Press Kit
Rudy Maxa’s Seventh Season on Public Television Debuts with Seven Wide-Ranging Episodes
Oct. 10, 2010--“Rudy Maxa’s World” launched its newest season today with seven episodes that take viewers from the tip of Africa to mountainside monasteries in Korea, from London’s pubs and the Scottish Highlands to Uzbekistan’s Silk Road.
South Africa is the subject of three episodes photographed in vivid detail by award-winning wildlife and outdoor photographer Joe Pontecorvo. The episode, titled “Safari,” follows Maxa on a week-long safari at Kwandwe, a reserve where Maxa and his crew came face to face with lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, and dozens of other exotic animals.
A second South Africa show, “Garden Route & Wine Country,” focuses on a dramatic coastal drive that is less about gardens than rocky cliffs, wildflowers, and tumultuous ocean waves admired by surfers worldwide. Right Whales perform mating rituals just offshore, and, in wine country, chef Margo Janse at Le Quartier Français prepares world-class meals for guests.
In the “Cape Town” episode, viewers are introduced to a city sometimes called “the new California.”
“Where else in the world,” asks Maxa, “can you wake up in an international city, spend the afternoon with penguins, ride a funicular to the edge of a continent, and watch the sun set from a beach with a glass of local wine in hand?”
In perhaps the series’ most exotic episode, Maxa takes viewers along the Silk Road in Uzbekistan, a country that’s an emerging economy in Central Asia. Marvel at eye-popping mosques built centuries ago and impeccably restored during Soviet occupation of the country. Expertly shot by cameraman Peter Rummel, this show brings alive the trade-route cities whose names summon images of ancient times: Samarkand, Khiva, and Bukhara.
The “London” episode features a look at the city that goes beyond the postcards with visits to the ethnic neighborhood of Spitalfields, a speedboat ride along the Thames, and bar hopping in Soho and Camden Town. Maxa takes viewers to his favorite in-town market, Borough Market, where locals gather Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings to shop among pyramids of cheese, baskets of oysters, and other displays of fresh fish, game, and pastries.
In “Edinburgh & the Scottish Highlands,” Maxa timed his shoot with the Edinburgh International Festival, a madcap and colorful, three-week event that says “theater” in every sense of the word. The world’s largest arts festival features theater, comedy, dance, music, operas, street performances, and the famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a stunning evening performance of martial music and precision marching performed by military bands from around the world in the city’s 1,400-year-old Edinburgh Castle. A trip north to the Highlands includes a ride on the so-called “Harry Potter Train,” as well as a look at the wild beauty of the Isle of Skye and a side serving of the local delicacy, haggis.
And, finally, in Korea, shooter Kirk Miller brings to bear the same artistic sensibilities he brought to last season’s two shows that he shot in Japan. With their misty mountain temples and über-modern cities, Koreans mix an abiding sense of history and tradition with a zeal to achieve global success in technology and other industries.
The previous season of “Rudy Maxa’s World” garnered two regional Emmy awards, two CINE Golden Eagle awards, and two Silver Telly Awards.
All episodes are 30 minutes in length and are photographed in lush, High Definition format.
Rudy Maxa’s World will air on [station] ______ at [broadcast time] _____, [day] ____, beginning [date] _____.
Host and executive producer Rudy Maxa is a former Washington Post investigative reporter whose political reporting was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He turned to travel journalism 18 years ago when he began the popular “Savvy Traveler” segment on public radio’s nationwide business show, Marketplace. Maxa is a contributing editor with National Geographic Traveler magazine where his articles have earned two Lowell Thomas awards for excellence in travel writing. His articles have also appeared in Forbes, GQ, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country Travel, Worth, USA Today, Modern Maturity, the Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other publications.
He is also host of the country’s most-widely syndicated, weekend, travel radio show, also titled “Rudy Maxa’s World,” heard on about 120 mostly news/talk radio stations in the US and Sirius/XM Radio.
DVDs of “Rudy Maxa’s World’ as well as a CD, “Music From Rudy Maxa’s World,” are available for purchase at www.maxa.tv.
The series is produced by St. Paul-based RMW Productions, Ltd., presented in collaboration with Twin Cities Television, and distributed by American Public Television. Rudy Maxa’s World’s newest season is underwritten by Delta Air Lines and the Korea Tourism Organization.
RMW Productions | PO Box 65066, St. Paul, MN 55101 | 800-387-8025 | info@rudymaxasworld.com
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