"California!" on PBS SoCal.

Premiered in September 2024 on PBS SoCal / KCET. Three-part public television series from Spiegel TV.  

Thank you to our incredible protagonists!! Featuring original interviews with Wolfgang Puck, John Densmore, Edward James Olmos, James Brolin, Peter Coyote, Roland Emmerich, Thom Mayne, Claire L.Evans, Doris Berger, Patty Polinger & Cathy Tauber, Bettina Aptheker, Jackie Goldberg, Helena Arahuete, James Goldstein, Heather Deutsch, Rex Weiner, Rusy Schweickart, Erick M. Conway, Peter Westwick, Dick Metz, Brandon Brown, Frederico Faggin, Lee Felsenstein, David Goines, Linda Locklin, Carlyle Hall, Rori Skei, Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman, aka “Gidget”, Peggy Oki, Glenn Brumage and Walter Fuller.   

We received a lot of great feedback for the amazing group of interview partners assembled and the tremendous research that went into this project. None of this would have been possible without the expert guidance from Silvia Ryder and Karyn Wulbrun.            

"California!" explores how the state of California, its lifestyle and innovative power, have turned the world upside down since the 1950s. Our point of view includes Hollywood, technology, architecture, lifestyle and activism, structured by three episodes loosely dedicated to the 1950’s / 1960’s, 1970’s / 1980’s, the 1990’s and beyond.                         

California! – Test Lab for the World / Part 1:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In the 1950s, California was to make the impossible possible: a trip to the moon. Hollywood, free speech and the Hippie movement inspired the entire world -- until the mid-60s, when the California Dream was shaken by race riots, the Vietnam War and the Apollo 1 disaster. In the 1950s, California started to make the world a better place, but it wasn't just the space race that took its toll.

California! – Of Revolts and Revolutions / Part 2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In 1969 an oil spoil keeps the state on its toes. The ongoing race riots show that not everyone shares in the Californian dream. But the birth of Silicon Valley and the digital revolution bring the pioneer state back on track in the 1970s. Car culture and the birth of Silicon Valley in the 1970’s transform the state, while the environmental movement fights to preserve its landscape and resurrects the revolutionary spirit of California in the 1970s. In the midst of social unrest, California is creating a place that will change the world forever.

California! – Between Reality and Utopia / Part 3                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Passenger spaceflights, self-driving cars and Hollywood blockbusters: California can seem like a land of science fiction. In the 90s, earthquakes and forest fires again set back the visionary state. Fighting these threats with the help of a former action hero, California prepares humanities next mission: Using home-grown technology to tackle climate change.