Former mayor to host KCET show on Armenia

GLENDALE — Talk show host and former Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian will host a three-hour KCET show Tuesday about Armenian culture, history and holiday traditions.

The special event, part of KCET’s holiday pledge drive, will be the first time the station has featured Armenian culture and traditions during the holidays, said Mary Mazur, the channel’s executive vice president and chief content officer.

“We were fortunate to have a night’s worth of programming that is quite celebratory,” Mazur said of the upcoming broadcast, which will include an episode of “Visiting with Huell Howser” that will focus on an Armenian Orthodox Christmas meal, as well as specials on Christian history in Armenia, Jews in Armenia and a group of Canadians retracing the steps of ancestors who died in the Armenian genocide of 1915.

The idea for the event, which will start at 7:30 p.m., came from Zarian, Mazur said.

“I felt that the content was very historical and very respectful and shouldn’t be interrupted with pledge breaks,” Mazur said.

“And he gave me the idea of what kind of programming we might schedule for the community, and I thought it was a really smart idea because we look to our communities for different traditions.”

The event will give viewers insight into Armenian holiday traditions and its rich and often overlooked religious history, said Zarian, who has hosted his own television show, “The Larry Zarian Forum,” for 10 years.

“Here’s an ancient nation, small as it may be, but it adds so much to history that people know very little about,” said Zarian, mentioning that some of Christianity’s oldest historical sites are in Armenia. “That will at least bring forth the history of Christianity and the history of Armenians in their struggles.”