The Public Broadcast Laboratory had the financial backing of the Ford Foundation, which put over $292 million into educational television programs, including PBL.
PBL contained a program of news and other features, in something of what was at the time considered an experimental approach.
The initial PBL program featured African Americans with white-painted faces in a one-hour drama.
The entire archive of PBL programs was donated by NET's successor, PBS, to the Library of Congress on January 5, 1994.
[3][4] Episodes of PBL have been contributed to, and made available in, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting by the Library of Congress, GBH, and WNET.