The Tripods - Season 1

Since the premiere of his groundbreaking series African American Lives through the first season of Finding Your Roots, noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world's leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

Set in Toronto at the dawn of the 20th century, Murdoch Mysteries is a one-hour drama series that explores the intriguing world of William Murdoch, a methodical and dashing detective who pioneers innovative forensic techniques to solve some of the city's most gruesome murders. Murdoch's colleagues include the love of his life, coroner and psychiatrist Dr. Julia Ogden, a staunch ally who shares the detective's fascination for science; Constable George Crabtree, Murdoch's eager but sometimes naïve right-hand man; Inspector Brackenreid, Murdoch's skeptical yet reluctantly supportive boss; and coroner Dr. Emily Grace, Dr. Ogden's protégé.

Family Guy follows Peter Griffin the endearingly ignorant dad, and his hilariously offbeat family of middle-class New Englanders in Quahog, RI. Lois is Peter's wife, a stay-at-home mom with no patience for her family's antics. Then there are their kids: 18-year-old Meg is an outcast at school and the Griffin family punching bag; 13-year-old Chris is a socially awkward teen who doesn't have a clue about the opposite sex; and one-year-old Stewie is a diabolically clever baby whose burgeoning sexuality is very much a work in progress. Rounding out the Griffin household is Brian the family dog and a ladies' man who is one step away from AA.

The Recruit follows Owen Hendricks, a fledgling lawyer at the CIA who becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the agency.

NOVA brings you stories from the frontlines of science and engineering, answering the big questions of today and tomorrow, from how our ancestors lived, to whether parallel universes exist, to how technology will transform our lives.