‘Life 360’ Presents the Big Picture

Right off, I’ve got to tell you that I went into PBS’ new magazine series “Life 360” with a chip on my shoulder. The concept of presenting a variety of stories about a single theme sounded very much like a rip-off of public radio’s “This American Life,” and the chance of anyone coming close to achieving what Ira Glass and his colleagues do there seemed remote.

I was wrong. Not about it being derivative--although hey, if you’re going to imitate something, why not imitate the best?--but about the quality. Tonight’s premiere (9 p.m., KCET) is outstanding. And different, because television can do some things radio can’t.

The theme, especially relevant post-Sept. 11, is interconnectedness--how we’re all a lot closer to one another than we imagine, or at least could be, with just a little effort. Anna Deavere Smith acts out a funny story about an exchange between a Jewish woman and a black boy in the Bronx; comedian Jake Johannsen riffs on the Internet and pop culture; ABC correspondent Robert Krulwich narrates an animated segment on how the molecules expelled by Julius Caesar in his final breath are still around for us to inhale.

The heart of the program, however, is an extraordinary piece of journalism titled “The Ripple Effect,” produced by Dora Militaru. It recounts the heroic actions of a 21-year-old Air Force enlisted man named William Pitsenberger, who in 1966 descended from a helicopter into the middle of a battle in Vietnam and saved dozens of American soldiers. The story is told without narration, focusing on interviews with some of the men he rescued. To see them with children and grandchildren who would not have been born if not for Pitsenberger is to comprehend on a visceral level the positive effect that one person can have in the world.

That report is followed by Jewel singing her song “Hands,” with its poignant lyric, “In the end, only kindness matters.”

Long live “Life 360.”