A-2, Brutus

I've been filing twice a day from Pasadena, but you've only been seeing the fruits of one of those, at most.  That's because our inscrutable Knight Ridder publishing system is not getting my submissions to page A-2 up on the Web. What's more, because of a classic deadline caper, my filing to A-2 last night didn't make it into Sunday's paper.

So here it is:

    Outgoing PBS president Pat Mitchell vigorously defended her record before television critics at their winter previews. She said that funding programs was “getting harder and harder,” and expressed regret that “Masterpiece Theatre” had not found a new corporate sponsor.    

    Mitchell blamed the political controversy that swirled around PBS last year on the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ken Tomlinson, who had “misinterpreted his responsibilities.” She accused Tomlinson of blindsiding her by naming two ombudsmen to oversee PBS content. Last week, Mitchell was chosen to lead the Museum of Television and Radio; her successor is expected to be named by the PBS board Jan. 23. 

* “Eyes on the Prize,” one of TV’s most acclaimed programs, will return to PBS this year. The 14-hour history of the civil rights movement had not aired since 1993 because the rights to much of the archival footage had expired. “Eyes on the Prize” — which still cannot be released on home video — has become a poster child for the problem of skyrocketing rights’ fees.

* Gillian Anderson, who will appear on a “Masterpiece Theatre” production of Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House” later this month, said she would never have agreed to “The X-Files” if she had known it would be on the air for nine years. Anderson was not on American TV since “Bleak House.”

* On Sunday, Missouri native Walter Cronkite will promote an upcoming “American Masters” series on his life and career. It will air this summer on PBS.

QOTD (QUOTE OF THE DAY): “Oh, you mean the coldest, darkest, shortest month?” - Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard professor and host of “African-American Lives,” airing in February on PBS, when asked his opinion of Black History Month

The Star’s television critic, Aaron Barnhart, is covering the winter TV previews in Pasadena, Calif. Look for his reports in FYI