Episodes cast for
"American Masters" (1985) More at IMDbPro »

Season: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | unknown
Year: 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | unknown

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Season 1

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Season 1, Episode 1: Private Conversations: On the Set of 'Death of a Salesman'

7 October 1985

Season 1, Episode 2: Philip Johnson, Self Portrait

30 June 1986
Career biography of architect Philip Johnson, largely told through conversation with arts editor/critic Rosamond Bernier. Includes scenes shot at Johnson's famous "glass house", his private painting and sculpture galleries, his studio, the garden of the Museum of Modern Art, the Four Season Restaurant in New York City, and various buildings he designed all over America. This documentary was in the first season of the WNET/PBS television series "American Masters."

Season 1, Episode 3: Katherine Anne Porter: The Eye of Memory

7 July 1986

Season 1, Episode 10: Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts

8 September 1986

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Season 2

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Season 2, Episode 1: Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer

January 1987

Season 2, Episode 2: Directed by William Wyler

1 May 1986
A tribute to director William Wyler consisting of interviews and excerpts from his many classic films.

Season 2, Episode 3: Rubinstein Remembered

20 July 1987
A 100th anniversary tribute to the famous virtuoso pianist, Arthur Rubinstein.

Season 2, Episode 4: Nik and Murray

6 September 1986

Season 2, Episode 5: George Gershwin Remembered

24 August 1987

Season 2, Episode 6: Maurice Sendak: Mon Cher Papa

31 August 1987
Maurice Sendak,the renowned illustrator is no stranger to television. He has been featured on "magazines" such as "60 Minutes." His "Really Rosie!" published in the 1950's, was seen as an animation special long before being adapted for a stage musical. Still undaunted, however, he returns this evening at 9 on WNET to sit for a portrait in "Mon Cher Papa." This hour long program is a presentation of "American Masters," a weekly anthology of profiles on this country's leading figures in the creative arts.

Season 2, Episode 7: The Negro Ensemble Company

14 September 1987

Season 2, Episode 8: Unanswered Prayers: The Life and Times of Truman Capote

21 September 1987

Season 2, Episode 9: The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table

28 September 1987
Profile of the group of writers and humorists who formed lasting friendships and collaborations centered on their daily lunches at New York City's Algonquin Hotel through the 1920s, which led to scathing satire of cultural and social trends of the Roaring '20s. Their conflicts and romances are explored, with central figures including Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott. As the decade progressed, they increasingly found themselves drawn apart by literary ambitions, as well as by social issues including the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

Season 2, Episode 10: Buster Keaton: Hard Act to Follow

18 November 1987

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Season 3

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Season 3, Episode 1: Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me

11 July 1988
A documentary about the life and films of actress Lillian Gish.

Season 3, Episode 2: A Duke Named Ellington

18 July 1988

Season 3, Episode 4: Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul

22 August 1988
Aretha Franklin's recording career is examined through archival footage and interviews with family and prominent figures within the music industry.

Season 3, Episode 5: Rivera in America

29 August 1988

Season 3, Episode 8: Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre

26 June 1989

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Season 4

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Season 4, Episode 1: Harold Clurman: A Life of Theatre

3 July 1989

Season 4, Episode 2: Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!

10 July 1989

Season 4, Episode 3: Satchmo: The Life of Louis Armstrong

31 July 1989

Season 4, Episode 4: James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket

14 August 1989
Profiles the life and work of author/civil rights activist, James Baldwin.

Season 4, Episode 5: Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

17 August 1989

Season 4, Episode 6: Jasper Johns: Ideas in Paint

11 September 1989

Season 4, Episode 7: Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition

18 September 1989

Season 4, Episode 8: W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult

25 September 1989

Season 4, Episode 9: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius

17 November 1989
A film about the career and methods of the master silent comedy filmmaker.

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Season 5

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Season 5, Episode 1: Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer

2 July 1990

Season 5, Episode 2: John Cassavetes

9 July 1990

Season 5, Episode 3: Martin Scorsese Directs

16 July 1990

Season 5, Episode 4: You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story

23 July 1990
Biographical portrait of one of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters. Told through the use of archival material and interviews with the rich and famous that knew him, this portrait concentrates on his career and his public life events.

