In the 1990s, American Masters earned many major awards, including three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award and Academy Award nominations for three films. In the clip below, American Masters series creator Susan Lacy describes the difficulties of traveling in China to film the tour of Paul Simon — who gave China’s first major rock concert in 40 years — and we see footage from his arena concerts there, where police turned a blind eye to forbidden dancing. Also part of this decade in American Masters is Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, which reached 12 million viewers, and the great singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye.
This video is excerpted from Pioneers of THIRTEEN: The ’90s and Beyond — Changing Landscape, airing on THIRTEEN, New York City metropolitan region’s public television station, which produces American Masters. The documentary special is online at http://thirteen.org/pioneers.