Rick Steves USA
 

Is there any room for a Rick Steves/Rudy Maxa type to do a PBS travel show on America and Canada? After all, the land mass of the USA and Canada is much larger than Europe and the population is about half that or Europe's.

Called "US through the front door"?

Huell Howser has been doing his show on PBS about California travel for over 15 years. This is longer than Rick Steve's has been doing his (only ten for Rick).

Some of the Globetrekker episodes are set in different parts of the US-if your local PBS station doesn't show this, you can rent (or borrow from your library) the DVDs or videos.

Huell Howser does some great stories about things around California. I love watching his shows. He even did a story about the Yuba Gold Fields east of Marysville - anybody heard of them? Yeah, not generally something you find in the guide books. Interesting stuff though.

I also learned from Huell Howser that the zamboni was invented right here in California - who knew?

Rudy perhaps but not Rick. Too much of his stuff is very basic how tos for each country that presumably we know for our own.

(And if I have to see one more scene of him and mme or frau whoever gleefully grinning over the dinner table with the other guests - I swear it usually looks like mme or frau must be providing extra special services to get her hotel or restaurant into the show.)

Rudy's has a lot more specific content that might be useful if it's somewhere you'ver never been - or not for several years.

Anyone else a fan of Rare Visions & Roadside Revalations? It is on about a 100 PBS stations.

Keith

We have an enlightening show produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting called
Oregon Field Guide:
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/
mostly featuring physical wonderment, but occasionally the towns and culture in those unique areas.
Question: Do most states/regions have these types of shows done locally?
I've learned so much from ours. We had something similar in AZ. when we lived there, as I recall....

Rick's schtick is showing Americans how to enjoy Europe without being limited to Raddison and McDonald's. Americans don't need to be told where to stay or eat in the US because we don't have easily definable levels of service.

We took only one trip with him and enjoyed it immensely. We stayed in two-star hotels (lots of stairs, few elevators), ate picnics at noon, and ate on the economy for other meals.

I don't see how a similar show for the US would work.

Bobmrg, was that Rick's company, or Rick himself?

Keith

It was Rick's company...but we met him by chance at the Louvre. Our tour director was Gene Openshaw, who co-wrote "Europe 101" with Rick.
Rick hardly needs defending...he knows what he is doing and he does it well. Branching out in a new direction would not make any sense.

I love his show. I think the original post is a plea for someone intellegent to show us America. It's all there.

Since you use the Rick Steves example, comparable would be a European host telling Europeans how to vacation in America.