Maybe you saw Liam Neeson starring in the recent biopic of Alfred Kinsey.
Now meet the real guy in a fascinating profile of this intrepid sexplorer who shook up the repressed 1950s and paved the way for the sexual revolution. Celebrate Valentine's Day with the "American Experience" documentary "Kinsey," airing 9 to 10:30 p.m. Monday on PBS (check local listings).
Kinsey began as a little-known biologist at Indiana University - an erudite, tweedy academic who introduced a "marriage class" for students whose knowledge of the birds and bees was typically limited. By the mid-1930s, he had become school's resident expert on sex.
Then, in the 1940s, he began compiling exhaustive data from tens of thousands of interviews about the sexual practices of men and women. The results of that research were his explosive, best-selling reports.
Through interviews with his research assistants, his children, people who took his sex questionnaire, his biographers and intellectual historians, "Kinsey" assesses his groundbreaking achievements. And it examines how his personal life (and his wide-ranging sexual experimentation) shaped his career - and the findings that turned the world upside down.
Other shows to look out for:
- What up, dog? It's "America's Dog Show," the 129th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on the USA Network. The show will feature more than 2,500 purebred dogs in 165 breeds and varieties, including three newly recognized breeds competing for the first time at Westminster: Glen of Imaal Terrier, Neapolitan Mastiff and Black Russian Terrier. Co-hosts are NBC News' Lester Holt and veteran dog analyst David Frei. Live coverage airs Monday and Tuesday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- And if your puppy love still isn't satisfied, check out "Heavy Petting," a marathon of 16 back-to-back episodes of "Forensic Files" concentrating on law-enforcement pooches that help crack each case. They air from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. EST Tuesday on Court TV.
- The doctor is in - in prime time, that is. For Dr. Phil McGraw's second special, he tackles "Romance Rescue" in an effort to show how to make relationships work. Want to know what Dr. Phil has to say about a prenuptial agreement that specifies the frequency of making love? What will he tell the woman who has a lot of first dates, but seldom lands a second? Then he counsels Jonathan and Victoria, the combative couple from "The Amazing Race 6," who discuss problems in their marriage revealed on that reality series. "A Dr. Phil Primetime Special: Romance Rescue" airs 9 p.m. Tuesday on CBS.
- The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are touchstones of democracy - but they're in serious peril. Ink is flaking from parchments already badly faded, while the glass casements built to exhibit them are disintegrating. To head off the danger, the National Archives in Washington embarked on a five-year project to design state-of-the-art encasements and a new rotunda for their display. "NOVA" follows the multimillion-dollar process from start to finish in "Saving the National Treasures," not only offering a glimpse of cutting-edge preservation technology, but also exploring the background and meaning of these documents. It airs 8 p.m. Tuesday on PBS.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
