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S21 Ep1

Tall Blondes

Premiere: 10/13/2002

Travel around the world and learn more about a one-of-a-kind animal, as Lynn Sherr presents a beguiling portrait of giraffes.

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Travel around the world and learn more about a one-of-a-kind animal, as Lynn Sherr presents a beguiling portrait of giraffes.

Lynn Sherr, the award-winning correspondent for ABC TV’s 20/20 newsmagazine, went to Africa for the first time in 1973 and fell in love — with giraffes. “They were a dazzling, unexpected revelation: gawky, graceful anomalies; cool, gentle giants dressed in golden, stained-glass coats. And when they ran, they seemed to float. I was hooked.” Journey to Kenya and South Africa, and to an American zoo that is the giraffe breeding capital of the Western Hemisphere, for a revealing look at this powerful, captivating creature when Ms. Sherr hosts Tall Blondes.

Ms. Sherr, a statuesque woman with fair hair and skin, says her friends were puzzled by her choice of favorite African mammal. But, one, nodding wisely, exclaimed, “Of course. Tall blondes.” Her friend’s comment inspired the title of her book, Tall Blondes, upon which the documentary is loosely based. Ms. Sherr re-visits Giraffe Manor, outside Nairobi, Kenya, a refuge whose inhabitants include a giraffe called Lynn, in her honor. At the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, viewers witness the birth of a giraffe, which enters the world six feet above ground. The film’s most exciting sequence involves trapping giraffes and relocating them to an African wildlife refuge. As Ms. Sherr notes, giraffes are not on any lists of endangered animals, but their habitats are shrinking as a result of human encroachment. The program helps debunk the notion that giraffes are silent by highlighting research indicating that they communicate through infrasound, not audible to the human ear.

Production Credits

Production Credits

Web Credits

Producer

RONNIE GODEANU

Art Director

SABINA DALEY

Designers

LENNY DROZNER

KAREN MATTSON

RADIK SHVARTS

Pagebuilding

BRIAN SANTALONE

Writer

DAVID MALAKOFF

Production Assistance

PETER TIERNEY

Technical Director

BRIAN LEE

Content Consultant

Susane Lee

About the Writer

David Malakoff is a journalist covering research discoveries and the politics of science for SCIENCE MAGAZINE in Washington, D.C. His writing has appeared in a wide range of venues, including THE ECONOMIST, THE WASHINGTON POST, and ABCNews.com.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

Television Credits

Narrated by

LYNN SHERR

Producer

KEVIN BACHAR

Written by

LYNN SHERR

Editor

LISA PALATTELLA

Cinematography

ROBERT POOLE

Additional Cinematography

KENT HARVEY

DAVID GOULDING

GINGER KATHRENS

PAUL ATKINS

Composer

RICHARD FIOCCA

Associate Producer

LISA SAMSON

Sound Recordists

BRIAN BUCKLEY

WES CAVALIER

DAVID RUDDICK

RICHARD SPRAWSON

LINCOLN TERHARK

Assistant Camera

GÉRHARD BOTHA

GABRIEL GOODENOUGH

ANNE MARIE HAMMERS

Fixers

FRANK PEROLD & SUE MILLS: PANTHERA PRODUCTIONS, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

JEAN HARTLEY: VIEWFINDERS, NAIROBI, KENYA

VINCENT MICHAUD: ARM PRODUCTIONS, LYON, FRANCE

Assistant Editors

LAUREN KOGEN

TIM GLASSCOFF

Gaffer

LANDRY LAYSON

Makeup

GILLIAN OBASO, NAIROBI, KENYA

SUE CARY MAYER, COLORADO SPRINGS

Production Assistants

GINA POOLE

SARA SAMSON

Drivers

MACK CHAPMAN & MARSHALL HOVIES

Giraffe Transportation

JIM FAUTS

Camera Stand

RALPH PITRE

Sound Editors

BRIAN BEATRICE

ED CAMPBELL

Audio Mixer

ED CAMPBELL

On Line Editor

BARRY GLINER

Colorist

WALTER LEFLER

Additional Footage Provided By:

ABCNEWS Videosource

BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc.

Marion & David Gordon

Getty Images / The Image Bank

Granada Visual

National Geographic Film Library

Based on the book TALL BLONDES: A BOOK ABOUT GIRAFFES by Lynn Sherr

For NATURE

Series Editor

JANET HESS

Supervising Producer

JANICE YOUNG

Producers

JILL CLARKE

PATTY JACOBSON

SUSANE LEE

Associate Producer

GIANNA SAVOIE

Production Assistant

IRENE TEJARATCHI

Production Secretary

AUSTIN RIPLEY

Manager

EILEEN FRAHER

Production Manager

JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN

Series Producer

BILL MURPHY

Executive In Charge

WILLIAM GRANT

Executive Producer

FRED KAUFMAN

A Production of Pangolin Worldwide, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET New York

This program was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, which is solely responsible for its content.

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