(Photo courtesy of the FDR Presidential Library)

At my current pace I expect to begin reading the best biographies of Teddy Roosevelt at the end of this year or early in 2015.  If I stay on track I’ll get to FDR in the spring of 2015.

PBS, however, didn’t get the memo and plans to air a new seven-part series “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History” beginning Sunday, September 14, 2014 (at 8pm Eastern for those who are wondering).

This fourteen-hour production by Ken Burns will weave together the stories of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and feature voice-overs by Meryl Streep (as Eleanor), Paul Giamatti (Teddy) and Edward Herrmann (FDR). “The Roosevelts” was written by seven-time Emmy Award winner Geoffrey Ward.

I’ll be transitioning from Ulysses S. Grant to Rutherford B. Hayes when the series airs. I’m not certain whether I’ll watch it (seeking a change from reading one presidential biography after another) or wait and view it later (to avoid mixing together multiple presidential timelines).

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In addition, Fox is now developing a ten-hour mini-series on Franklin Roosevelt based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of FDR “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.”

I’m not sure when the series will air but it appears to be in the early stages of development…so you’ll probably have time to freshen up your bucket of popcorn, and perhaps file your taxes a time or two, between the time you watch the PBS series and the one being produced by Fox.

Stay tuned!

Now, back to our regular programming – – –