HBO Gets Deadly Serious With Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease is getting spotlight treatment from HBO. "The Alzheimer's Project" kicked off this week by looking at the story of Maria Shriver, First Lady of California, and her father who suffers from the disease.

Alzheimer's remains poorly understood, but may affect as many as 10 million baby boomers in their lifetime.

The television network behind popular shows such as "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City" and "The Wire" sees its latest series as a privately funded public health campaign – viewers can stream or download the series for free from HBO's Website. HBO Documentary Films worked with the National Institute on Aging, which guaranteed producers access to the latest scientific research.

Producers also spent weeks interviewing families of Alzheimer's sufferers to find those who would be in the series. They even found two of their subjects through online blogs kept by an Alzheimer's patient and the daughter of an Alzheimer's patient.