While shooting tonight's Nova about a 1915 Antarctic expedition, Warren County native Kelly Tyler experienced a bit of what Ernest Shackleton's men faced more than 85 years ago.

        She spent the night huddled on the floor of an abandoned whaling station on South Georgia Island, where Mr. Shackleton came for help to rescue his crew after their ship sank in Antarctica.

        “The wind was up to 50 mph, and cinematographer Sandi Sissel and I were having a tough time standing upright without getting blown over,” says Ms. Tyler, producer of Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance (8 p.m., Channels 48, 54, 16). The film includes historic motion pictures and 120 photographs shot by a member of Mr. Shackleton's crew.

        “This is what Shackleton and his men faced — only malnourished and in tattered clothing. Their fortitude was just incredible,” the 1979 Springboro High School graduate says.

        Nova devotes two hours to the incredible true story of how 27 men accompanied Mr. Shackleton to Antarctica, and all returned alive, almost two years later. A 40-minute version of the story, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, is playing at the Cincinnati Museum Center's Robert D. Lindner Omnimax Theater through June 7. (Ms. Tyler was a coordinating producer on the IMAX film.)

        After their ship, the Endurance, was crushed by pack ice, the men were stranded in tents on an ice floe for months. Mr. Shackleton and five others went for help in a 22-foot lifeboat, sailing 800 miles through 25-foot swells to South Georgia Island. But they landed on the wrong side and had to hike over the icy peaks to reach the whaling station.

        “I often sat on the deck of our 236-foot ship, trying to visualize that tiny 22-foot wooden craft, the James Caird, surging up to the top of those swells, and dropping into the troughs, with those six cold, wet, hungry men in that vast, overwhelming sea,” Ms. Tyler says.

        “We were filming in King Haakon Bay, where the Caird landed, and (I) suddenly thought: This is how it looked in 1916. The men's diaries talk of how they slept in a cave nearby, and there was the cave — with the same icicles that they complained broke off and fell on them.”

        Ms. Tyler also accompanied a film crew to rugged Elephant Island, off the northern tip of Antarctica, where 22 men camped while Mr. Shackleton went for help.

        “There was no shelter, no hiding from the wind and water. It was unbelieveable that those men lived on that unprotected shore for four months,” she says.

        As producer, Ms. Tyler spent six weeks filming in Antarctica. She also was field correspondent and photographer for the Nova Web site chronicling their trip (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/dispatches/).

        Back in her Nova office in Boston, Ms. Tyler wrote and produced the second hour of tonight's show, commissioned the music and animation, directed the narration recording; and negotiated for use of Frank Hurley's amazing film of the expedition. (He shot the Endurancesinking on Nov. 21, 1915.) She also supervised the archival film and photos used in the IMAX film.

        “Not only was Hurley there, not only did his gear function in awful conditions, not only did he have the stamina to keep shooting, but he also happened to be an artist of extraordinary talent,” she says.

        During her dozen years at Nova, Ms. Tyler has worked primarily on IMAX projects: Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond, Stormchasers and Island of the Sharks. Her interest in science led her to the University of Cincinnati, where she studied biology for two years before transferring to Harvard and earning a history degree.

        She's on an extended leave from Nova to write a book in Cambridge, England, about Antarctic exploration. She's also engaged to a British scientist, formerly of the British Antarctic Survey. Later this year she heads back to Ross Sea region of Antarctica.

        Ms. Tyler says living through the Tristate's blizzard of '78 was good training for her.

        “I remember minus-17 degree days in January, before the wind chill,” she says. “Living in southern Ohio was great preparation for the Antarctic.”

        Radio highlight: Naomi Lewin hosts A Musical Celebration of Passover at 7 p.m. today on WGUC-FM (90.9).

        Teen summit: Students from public, private, urban and suburban high schools will discuss Cincinnati race relations 8-10 p.m. today on WDBZ-AM (1230) and WVXU-FM (91.7). WDBZ-AM hosts Jay Love and Jene Galvin host the live call-in show.

        Rukeyser fired: Louis Rukeyser, 69, has been fired by Maryland Public Television for telling Wall Street Week viewers Friday he will launch a new PBS investment series, after being forced off the show. Wall Street Week will be revamped as a co-production with AOL Time Warner's Fortune magazine.

        Around the dial: Richard Kuhlman of Greenhills plays Martin, a gay activist, on Spin City today (8:30 p.m., Channels 9, 2).

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