New Alzheimer's Doc Hits the Small Screen

"I thought of it as short stories about forgetting," said HBO Documentary Films President Sheila Nevins, executive producer of the series. "To me that show was really a lesson in caring if nothing else and oddly not as depressing as everyone expected it to be. The love of some of these people is quite extraordinary." Nevins also involved First Lady of California Maria Shriver as executive producer. Shriver's 93-year-old father, Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps and 1972 Democratic vice presidential nominee, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2003. More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. That figure accounts for one in every eight people over age 65, according to the Alzheimer's Assn. And those numbers are expected to balloon as the baby boomers reach retirement age.