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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, June 30, 2023 20 By Caroline Collacutt TV Media Jukebox heroes: Part con- cert film, part documentary, this feature-length picture fo- cuses on the rise and fall of the classic '80s musical duo com- posed of Andrew Ridgeley and the late George Michael (1963- 2016), who together tell an im- peccable story of stardom and a rise to fame that happened in a blink of an eye. "WHAM!" premieres Wednesday, July 5, on Netflix. Told for the very first time through the eyes of Michael and Ridgeley, "WHAM!" ex- plores how two 18-year-olds from London, England, set out to take the music world by storm in 1982 and accom- plished just that in only a few years' time, as the superstar pop group dominated the charts with long-standing hit classics such as "Club Tropi- cana" (1983), "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (1984), "Freedom" (1985), "I'm Your Man" (1986), the holiday fa- vorite "Last Christmas" (1986) and many more, with multiple tracks earning No. 1 Billboard status on both sides of the At- lantic Ocean. The duo found themselves in a white-hot spotlight, bright but short-lived, as WHAM! played their final, iconic show at Wembley Stadium in 1986, only four years after the band's founding. Only in their early twenties at the time of their split, both Michael and Ridge- ley went on to have careers of their own, with Michael going on as a highly-successful solo artist, releasing hits of his own through the '80s, '90s and be- yond, such as "Careless Whis- per" (1984), "Faith" (1987) and "Fastlove" (1996), earn- ing himself two Grammys along the way. Ridgeley, meanwhile, moved on to try performing on stages of a dif- ferent sort, first trying his hand at Formula Three racing before eventually moving to Los An- geles to pursue a short-lived acting career. By 1990, Ridge- ley returned to live in the U.K. and has been participating heavily in charity work ever since. "With unprecedented ac- cess to both George and An- drew's personal archive, in- cluding remarkable and never- before-seen footage alongside rare, candid and previously un- heard interviews, 'WHAM!' charts their incredible journey from school friends to super- stars," promises a news re- lease from Netflix. From Emmy-nominated di- rector Chris Smith (Netflix's "Tiger King"), this one-of-a- kind documentary chronicles the brief and magical time this talented twosome spent in the spotlight and the impact a cou- ple of kids from London had on the music industry – both in the '80s and beyond – when "WHAM!" premieres, Wednes- day, July 5, on Netflix. Making a mark: An explo- ration of creation and de- struction, the all-new globe- trotting series "Human Foot- print" premieres Wednesday, July 5, on PBS (check your lo- cal listings). Hosted by biologist and Princeton University profes- sor Shane Campbell-Staton, Ph.D., this documentary se- ries "takes viewers from farms to restaurants, from a high-tech lab to a sweltering street market, from pristine rain forests to the sewers of New York City" to explore the ways humans are transform- ing the planet and what those transformations tell us about who we are as a spe- cies (according to PBS), utiliz- ing an original score com- posed by legendary hip-hop artist Adrian Younge ("Jazz is Dead 001," 2020). Through the course of the show, Shane discovers that "the clearest version of who we are emerges from what we do" (per PBS), as he meets an eclectic cast of amazing individuals, talking to everyone from "scientists and historians to rat extermi- nators and dog dancing gu- rus" as he attempts to unrav- el the complex motivations behind our actions as a spe- cies and the impact we leave behind. "Our insatiable minds have driven us to explore the tallest mountains and the depths of the ocean, to inves- tigate the diversity of life and the fabric of the cosmos, and even to look inward and grapple with consciousness itself. ... We've created music, art, literature and cultures of remarkable beauty. Yet for all of our ingenuity, our species can also be stubbornly short- sighted." The series, however, is "not a 'doom and gloom' tale of human villainy," as PBS explains, saying: "In- stead, it is an honest reckon- ing with our vast footprint and our species' singular his- tory of transforming the plan- et." During its six episodes, "Human Footprint" covers a vast range of topics, with a news release from the net- work promising an explora- tion of "invasive species that are both deeply devastating to ecosystems and critical components of culture; how it came to pass that once- wild wolves now work, sleep and dance (that's right, dance) alongside us; how five species that met our needs have hitched a ride along with us to global domination; the way that modern cities are both deadly and delight- ful for their inhabitants; and the science and history be- hind a crop with an outsized impact on culture – cotton." A thrilling deep-dive through history and science, "Human Footprint" premieres Wednesday, July 5, on PBS (check your local listings). realtalk George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in "Wham!"

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