A 17-member civilian production crew spent six months and sailed 57,000 miles aboard a US Navy aircraft carrier to produce a stunning 10-part documentary series for PBS. Titled "Carrier," this series from Mel Gibson's Icon Productions might be the most candid look at everyday life on board a U.S. warship in wartime that has ever been filmed. It premieres Sunday with the first two episodes (9 p.m. on WNET/13 and 11:30 p.m. on WLIW/21), after which two episodes will be seen every night through next Thursday.
Produced on the nuclear-powered U.S.S. Nimitz, "Carrier" documents the ship's deployment from May to November 2005, from Coronado, Calif., and back, including a stop in the Persian Gulf, where the ship served as the staging platform for 1,167 bombing missions.
The ship is one of the largest of its kind - a virtual small town 23 stories high, 252 feet wide and 1,092 feet long, and inhabited by 5,500 male and female personnel. Their average age: 19Å“ - which sometimes makes the ship seem like the world's largest floating high school, according to some of the enlisted personnel in the series.
"It was unbelievably interesting and unbelievably difficult," said series co-creator Maro Chermayeff, who last left her New York City home for six months when she worked on the reality series "Frontier House" for PBS.
Mrs. Bobby read a review, in the WaPo, not doubt, that called it "overlong and disjointed."