Season 5, Episode 5: Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter

30 July 1990
A profile of journalist Edward R. Murrow recalling his live radio broadcasts and TV programs.

Season 5, Episode 6: John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen

20 August 1990

Season 5, Episode 7: Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret

27 August 1990

Season 5, Episode 8: John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It

17 September 1990

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Season 6

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Season 6, Episode 1: Helen Hayes: First Lady of the American Theatre

1 July 1991

Season 6, Episode 2: Miracle on 44th Street: A Portrait of the Actors Studio

8 July 1991

Season 6, Episode 3: A. Einstein: How I See the World

22 July 1991
Documentary on physicist Albert Einstein which chronicles the experiences that lead him to become a great advocate for world peace.

Season 6, Episode 4: Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One

29 July 1991

Season 6, Episode 5: Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days

5 August 1991
A documentary on the famed painter and sculptor of Western Americana, Frederic Remington.

Season 6, Episode 6: Menuhin: A Family Portrait

12 August 1991

Season 6, Episode 7: Robert Motherwell and the New York School

26 August 1991

Season 6, Episode 8: Ray Charles: The Genius of Soul

3 January 1992

Season 6, Episode 9: Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey

1 May 1992

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Season 7

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Season 7, Episode 1: Paul Simon: Born at the Right Time

14 March 1993

Season 7, Episode 2: George Lucas: Heroes, Myths and Magic

17 March 1993
An examination of the life and career of director George Lucas, including interviews with colleagues, cast and crew members from his films.

Season 7, Episode 3: D.W. Griffith: Father of Film

24 March 1993

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Season 8

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Season 8, Episode 1: Benny Goodman: Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing

8 December 1993

Season 8, Episode 2: Martha Graham: The Dancer Revealed

13 May 1994

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Season 9

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Season 9, Episode 1: Rediscovering Will Rogers

30 November 1994
Biography of Will Rogers, who, during the generation before World War Two, was one of America's best known journalists, movie actors, stage performers and international ambassadors of good will. The story is told through interviews, photographs, newsreel clips and excerpts from feature films in which he starred. Narrated by Edwin Newman.

Season 9, Episode 2: Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage

19 December 1994
A study of Tennessee Williams's life and work as a whole, ranging from his youth in Mississippi and in St. Louis to success and acclaim, followed by the final difficult years. Includes some of the most celebrated scenes from film adaptations of Williams' work, among them extracts of _Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)_ ,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), _Night of the Iguana, The (1964)_ , and _Suddenly, Last Summer (1993) (TV)_ . Contains footage of Williams being interviewed, including conversations with David Frost, 'Edward R. Murrow (I)' , and Melvyn Bragg, as well as reminiscences from people who knew and worked with him, among them Edward Albee, Gore Vidal, and his lifelong friend, Lady Maria St. Just. Features readings from Elia Kazan's Notebook by Kim Hunter.

Season 9, Episode 3: Plácido Domingo: A Musical Life

15 February 1995

Season 9, Episode 4: Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul

22 March 1995
Comprised of interviews with Poe scholars, dramatic sequences, and an adaptation of "The Cask of Amontillado", this documentary covers the life of Edgar Allen Poe thoroughly from a number of perspectives.

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Season 10

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Season 10, Episode 1: Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval

29 November 1995
The life and career of the renowned television writer and creator of the classic science fiction series, "The Twilight Zone."

Season 10, Episode 2: William Styron: The Way of the Writer

22 January 1996

Season 10, Episode 3: Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

24 January 1996

Season 10, Episode 4: Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud

26 January 1996

Season 10, Episode 5: Nichols and May: Take Two

22 May 1996

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Season 11

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Season 11, Episode 1: Lena Horne: In Her Own Voice

25 November 1996

Season 11, Episode 2: Danny Kaye: A Legacy of Laughter

10 December 1996
Born in Brooklyn, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Danny Kaye went from a borscht belt comedian to one of the best known film and stage stars in the world. This tribute follows his career from the early years through film and stage success in the United States and London. Finally, his own television show, and recognition for a lifetime of excellence.

Season 11, Episode 3: Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant Garde

9 April 1997

Season 11, Episode 4: Jack Paar: 'As I Was Saying...'

