New History program explores how the states got their shape

After straying from real history with shows such as "Pawn Stars" and "Ice Road Truckers," cable network History shifts back to its namesake with "How the States Got Their Shape" (10 tonight), a new series hosted by Brian Unger, a former reporter for "The Daily Show" in its Craig Kilborn-hosted early years.

"I tried to get the producers to let me pawn something in every town we went to, but they said it wouldn't fit," Mr. Unger said in a phone interview last week. "Maybe I should go around restoring things," a reference to the History series "American Restoration."

"It's difficult to teach and have fun at the same time, and I think, dare I say, we have achieved what we think is a good formula where the shows are informative; they're a funny, eccentric, odd look at America," he said. "At the same time, it's richly dense and packed with trivia and history, not just the kind we learned in school. We debunk a lot of myths and give new historical facts we weren't aware of before."

'How the States Got Shape' When: 10 tonight, History. Host: Brian Unger.

In the series premiere, Mr. Unger visits Southern Tennessee and Northern Georgia where a border dispute involves access to a river that could provide much-needed water to Atlanta if the border between the states is adjusted to where it was intended to be.

"We kind of take our map for granted and think the lines are drawn permanently, but this is an example of a modern-day border dispute," he said. "Atlanta's future hangs in the balance. If they don't get access to some of the Tennessee River, they're going to see some enormous changes in the way people are living in Georgia and Atlanta specifically."

Mr. Unger said he visited 30 states plus the District of Columbia and spent months on the road putting together the show's 10-episode first season. Prior to working on this series he hadn't given much consideration to what the show purports to explain.

"Once I got to understand how much politics shaped our map, which has always been a passion of mine, I was in for the long haul," Mr. Unger said.

The series is based on a book of the same name by Mark Stein, who is interviewed in the TV series, but the television program is organized by theme rather than by state.

"That way we could put many states and regions in one episode," Mr. Unger explained. That includes an episode airing June 14 on the role of religion in state borders, including Pennsylvania.

"We talk about William Penn and the influence of the Quakers on Pennsylvania," he said. "We talk about the influence of the Amish. One of the lenses we look through at Pennsylvania and other states is how influential faith has been in building Pennsylvania."

Another episode, airing June 28, looks at boom and bust periods.

"Many people don't know Pennsylvania was our first oil producing state," said Mr. Unger, who visited Oil City for that episode. "We were hanging out with these amazing guys who do this every day and put explosives down these old wells and extract the oil, which is still very much a part of the local economies up there."

Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Unger is an actor (FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"), host (Discovery's "Some Assembly Required") and writer (public radio's "All Things Considered").

"I'm kind of a journeyman. I've made a living drifting around. I'm like a hobo with a Mac," he said. "The common thread through it all is I get on an airplane and land in a town I've never been to and tell stories."

"I've never been too comfortable being confined to a chair reading a TelePrompTer. I never wanted that to be my life. After this -- seven months on the road staying at every Hampton Inn in America -- I think I'm ready to sit down and read a TelePrompTer," he said with a laugh. But his real desire is to go out and do it again in season two. "I'm hoping enough people watch that History will give us another shot, another season."

TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook.

First published on May 3, 2011 at 12:00 am