Meredith’s Must-Sees for April 2025

Meredith’s Must-Sees is your guide to the most compelling stories airing on KQED, curated by one of our very own—Meredith Speight, Senior Director of TV Programming at KQED, an insider with a passion for great storytelling. Each month, she highlights standout programs that educate, inspire, and spark conversation.

As the weather starts to warm up and the days are getting longer, I want to get outside as much as possible. But there are a lot of reasons to stay in as well, with a KQED TV lineup that includes documentaries that celebrate Earth Month, the electrifying history of funk music, and a milestone year in the history of KQED’s award-winning local series Check, Please! Bay Area. We also get the return of the Lucy Lawless murder mystery series My Life is Murder, a new PBS KIDS series following a charming autistic raccoon, and the incomparable Liza with a Z. Broadcast and streaming information is below, so you can choose the days you stay inside and cozy up to these Must-See films and series on KQED this April.

This new American Masters film features stunning archival footage and stills, performance clips and fascinating new interviews with Liza Minnelli herself as well as confidants like Michael Feinstein, Ben Vereen, Mia Farrow, Joel Grey, and the late Chita Rivera. LIZA: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is an intimate look at her dynamic life, from her complex relationship with her mother Judy Garland to her skyrocketing stardom after her Academy Award-winning role in Cabaret. It premiered at the June 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and I was thrilled to see it come to public television so we can all enjoy all that Liza brings. It’s a fun and funny look at an extraordinary life.

Airs on KQED 9 on Tues April 1 at 9pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting April 1.

Filmmaker Stanley Nelson takes us on a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots, to the early work of James Brown and the rise of Parliament Funkadelic, through today. The film examines the symbiotic relationship between the explosion of funk music and the political and racial dynamics in 1970s inner-city America. When I saw the opening minutes of the film, I remembered that a colleague at PBS had said they dared us to watch this one without getting up and dancing. I don’t think I made it through the first five minutes before I was out of my chair, so I’ll pass that dare along to all KQED viewers who can catch this film.

Airs on KQED 9 Tues April 8 at 9pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting April 8.

When I first joined KQED, we had recently premiered a new series Check, Please! Bay Area, and I couldn’t believe my luck that I got to work alongside the team producing the now iconic series. I learned more about food in the Bay Area than I ever imagined possible and had a group of friends who made it our mission to visit as many of the restaurants featured each week as we could manage. This month marks a huge milestone as the 20th season kicks off April 10 with the first four new episodes. I’m ready to hit the road and keep the tradition going by visiting the newest restaurants on the list — find out more at kqed.org/checkplease and help us celebrate two decades of Check, Please! Bay Area!

Airs on KQED 9 Thursday at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 9am, noon and 7pm, Sundays at 1pm, and Mondays at 7:30pm starting Thursday, April 10. Streaming on the KQED App starting April 10.

Whether Alexa Crowe wants to or not, she can’t seem to stop solving crime. That’s fine by us! We are so excited for the return of Lucy Lawless in the quirky murder mystery crime comedy/drama series My Life is Murder. In the new season, Alexa (Lawless) moves from Australia to New Zealand to be closer to her brother, Will. (We’ve heard the real reason is that Lawless wanted to film closer to her home, and to show off her hometown of Auckland.) Be on the lookout for some notable guest stars in the new season, including William Shatner and Renee O’Connor who played Gabrielle to Lawless’s Xena: Warrior Princess.

Airs on KQED 9 Thursdays at 8pm starting April 24. Seasons 1 and 2 available to stream with KQED Passport on the PBS App.

Opening with a look at the vital modern uses of plastic alongside a tsunami of disposable, single-use products that overwhelm recycling efforts, Single-Use Planet takes viewers on a colorful journey to where millions of tons of plastic are being produced each year. The quest begins with narrator Peter Coyote’s question, “how do we keep the benefits that plastics provide, but protect ourselves from the negative impacts…and why does this waste continue to grow despite so many efforts to reduce it?” We close out Earth Month with this film that takes viewers inside the politics involved in addressing the ever-growing pollution and the unique obstacles to solving the problem in the United States.

From KQED Presents and airing on KQED 9 Wed, April 30 at 8pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting March 29.

In November 2024, PBS KIDS added a new series to its lineup — an animated series for children ages 4–8 and its first show featuring a lead character on the autism spectrum. Carl the Collector follows the everyday adventures of Carl, a warm-hearted raccoon who loves collecting things. Carl has a lot of energy and is logical and precise, yet he often struggles with anxiety in new situations and has difficulty when things don’t go according to plan. My daughter and I are both charmed by Carl and the series is in regular rotation (as well as the Carl’s Collections game on the PBS KIDS Games App!). April is Autism Awareness Month and if you (or the PBS KIDS in your life) haven’t caught this series yet, it’s the perfect time to start collecting with Carl and his friends.

Airs on KQED 9 weekdays at 8:30am, on the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel, and streaming with the PBS KIDS App or pbskids.org.

From Executive Producer Daveed Diggs, The Class follows six students from Deer Valley High School in Antioch, CA as they pursue higher education dreams during a challenging pandemic year.

Continues on KQED 9 Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 6pm and Mondays at 9pm. Also airing on KQED PLUS Sundays at 8pm. Streaming on the PBS App.

Katavi National Park is typically a lush paradise for wildlife in Tanzania. However, the upcoming dry season looms more threatening than ever before. Meet the hippo, crocodile and lion families who must navigate this change of seasons.

Three-part series airs on KQED 9 Wednesdays April 2, 9 and 16 at 8pm. Streaming on the PBS App on the day of broadcast premieres.

Set in Michigan at the height of the pandemic, an Iraqi American woman torn by her father’s death — and by a divided nation — attempts to grieve at the site of the oldest Iraqi Church in North America. What starts in isolation becomes communal as Iraqi women come to and through her with their personal stories of love and resilience.

Airs on KQED 9 on April 12 at 9:35pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting April 1.

In the year marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the last concentration camps, renowned historian Sir Simon Schama confronts the history of the Holocaust as not just a Nazi obsession, but as a European-wide crime.

Airs on KQED 9 on April 22 at 9pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting April 22.

Heartbroken and disillusioned, junior doctor Ruby Walker ditches her life in the UK for a fresh start in exotic South India. But when she arrives at the Good Karma Hospital, nothing is quite what she expected, not least her eccentric new boss, Lydia Fonseca.

Returns to KQED PLUS on Mondays starting April 28 at 9:36pm. Streaming with KQED Passport now on the PBS App.

Free for All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today’s librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all.

Airs on KQED 9 on Tues, April 29 at 10pm. Streaming on the PBS App starting April 29.

Looking for more programs to watch? Find past recommendations from Meredith:

March 2025