he made clear that the origins of America's national parks are as steeped in history as any of his previous documentary subjects.

Burns isn't out to simply educate viewers about the history of our parks -- he's determined to generate a renewed sense of interest in them and ensure their future protection. In fact, he would like Americans to take a greater "pride of ownership" in these splendid lands.

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Collectively, the stories of our 58 national parks may comprise the grandest historical sweep of any Burns project. "Our film begins in 1851 when the Mariposa Battalion rides into Yosemite to exterminate the Indians, and it ends in 1980," Burns explained, adding that Parks does actually look forward to the present and beyond but only in an impressionistic, speculative manner. It is his dream that this mini-series and its companion book (also due in September) will pump up interest in our national parks and get people more involved with them. "The thing that we hope more than anything else is that every park superintendent will be angry at us" and that there will be "traffic jams in Yellowstone and Yosemite and the Grand Canyon," he said. The very worst thing, Burns added, would be nobody coming to the parks, "because when nobody comes, there are no constituents arguing. When that next acquisitive or extractive or even rapacious person or group or developer wants to come along and make that park a little bit smaller or put that power plant outside of it," you want the public to complain, he asserted.

"What we hope is that in some ways, just as The Civil War did to [increase] attendance at the battlefields, that we might get that kind of renewal that the parks continually need every generation or so," he said. "I was walking across the lawn of the Visitors Center at Gettysburg with the superintendent, and he scooped down and picked up a Popsicle wrapper and he waved it in my face and he said, 'It's all your fault!' That is exactly what we want!

"If there were no national parks, the Grand Canyon would be lined with mansions and none of us would have access," Burns warned. "It would be a gated community. If there were no national parks [Yellowstone] would be an amusement park. You know, we're a much better people [than that]. It represents our best selves that that is not the case."

PBS at TCA: Beyond Burns

Much like the cable portion of TCA tours, the two PBS days often offer an irresistible mix of sessions covering a wide-range of topics. Even if one isn't necessarily going to write about every one of those sessions they are generally very informative and frequently quite entertaining. For example, the very genial Alan Alda was on hand for a session about The Human Spark, a documentary about the things that differentiate humans from all other species. The Muppet Grover (and his talented puppeteer Eric Jacobson) livened up a press conference for Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times, a series about real-life families coping with the recession. Former Los Angeles Times publisher Tom Johnson, a man with a commanding voice, made clear what he thinks about the problems that have befallen the publishing business during a session for Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times, a documentary about the most powerful family in Los Angeles history. (Johnson so resembled the bombastic publishers of old that one veteran critic was moved at the end of the session to declare, "Great Caesar's Ghost!") Joan Baez appeared via satellite to promote American Masters: Joan Baez: Sing Me Home." Doctor Who star David Tennant, soon to be the new host of Masterpiece Classic, came by to talk about his portrayal of the title role in an upcoming Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, which will be seen on Great Performances. Norman Lear was here to promote his PBS project, Playing for Change: Peace through Music. (Tragically, many of the dot-com kids who are now swelling the ranks of the TCA hold no special fondness for or interest in Lear's classic comedies.)

But the PBS guest who had the most fun of all was Jimmy Smits, narrator of the upcoming music documentary series Latin Music USA. Smits couldn't believe his eyes when recording artist Bobby Sanabria did the impossible, prompting dozens of TCA members Sunday afternoon to stand up and shake their assets in time to his music. "I can't wait to Twitter and just talk about how I saw all of you critics performing!" Smits laughed. "I never thought the day would come when I would see you all do what you just did!" Smits has attended enough TCA tours through the years to know when the group