Spring Break
Kobylka featured in new PBS series
Kelsey Jukam, News Editor, kjukam@smu.edu
Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: News
Political science professor Joe Kobylka will be featured in PBS's new four-part series, "The Supreme Court," which premiers tonight at 8 p.m. Kobylka is one of three experts who appears throughout the series, helping to illuminate the history of the Supreme Court.
The series also features interviews with judges John Roberts Jr. and Sandra Day O'Connor and various historians and professors. It also mixes these with historical re-enactions, photos and newsreel footage.
Episodes One and Two will air tonight. The first examines the creation of the Court and follows it through the beginning of the Civil War. Episode Two explores the issues the Court was dealing with after the Civil War during industrialization. Episode Three, which focuses on civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present, and Episode 4, which deals with President Nixon's opportunity to name four of the Court's nine judges, will air Feb. 7.
"The Supreme Court is not a very sexy institution - there's no equivalent of The West Wing for the Supreme Court," Kobylka said. "Obviously, since I study it and teach it, I think it's important."
Kobylka became involved in the series three years ago, when Producer Ron Rapley called to ask him some questions about the Supreme Court.
"We had one phone conversation about the early part of the court's history," Kobylka said. "He liked how I analyzed stuff and put things into context, and he asked me to an interview."
The series took six years to produce, and Kobylka was involved in the production for three and a half years.
He was flown to Austin twice for interviews, which lasted three hours apiece, and flew to New York in September to critique a rough cut of the series.
Rapley became interested in featuring Kobylka on the series after learning he had won multiple teaching awards, including the Rotunda Outstanding Professor (1986, 1993, 1995, 2002); the Golden Mustang (1990); the SMU "M" Award (1996); and the SMU Student Senate Faculty Member of the Year Award (2004). Kobylka has also received the Altschuler Distinguished Teaching Award (2001).
The series also features interviews with judges John Roberts Jr. and Sandra Day O'Connor and various historians and professors. It also mixes these with historical re-enactions, photos and newsreel footage.
Episodes One and Two will air tonight. The first examines the creation of the Court and follows it through the beginning of the Civil War. Episode Two explores the issues the Court was dealing with after the Civil War during industrialization. Episode Three, which focuses on civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present, and Episode 4, which deals with President Nixon's opportunity to name four of the Court's nine judges, will air Feb. 7.
"The Supreme Court is not a very sexy institution - there's no equivalent of The West Wing for the Supreme Court," Kobylka said. "Obviously, since I study it and teach it, I think it's important."
Kobylka became involved in the series three years ago, when Producer Ron Rapley called to ask him some questions about the Supreme Court.
"We had one phone conversation about the early part of the court's history," Kobylka said. "He liked how I analyzed stuff and put things into context, and he asked me to an interview."
The series took six years to produce, and Kobylka was involved in the production for three and a half years.
He was flown to Austin twice for interviews, which lasted three hours apiece, and flew to New York in September to critique a rough cut of the series.
Rapley became interested in featuring Kobylka on the series after learning he had won multiple teaching awards, including the Rotunda Outstanding Professor (1986, 1993, 1995, 2002); the Golden Mustang (1990); the SMU "M" Award (1996); and the SMU Student Senate Faculty Member of the Year Award (2004). Kobylka has also received the Altschuler Distinguished Teaching Award (2001).
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