7 May 1997

Season 11, Episode 5: Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper

25 June 1997

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Season 12

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Season 12, Episode 1: The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg

18 February 1994
The life and work of Allen Ginsberg, the greatest of the Beat Generation poets is put in focus in this film

Season 12, Episode 2: Vaudeville

26 November 1997

Season 12, Episode 3: Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy

4 February 1998
A profile of writer-director Billy Wilder.

Season 12, Episode 4: Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart

January 1998

Season 12, Episode 5: Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes

1 May 1998

Season 12, Episode 6: Alexander Calder

17 June 1998

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Season 13

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Season 13, Episode 1: Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note

28 October 1998

Season 13, Episode 2: Episode #13.2

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Season 13, Episode 3: Paul Robeson: Here I Stand

24 February 1999

Season 13, Episode 4: Robert Rauschenberg: Inventive Genius

7 April 1999

Season 13, Episode 5: The Lives of Lillian Hellman

30 June 1999

Season 13, Episode 6: Dashiell Hammett: Detective, Writer

30 June 1999

Season 13, Episode 7: Yours for a Song: The Women of Tin Pan Alley

18 August 1999

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Season 14

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Season 14, Episode 1: Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood

23 October 1998

Season 14, Episode 2: Norman Rockwell: Painting America

2 May 1999

Season 14, Episode 3: Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For

8 December 1999

Season 14, Episode 4: Episode #14.4

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Season 14, Episode 5: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light

2 February 2000
In this series entry, actor/director Sidney Poitier discusses his life and career. He tells of his upbringing in Jamaica; the difficulties he encountered in New York City at the start of his career; his involvement in the US civil-rights movement; and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Friends and acquaintances, as well as other performers, give their insights about what makes him so special.

Season 14, Episode 6: Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso

12 April 2000

Season 14, Episode 7: The Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation

23 January 1999
Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac's death, and Ginsberg's politicization. Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage's music, abstract expressionism, and living theater. In recent interviews, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats' meaning and impact.

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Season 15

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Season 15, Episode 1: Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows

29 August 2000
Documentary that explores actor/director Clint Eastwood and his art by juxtaposing each major stage in his life with a corresponding stage in the thematic development of his work. Clint Eastwood tells his own story, from his childhood in Depression-era Northern California, to life in the stratosphere of fame and fortune. He's torn up the wild West, patrolled the mean streets of San Francisco, and even gone into outer space. Follow the on-screen and off-screen life of the Oscar-winning film icon in this retrospective PBS "American Masters" 2000 documentary filled with film clips, archival material and interviews. Clint's "Unforgiven" co-star Morgan Freeman narrates.

Season 15, Episode 2: Mailer on Mailer

4 October 2000

Season 15, Episode 3: On Cukor

22 November 2000
Widely thought of as "a woman's director," legendary film director George Cukor is profiled in this "American Masters" 2000 documentary narrated by Jean Simmons and featuring clips from such beloved classics as "Dinner at Eight," "David Copperfield," "The Women," "The Philadelphia Story," "Little Women," "Camille," "Born Yesterday," "Gaslight," "Adam's Rib," "A Double Life," "A Star is Born," and his Oscar-winning "My Fair Lady." The documentary uses film clips and interviews with Cukor's friends and colleagues including director Peter Bogdanovich, critic Richard Schickel, writer Fay Kanin, and Cukor's biographer Gavin Lambert himself as well as actors Mia Farrow, Shelley Winters, Angela Lansbury, Jack Lemmon and Claire Bloom to provide a picture of the director's unique accomplishments and to trace the arc of his career. As for his private life, the discreet director remains silent, and despite the film's references to his gay poolside parties at his Hollywood home, intimate friends and colleagues fail to recall anything about his sexuality that sheds light on his work.

Season 15, Episode 4: Finding Lucy

3 December 2000

Season 15, Episode 5: Bob Marley: Rebel Music

5 August 2000
Profile of the life and music of the legendary reggae singer.

Season 15, Episode 6: A Conversation with Gregory Peck

14 October 1999
In 1999, Gregory Peck (1916-2003) visits the Barter Theatre, Abingdon, VA, where he had acted in 1940 and where this evening he tells stories and answers questions about his career. Interspersed are clips from Peck's films and from interviews recorded over the years and vérité contemporary footage of visiting with his daughter Cecilia before and after the birth of her son, receiving the National Medal of Arts, chatting with Lauren Bacall and with Martin Scorsese, and dining with Jacques Chirac, always with his wife of forty-four years, Veronique Passani, beside him. Throughout, Peck is informal, candid, and wry.

