Cracking the case with 'History Detectives'

It was a scorching summer day and one of Eastern State Penitentiary's remaining tortures is its lack of air conditioning.

With the hot sun beating down, the crew was exhausted and drenched with sweat.

But instead of prisoners performing manual labor, the crew was comprised of historians taping an episode of PBS's History Detectives.

And in tonight's episode -- the last of the season -- historians will visit the former jail and tackle the mystery of a plaque in the jail's rotunda, which suggests the prisoners served in World War II.

While viewers across the nation may tune in out of historical curiosity, Penn students will have a familiar face to look for.

Tukufu Zuberi, Penn sociology professor and director of the Center for Africana Studies, is one of the four historians featured on the show.

History Detectives, a 10-part series launched this summer, is a show in which viewers submit questions about their own personal or local histories and the team of experts, including Zuberi, solves the mystery on the air.

"It's a great night job," Zuberi says. "I get to take my classroom and move it to the living room of America's population. That's a great opportunity to... try to make a point, try to convey some information, try to give an alternative to reality TV by presenting a reality."

In each episode, the team visits three sites in a geographical region and then investigates questions surrounding those sites.

Zuberi says his favorite episode involved investigating the first black to break into vaudeville.

"The most enjoyable part of it is that people in America have let me into their homes, into the personal part of their lives, to discuss things they are very excited about," he says. "We are able to show how the small tidbit of an artifact or a story is connected to the larger historical and social processes going on."

It's these social processes and historical trends that Zuberi has made a profession of studying.

With two books, 37 presented papers and 13 reviews and articles under his belt, Zuberi's career as an academic has certainly been a busy one.

But he's found time in his crammed schedule for television appearances as well.

Leaving for the airport immediately after his Wednesday afternoon class, Zuberi would fly to the scene of the taping and be ready to start the shoot by 7 a.m. Thursday. They would continue taping until after 10 each night and start again the next day.

"It took me quite a bit of time to get used to the grueling schedule of filming," Zuberi says.

But his colleagues seem to think that Zuberi is a television natural.

According to Wes Cowan, one of the other detectives, Zuberi is a perfect television presenter -- especially because of his good looks.

"My first impression was, 'Wow, this guy is going to look great on camera and I'm going to look like an old geezer,'" Cowan says.

But Cowan says that Zuberi's intelligence and passion for history, especially about African-American history, also made him a perfect pick for the show.

"Tukufu is an exceptionally brilliant guy," Cowan says.

"I think what pushes his buttons is, as you might expect, the diaspora of Africans... and the interrelationship of African Americans and Europeans and Americans throughout history," Cowan says, adding that Zuberi's excitement came across vividly in investigations like one about a whaling ship that was used to help slaves escape.

And Zuberi's exuberant and playful personality make him suitable for his role on the show, according to Sean Kelley, the program director at Eastern State.

Kelley says that 10 hours into the taping, Zuberi was still the life of the set.

"He was like a cross between Richard Simmons and some self-help guru," Kelley says. "He was cracking jokes and clapping his hands and saying, 'Stay focused!'"

"Every time I met his eye, I'd just burst out laughing because he was teasing me," Kelley says, recalling how Zuberi poked fun at Kelley's own mannerisms and the difficult working conditions.

Zuberi says that he used his personality to move the tapings forward.

"If you don't, it gets kind of boring," he says. "You want to keep the energy up, you want everybody to stay on board."

And stay on board they will -- for a second season of History Detectives, which producers recently decided to go ahead with.

In the meantime, Penn students can continue to catch Zuberi's act in the classroom, where he says he is a performer, too.

"Teaching is live," Zuberi says. "You engage your audience. In television... you have to imagine that you're engaging them."

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