Press Releases
SIMPLE LIVING with Wanda Urbanska Series Launches Second Season (May 2005)
The SIMPLE LIVING WITH WANDA URBANSKA television series will offer its second season to PBS stations nationally starting in September 2005. The second run of 10 half-hour programs – which comes on the heels of the successful launch of the series in 2004 – counts an exclusive interview with president and Mrs. Jimmy Carter in Plains, GA as one of its highlights. In a wacky, offbeat yet engaging fashion, the series tackles lifestyle issues around the questions of environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, community involvement and financial responsibility. A how-to series, SIMPLE LIVING invites viewers to make change, to make a difference, sounding Wanda Urbanska’s mantra that “nothing’s too small to make a difference.”
Distributed nationally but based in America’s hometown – Mount Airy, North Carolina – the show has already demonstrated its appeal to mainstream “heartland” viewers who are concerned about quality-of-life issues, smart use of time, wise stewardship of financial and environmental resources and ways to better connect with others. The August 2005 Reader’s Digest writes of the program: “Forty-five years after Andy, Opie, and Barney Fife put Mount airy on the map, the town is again under the TV spotlight – this time a PBS series called SIMPLE LIVING WITH WANDA URBANSKA, produced by residents Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering.” Reader’s Digest goes on to say that the show “profiles people across America who are rejecting materialism and high-stress lifestyle. Utne called the series, “a kind of ‘This Old House’ for the American dream”
In its first season, the SIMPLE LIVING WITH WANDA URBANSKA series was a surprise hit among public television stations nationally. The first set of eight half-hour programs appeared on PBS stations reaching almost 84 percent of US TV households.
Smead Manufacturing, a privately held, family-owned, Minnesota-based manufacturer of office organizational supplies such as file folders, is exclusive corporate sponsor of the series for two seasons. Smead is an industry leader in incorporating recycled and post-consumer content into its product line.
If you have not yet seen the series, you can contact your local PBS station and request that it be aired. Please ask that it be aired in a desirable timeslot, such as Saturday or Sunday afternoons. You can also request that the series be repeated in its entirety, which would include re-running the first eight programs when airing the second season. For more information or to offer programming suggestions, contact the Simple Living office.