Season 15, Episode 7: Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye

16 April 2001
Biography of Alfred Stieglitz and his role in the early 20th century American art world.

Season 15, Episode 8: Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians

28 January 2000

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Season 16

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Season 16, Episode 1: Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies

7 October 2001
Documentary on the legendary Hollywood movie mogul, who created his own independent production company to produce such classics as Dodsworth, Stella Dallas, Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes, Pride of the Yankees, and The Best Years of Our Lives, among many others. Based on the biography by A. Scott Berg.

Season 16, Episode 2: F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams

14 October 2001

Season 16, Episode 3: Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds

21 October 2001

Season 16, Episode 4: Quincy Jones: In the Pocket

18 November 2001

Season 16, Episode 5: Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records

28 November 2001
A history of Memphis' Sun Records, the legendary label that started the careers of such rock and country icons as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. Included are archival footage and interviews with many rock and country artists who either recorded for Sun or knew owner Sam Phillips.

Season 16, Episode 6: Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance

16 December 2001
A nice summary of the work of Merce Cunningham, with beautiful clips from old and new dances and an explanation of the way in which he has and continues to revolutionize dance.

Season 16, Episode 7: Ralph Ellison: An American Journey

January 2002
This documentary presents a portrait of African American author Ralph Ellison, one of the great American novelists of the twentieth century.

Season 16, Episode 8: Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer

1 March 2002
A documentary on Gene Kelly.

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Season 17

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Season 17, Episode 1: Willie Nelson: Still Is Still Moving

2 October 2002

Season 17, Episode 2: Lon Chaney: The Man of a Thousand Faces

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Season 17, Episode 3: Juilliard

29 January 2003

Season 17, Episode 4: Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution

18 March 2003

Season 17, Episode 5: Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind

3 April 2003

Season 17, Episode 6: Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied

23 April 2003

Season 17, Episode 7: Robert Capa: In Love and War

17 January 2003
A documentary about the life of famed war photographer Robert Capa.

Season 17, Episode 8: The Education of Gore Vidal

20 January 2003
A contrarian and wickedly funny man, "The Education of Gore Vidal" explores Vidal's extraordinary life and work, joining him at his cliff-side villa in Ravello, Italy.

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Season 18

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Season 18, Episode 1: None Without Sin

3 September 2003
Director Elia Kazan and playwright Arthur Miller were once best friends and professional colleagues, to most that knew them then in both capacities as soul mates. Their politics were similar which was reflected in their work. Kazan was a Communist Party member for a few years in the mid-1930's, but Miller never officially joined the party ranks. Their relationship changed in the early 1950's when Kazan was subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. To the Committee, Kazan named names of supposed friends - albeit names the Committee already had - but for many, including Miller, Kazan's move was both an act of support of the Committee's blacklisting, and a purely self-preserving measure for his own movie directing career. Kazan's professional life, and by association personal life, was not an easy one following his testimony. Both Kazan and Miller's individual works following - most specifically Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), Miller's "The Crucible" and "A View from the Bridge", and their collaboration on "After the Fall" - were direct responses to Kazan's act in front of the Committee. Marilyn Monroe, Miller's wife in the late 1950's and a past lover of Kazan's, also played an integral role in both their lives in relationship to the affect of Kazan's testimony, and Miller's own testimony to the Committee four years after Kazan's.

Season 18, Episode 2: James Brown: Soul Survivor

29 October 2003

Season 18, Episode 3: Cary Grant: A Class Apart

7 January 2004

Season 18, Episode 4: Balanchine

14 January 2004

Season 18, Episode 5: Judy Garland: By Myself

25 February 2004

Season 18, Episode 6: Henry Luce & Time-Life's America: A Vision of Empire

28 April 2004
Henry Luce co-founded Time Inc. in 1923 and presided over the company for more than 45 years, making an indelible mark on publishing in the process. This compelling look into the life of the publishing icon includes photographs and news footage from the company's unparalleled archives, readings from ground-breaking essays, and firsthand accounts from those who knew Luce best to provide insight into his life, work, and influence on America.

