Accidental Documentaries

#14 - 21 February 1996

What unites these stories on the surface is that they're all made from old tapes, recordings found in attics and thrift stores. What unites them under that surface — and not far under it — is that they all end up being stories about fathers and the legacies that fathers leave their children.

Love

#13 - 7 February 1996

Explorations of the dream of true love ... and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream.

Animals

#12 - 31 January 1996

Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.

Enemies

#11 - 24 January 1996

A story of a friendship between two adolescent boys that was destroyed through the manipulative acts of one of them.

Double Lives

#10 - 17 January 1996

People living their lives, just like the rest of us. Plus an extra life.

Julia Sweeney

#9 - 10 January 1996

When comedienne Julia Sweeney and her brother both got cancer, she decided to tell the story the best way she knew how: in a comedy club. It might seem like a strange choice, but what resulted is halfway between standup comedy and true-life diary entries.

New Year

#8 - 3 January 1996

Stories that reflect back on 1995.

Quitting

#7 - 29 December 1995

Stories of people who quit everything in their lives that they hated—and what happened to them afterwards.

Christmas

#6 - 22 December 1995

[no description]

Anger and Forgiveness

#5 - 15 December 1995

Stories that reveal the societal "trend" toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness.