Drew Levin makes GOOD on PBS

Drew Levin Brings PBS the GOODS

Drew Levin and TMC Entertainment get Waking The Bible on the air.

On foot in the Holy Land

Rather than the dusty and deadly dull offering indicated by the title, PBS's Walking the Bible is actually an enjoyable and involving travelogue in which author Bruce Feiler brings his best-selling book to the screen, aided skillfully by producer Drew Levin.

Feiler is quite an engaging narrator who tries to place the Bible's most famous stories on the globe, with the help of an equally interesting sidekick, Israeli archeologist Avner Green. They begin in the former Mesopotamia, which is now part of Turkey. Riding off the road, and off the map, they make their way to the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, said to be the scene of creation, the Garden of Eden. (It's not as impressive looking now as it has been depicted countless times before.)

High on Mount Ararat, they search where some think Noah's ark landed and Abraham was born. In the other extreme at the Dead Sea, they see the salt pillars, one of which may be Lot's wife. At the end of the first hour, they're at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, taking the first camera for years to the site sacred to three major religions.

The series, which kicked off last night at 9 on WPBT-Ch. 2 and 8 on WXEL-Ch. 42, continues the next two Wednesdays on those stations (the premiere encores at 3:30 a.m. late Friday/early Saturday on WPBT). WLRN-Ch. 17 airs the series at 9 p.m. Thursdays, beginning next week.