Season 18, Episode 7: Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues

23 June 2004
The authoritative documentary on Country Music's most influential figure.

Season 18, Episode 8: Julia Child! America's Favorite Chef

18 August 2004

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Season 19

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Season 19, Episode 1: James Dean: Sense Memories

11 May 2005
Documentary exploring the last 18 months of James Dean's acting career.

Season 19, Episode 2: Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice

12 June 2005
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson captures the history of African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey In The Rock and follows their 30th anniversary concert tour. The film includes footage from concerts, rehearsals, the tour bus and the daily life of the members: Carol Maillard seeing her son off to his high school prom, Nitanju Bolade Casel singing to her son in the morning, Ysaye Maria Barnwell leading a community singing workshop. After Bernice Johnson Reagon announces her retirement, the other members of Sweet Honey hold auditions for a new member. The movie includes the encore from their final concert with her performing with the group.

Season 19, Episode 3: Episode #19.3

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Season 19, Episode 4: Bob Newhart: Unbuttoned

20 July 2005

Season 19, Episode 5: Willa Cather: The Road Is All

7 September 2005
This documentary tells the story of a woman who invented herself from scratch. As a child, Willa Cather was taken from her comfortable home in Virginia into the wild Nebraska frontier--a place so vast and empty she felt "erased." Cather survived and even thrived on the plains, eventually pioneering her way east to New York City where she wrote her great novels: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Antonia, Death Comes For the Archbishop and the Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours. Willa Cather: The Road Is All is a story of the transforming power of art, illustrating Cather's life through dramatic re-enactments of scenes from her most famous novels.

Season 19, Episode 6: Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea

14 September 2005

Season 19, Episode 7: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

3 September 2005
A chronicle of Bob Dylan's strange evolution between 1961 and 1966 from folk singer to protest singer to "voice of a generation" to rock star.

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Season 20

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Season 20, Episode 1: John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend

10 May 2006

Season 20, Episode 2: The World of Nat King Cole

17 May 2006
Edited version of an 89 minute UK documentary on the life of the singer with recollections from family, friends, and famous fans.

Season 20, Episode 3: Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home

12 July 2006

Season 20, Episode 4: Marilyn Monroe: Still Life

19 July 2006
Explores Monroe as the icon of the 20th century via photography, perhaps, her greatest "love affair".

Season 20, Episode 5: Walter Cronkite: Witness to History

26 July 2006
Walter Cronkite was the man who gave us the news for two tumultuous decades in the late 20th century. As historian, journalist and author David Halberstam says in praise of the great CBS newsman: "Most Americans really learned of the evening news and learned of Vietnam and learned of the civil rights movement and learned of Watergate with Walter Cronkite as the man who ushered it into their homes. And did it with great professionalism over a very long time and was I think absolutely true to himself." In AMERICAN MASTERS Walter Cronkite: Witness to History, a documentary narrated by Katie Couric, historians, fellow journalists and CBS colleagues appraise the career of the man who was called "the most trusted man in America." CBS writer and commentator Andy Rooney, legendary producer/director Don Hewitt, correspondents Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl and Barbara Walters, columnists Molly Ivins and Helen Thomas, Senator John McCain and President Jimmy Carter guide the viewer from Cronkite's early days as a foreign correspondent in World War II through his thirty-year career at CBS News. The film opens with Cronkite's beginnings as a journalist - his decision at the age of twelve to become the best possible reporter he could be. His ambition was honed during his early years with the United Press wire service. Battling constant deadlines, he developed a keen sense of competition - and a keen sense of what mattered to the American public. In the nascent years of television, when even the networks weren't sure what the medium could do, Cronkite was among the first to shine - as a newsman and as the host of the enormously popular You Are There series. Chosen to anchor the CBS Evening News, Cronkite would become involved in every major event of the post-war years: the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam war and the anti-war movement, the race to space and the moon, the Watergate scandal and the impeachment of Richard Nixon, the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. When he retired from the anchor desk in 1981, the press viewed the event as the passing of an icon and an era. One magazine editor wrote that Walter Cronkite leaving the air was "like George Washington's face leaving the dollar bill."

