Channel 4 gives over an hour of time at 6 p.m. today to mark the Memorial Day holiday with a special covering the sentimental journey of aging veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II Memorial.
"Flight of Honor: The Incredible Journey of 296 Wisconsin World War II Veterans." has its roots in a conversation on Charlie Sykes' WTMJ-AM (620) radio show.
Sykes is one of the hosts of the TV special, along with Mike Jacobs and Carole Meekins.
Originally scheduled to air at 9 p.m., it was moved up because of NBC's scheduling of tonight's Stanley Cup hockey game.
Some other Memorial Day choices: Milwaukee Public TV repeats the Sunday night "National Memorial Day Concert 2010" at 8 p.m. on Channel 10, followed by a couple holiday specials.
- Spike TV's marathon of the 1o-episode "Band of Brothers" runs throughout the day.
- HBO2 airs the final five episodes of "The Pacific" starting at 1 this afternoon.
- AMC airs a string of war movies all day, including 1986's "Heartbreak Ridge" at 7 p.m., and 1996's "Courage Under Fire" at 9 p.m.
A bit of "Band of Brothers": Among the key moments in "Band of Brothers" is the scene in the episode called "Why We Fight," where the unit discovers something that was unimaginable up until then.
Here it is:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
