PBS Documentary to Probe Life Among the Stars

This article speaks of a documentary "Life Beyond Earth." The documentary is being published by PBS, will be relating the abundance of microbial life to the possibility of life in space. The writer of the film, Ferris, has written 10 books pertaining to astronomy. Ferris states: "We have a real prospect of answering within the lifetimes of people alive today the age-old question, 'Are we alone?'" He addresses this question in the first half of his two hour long film by looking into origin of life on our own planet and then connecting it to possible life elsewhere in space. The second half of his film is about whether there is any chance of space communication occurring. He primarily focuses communication around the SETI project ran by Frank Drake.
http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/ferris_pbs_991106.html