Season 20, Episode 6: Andy Warhol: A Documentary

1 September 2006
Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol.

Season 20, Episode 7: Sketches of Frank Gehry

10 September 2005
A look at the life and work of the renown architect.

Season 20, Episode 8: Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

12 October 2006

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Season 21

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Season 21, Episode 1: Novel Reflections: The American Dream

4 April 2007

Season 21, Episode 2: Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built

2 May 2007

Season 21, Episode 3: Les Paul: Chasing Sound

11 July 2007
The Authorized biography of Les Paul, " The Wizard of Waukesha". The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor, and recording artist(Paul had two #1 hits with his wife Mary Ford), Paul has been and innovator from the early years of his life. In 1928, thirteen-year-old Les Paul borrowed a phonograph needle from the family Victrola, stuck it under the strings of his Sear Roebuck guitar, and wired the contraption to a telephone mike and two radio speakers, thus achieving not only amplification but a crude stereo effect. The pioneering young musician then went on to invent scores of ingenious recording techniques, including overdubbing and multi-track recorders, as well as the solid-body electric guitar at the heart of the rock and roll revolution. Still spry at age 90, Les Paul tells his own classic rags-to-riches story in a feature-length HD documentary-with a soundtrack of greatest hits from Bing Crosby, Chet Atkins, B.B. KIng, and rock legends Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Paul McCartney.

Season 21, Episode 4: David Hockney: The Colors of Music

18 July 2007

Season 21, Episode 5: John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature

25 July 2007

Season 21, Episode 6: Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends

12 September 2007
Archival footage, live performances, and interviews conducted by none other than Clint Eastwood depict the life and career of Tony Bennett.

Season 21, Episode 7: Orozco: Man on Fire

19 September 2007

Season 21, Episode 8: Good Ol' Charles Schulz

29 October 2007
For 50 years, Charles M. Schulz captivated and comforted millions with PEANUTS-his innovative daily chronicle of cruelty, hope, and heartbreak in the younger set. But unprecedented worldwide success did not quiet his own Charlie-Brown-style doubts. Instead, the outwardly mild-mannered Schulz relentlessly revisited the turbulent realities of his lost childhood in search of elusive answers. Like Citizen Kane (a film Schulz watched up to 40 times), GOOD OL' CHARLES SCHULZ tries to decipher an iconic, enigmatic American success story. Interviews with those who knew him best-including the real-life Linus and Little Red-Haired Girl-propel this 90-minute documentary. With full access to Peanuts strips and specials and to Schulz's personal archives, the film explores his life, his work, and the complex ways the two intersected. Filmed in wide screen, GOOD OL' CHARLES SCHULZ also connects the cartoons to the fading world of his Midwestern youth in visually innovative ways.

Season 21, Episode 9: Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character

5 November 2007
Comedienne Carol Burnett's early show business aspirations were to perform in live theater on Broadway, craving the instant gratification from a live audience. Her sensibilities were shaped by going to "happy" movies in the 1940s and 1950s, the story lines for which made it seem like anything was possible. These movie going experiences were in part a mechanism to escape her difficult home life, which was nonetheless loving. Based on her early work, professionals around her saw her comedic talents and steered her in the direction of stand-up and sketch comedy. Her life in sketch comedy on television, both on "The Garry Moore Show" (1958) and her own show, "The Carol Burnett Show" (1967) was one of fun and play acting, which translated to what the audience saw. Her own show was pioneering as she was the first woman to host her own sketch comedy show. Unlike most sketch players, she relished in the interaction with her audience as seen through the Q&A's on her show. One thing she was uncomfortable with was her singing, a character which she needed to hide behind to feel comfortable to sing. Some say that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy, with her fine dramatic acting skills displayed in such television movies as Friendly Fire (1979) (TV) and Seasons of the Heart (1994) (TV). Tragedy unfortunately struck her personal life in having to deal with a drug addicted daughter, 'Carrie Hamilton (I)' and after Carrie's drug recovery her untimely death at age 38 from cancer.

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Season 22

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Season 22, Episode 1: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

27 February 2008

Season 22, Episode 2: Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun

9 April 2008

Season 22, Episode 3: Marvin Gaye: What's Going On

7 May 2008

Season 22, Episode 4: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

May 2008