At last, a chance to watch Ken Burns' wonderful 'Civil War'

I don't think I saw any of Ken Burns' wonderful projects on PBS in first run.

When his first great project -- The Civil War -- came out in 1990, I was still working nights as a sportswriter. My only option would have been to record it on my VCR and watch the episodes later.

I didn't. I was never a big television viewer. The only two series I tried at all to keep up with were "LA Law" and "Dallas." The latter was mostly habit. I had been watching the adventures of J.R. Ewing since 1978.

I didn't watch much else. Everyone I knew told me how wonderful "Civil War" was, but I never did see it.

When his next project came along, one more ambitious in scope than "Civil War," I really wanted to watch it. I think I actually did watch the first night of "Baseball," but I was sharing a television and a bedroom with my wife by then, and there was no way I could watch or tape the next eight nights in a row.

I finally did watch "Baseball" all the way through on video cassettes and twice more in the ensuing years on DVDs. I saw a lot of things I had already known about the game I loved, and I saw a lot more that was new to me.

Burns had won me over.

I didn't watch his 10-part "Jazz" in 2001, but my wonderful son Virgile -- at the height of his love of music -- watched it all the way through.

His next massive project was "The War," his 2007 miniseries about America's involvement in World War II. I didn't catch it on television, but I bought and watched the DVDs later.

I never did get around to "Jazz" or "The Civil War" until just recently. Both sets were available from Amazon at really good prices, so I ordered them. They arrived today, and I am watching Part One of the nine-part "Civil War" as I write this.

When I'm done with that, I'll watch "Jazz."

Ken Burns really is an American treasure.