Your Inner Fish

How did the human body become the complicated, quirky machine it is today? The answers can be traced back hundreds of millions of years. PBS announces an ambitious new three-part series, "YOUR INNER FISH", which will air in 2014 on PBS stations and will explore the science of how and why we are the way we are. Produced by Tangled Bank Studios (whose award-winning head of television and film, Michael Rosenfeld, gives the MIPDoc keynote speech, “Reinventing Science Television,” on April 6), the series is based on the best-selling book by leading paleontologist Dr. Neil Shubin. In taking viewers on a cutting-edge, scientific adventure, YOUR INNER FISH reveals a startling truth: hidden within the human body is a history of life on Earth.

The human body carries the legacy of animals that lived millions of years ago, and from whom we inherited our most remarkable features, as well as some of our strangest quirks. Each hour of YOUR INNER FISH assembles evidence from comparative anatomy, fossils, genetics and embryology to solve the mystery of why we’re built the way we are.

“PBS viewers love shows that highlight science and history in novel and intriguing ways, but YOUR INNER FISH takes this idea to a whole new level, by tracing the mind-boggling connections that can be made between the human form we know today and any number of now-extinct but biologically important species,” said Beth Hoppe, chief programming executive and general manager of general audience programming for PBS. “We’re pleased to bring such adventurous programming to our audience through this new and exciting series.”

“With Neil Shubin’s fascinating book as our guide, YOUR INNER FISH brings millions of years of history, great expeditions and cutting-edge science into the living rooms of PBS watchers and science buffs,” said Rosenfeld. “With Neil, we dive head first into a complex subject, to tell an engrossing story about how the human body evolved. PBS is a great partner to bring this type of programming to a curious nationwide audience.” (Source: PBS)