discover

Professor Stephen Hawking has more letters after his name to forge his own alphabet. And, now he has his own television series heading our way from Discovery.

According to a release from the network, Hawking (Ph.D., CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA...See what I mean?) is the centerpiece of Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking -- will explore the major questions confronting modern science and physics. How did our universe begin? Could alien life be found on distant planets? Does our galaxy have a life expectancy? Hawking will lead an audience in a layman friendly exploration of those questions in the four part series.

It's Hawking taking up the mantle of the late astronomer Carl Sagan and his 1980 PBS series, Cosmos. The above video looks back affectionately on that show with a little music remix. In the original show, Sagan would explain the seemingly unexplainable every week.

The thing about the cable and PBS portion of the TCA tour is that it's a lot like your first two years of college. Remember when you had to take all those science and literature required classes before you could sink your teeth into your major?

Don't get me wrong there's a lot of great programming that's not on the major networks. But attending panels on Discovery Channel's Ocean of Fear: The Worst Shark Attack Ever, CNN's Planet in Peril, and The History Channel's 1968 with Tom Brokaw kind of feels like going to school.

NBC starts today and it's one of the most anticpated days of the tour.