Skip to main content Skip to footer site map

Episodes

Reset Filters
S33 Ep11
Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous
Explore the life of the celebrated artist whose luminous color field paintings helped define the abstract expressionist movement, which shifted the art world epicenter from Paris to New York. Featuring original scenes with Alfred Molina.
Premiered: 10/25/2019
S33 Ep10
Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
Explore a warm and revealing portrait of the charismatic, groundbreaking actor’s journey from his native Puerto Rico to the creative hotbed of 1960s New York City, to prominence on Broadway and in Hollywood. Filled with passion, determination and joy, Juliá’s brilliant and daring career was tragically cut short by his untimely death 25 years ago, at age 54.
Premiered: 9/13/2019
S33 Ep9
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Explore the remarkable life and legacy of late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin whose groundbreaking work, including “The Left Hand of Darkness,” transformed American literature by bringing science fiction into the literary mainstream.
Premiered: 8/2/2019
S28 Ep2
J.D. Salinger: SALINGER
Filmmaker Shane Salerno’s 10-year investigation culminates in the first work to get beyond The Catcher in the Rye author's impenetrable wall of privacy and seclusion. American Masters presents the exclusive, never-before-seen director’s cut of Salinger as the series’ 200th episode, featuring 15 minutes of new material. Salinger is an intricately structured mystery that reveals the author’s private world: how World War II influenced his life and work, his painstaking writing methods, his many relationships with young women, and the literary secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.
Premiered: 1/21/2014
S12 Ep4
Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart
Reed was always at the forefront of American avant-garde music, beginning with creation of the Velvet Underground in 1965. Gritty and realistic, the brutal honesty in Reed’s lyrics and sound made him a cultural icon of the disenfranchised throughout the ’60s and ’70s. From punk rock to grunge, he has had an unparalleled influence on the American music scene.
Premiered: 4/29/1998
S15 Ep7
Gregory Peck: A Conversation with Gregory Peck
Among the celebrated pantheon of Hollywood royalty, few are as well-respected and universally adored as Gregory Peck. For more than fifty years, he was a major presence in the theater, on television, and most importantly, on the big screen. For many, Peck was a symbol of the American man at his best – a pillar of moral courage and a constant defender of traditional values.
Premiered: 4/18/2001
S10 Ep5
Nichols & May: Take Two
Elaine May and Mike Nichols
Nichols and Elaine May revolutionized the landscape of American comedy. By perfecting the art of improvisation and introducing it to the public through their appearances in clubs and on television and radio, they forever changed our expectations of comedy, and our sense of humor.
Premiered: 5/22/1996
S4 Ep6
Neil Simon: Not Just for Laughs
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is the world’s most successful playwright. He has had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He has been showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously.
Premiered: 8/21/1989
S1 Ep1
Arthur Miller: Private Conversations
Arthur Miller
In the period immediately following the end of World War II, American theater was transformed by the work of playwright Arthur Miller. Profoundly influenced by the Depression and the war that immediately followed it, Miller tapped into a sense of dissatisfaction and unrest within the greater American psyche. His probing dramas proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the times.
Premiered: 6/23/1986
S16 Ep4
Quincy Jones: In the Pocket
Quincy Jones is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and film producer. His career spans over 60 years in the entertainment industry with a record 80 Grammy Award nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.
Premiered: 11/18/2001
S10 Ep1
Rod Serling: Submitted for your Approval
Rod Serling
Known primarily for his role as the host of television’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Rod Serling had one of the most exceptional and varied careers in television. As a writer, a producer, and for many years a teacher, Serling challenged the medium of television to reach for loftier artistic goals. The winner of more Emmy Awards for dramatic writing than anyone in history.
Premiered: 11/29/1995
S3 Ep4
Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul
In 1987, singer Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was a testament to her impact on the music world over the course of her long and exciting career. From her teenage days singing gospel in her father’s church to her ascendancy to rock and roll royalty, “The Queen of Soul” has expressed a passion and intensity that has never failed.
Premiered: 8/22/1988
S9 Ep4
Edgar Allan Poe
His name conjures up images of premature burial, black cats, forbidden crypts, and crumbling old houses where terrifying secrets dwell. Almost one hundred and fifty years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe’s prose and poetry continue to frighten, influence and inspire writers, composers, artists, poets, and readers all over the world.
Premiered: 7/29/2019

© 2024 WNET. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.