Noteworthy Television This Weekend: Arts and Channel Thirteen a Perfect Match

WNET is launching a new weekly local arts series called SundayArts this Sunday (12 noon). The debut episode’s main focus is the New York City Opera from its current production of Madama Butterfly to its incoming director. There will also be some arts news and highlights of current shows and events as part of the show which is structured around a rebroadcast of the Great Performances presentation of Madama Butterfly.

This isn’t the first time they have done something like this. Back in 1995 they launched City Arts which had a similar mandate and had its own website - something big back in the early days of the web. That show had a broad range of topics ranging from cultural institutions to a guy who painted billboards. It won some Emmys and a Peabody Award, so there are some big shoes to fill. It also makes you wonder why they ever got rid of it in the first place.

The new show, like its antecedent will have an eclectic mix, promising profiles ranging from a Brooklyn chalk artist to the head of the Metropolitan Opera to William Wegman. It also has an online component, complete with all the web 2.0 goodies you would expect today.