TV Reviews : ‘Lost Civilizations’ Turns First to Egypt

“Time-Life’s Lost Civilizations” is a series with enough kitschy business in it to virtually disqualify it for a run on PBS, which has always approached history and archeology as things that are good for you. NBC, in a bizarre counter-programming move against the impossible competition of CBS’ “60 Minutes,” has obviously slotted “Lost Civilizations” into its “lost series” file. Who will look at such Science Lite fare on Sundays at 7?

Well, perhaps fans of Sam Waterston, who provides the sternly dramatic introductions and narration. Possibly armchair travelers who can’t afford the passage to Egypt, Greece or the Yucatan. Maybe those of us just tired of Ed, Morley, Andy and the gang making noise.

Whatever the demographic, none will likely be completely happy with, at least, two of the 10 episodes available for review. (The series explores the Incas, ancient China, Atlantis and Mesopotamia, among others.)

Sunday’s opener, “Egypt: Quest for Immortality,” couldn’t tell the story of the 3,500-year Pharaoh culture with more ham-fisted confusion. The chronology of ancient Egyptian civilization, for example, is sliced and diced into a hodgepodge of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Even the history of key archeological findings is told in reverse order, ruining the program’s key point that the Egyptian nation itself has assumed control over what once was a vast global looting--by thieves and museums alike--of the Pharaohs’ treasure.

At least the re-created scenes of archeologists making discoveries in the third episode, “Maya: The Blood of Kings,” don’t resemble outtakes from the “Indiana Jones” series. Director Ian Duncan also tells the story of the unraveling of the meaning of the Maya with coherence and tension, as generations of scientists develop a deepening understanding of this greatest and most profound of ancient Western Hemisphere peoples.

Better than the hour on Egypt, it also balances juiced-up dramatic restagings of scenes of these ancients (suspiciously resembling some of the illustrations in the old Time-Life books) with penetrating ideas. Archeologist Arthur Demerest notes how the Mayan ruins in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize--fragments of a once-huge urban network--remind us how fragile civilizations are.

* “Time-Life’s Lost Civilizations” premieres 7 p.m. Sunday on KNBC-TV Channel 4, and continues through Sept. 10.