The BEST episodes of American Masters
Every episode of American Masters ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Masters!
To honor America's most notable creative artists and the inspiration behind their work. Special broadcasts profiles a cross-section of the nation's finest artistic pioneers from the past and present.
#1 - Cachao: Uno Más
Season 25 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2010
A feature on the Cuban-born bassist Israel "Cachao" Lopez, an internationally renowned musician, composer, and pioneer of Mambo.
#2 - Alice Waters and her Delicious Revolution
Season 17 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/19/2003
Follow Alice Waters (b. April 28, 1944) through a year of seasonal shopping and cooking, and discover both the recipes and vision of an artist and an advocate. She and her now-famous restaurant Chez Panisse became a major force behind the way Americans eat and think about food, launching the explosion of local farmers' markets and redesigned supermarket produce departments. Distressed by the food she saw in public schools, Waters started an organic garden with an integrated curriculum at the Martin Luther King Middle School near her house, an idea inspired by The Garden Project at the San Francisco county jail. The idea of an Edible Schoolyard has now spread across the US - and inspired similar programs worldwide. She is an activist with a flawless palette who has taken her gift for food and turned it into consciousness about the environment and nutrition, and a device for social change.
Watch Now:Amazon#5 - Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
Season 26 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/23/2012
Three-time Emmy®-nominated filmmaker Kenneth Bowser examines one of American history’s most iconic folk music heroes and political agitators. Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune is a revealing biography of a conflicted, truth-seeking troubadour who, with guitar in hand, stood up for what he believed in and challenged us all to do the same.
Watch Now:Amazon#6 - Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love
Season 28 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/27/2013
Composer, conductor, genius, mensch: Marvin Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 – Aug. 6, 2012) earned four Grammys, four Emmys, three Oscars, three Golden Globes, a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize before his untimely death, making him one of only two PEGOT winners ever. Hit after hit — “The Way We Were,” “Nobody Does It Better” and scores for The Sting, Sophie’s Choice and the Broadway juggernaut A Chorus Line — made him the go-to composer and performer for film, Broadway, every U.S. President since Reagan and concert halls worldwide. With exclusive access to Hamlisch’s personal archival treasure trove and complete cooperation from his family, Dramatic Forces and THIRTEEN’s American Masters explore his prolific life and career in the series’ Season 27 finale, Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love, premiering nationally Friday, December 27, 2013, 9 -10:30 p.m. ET on PBS
Watch Now:Amazon#8 - Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice
Season 29 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/23/2015
This portrait of the inimitable magician Ricky Jay delves into the mysterious world of sleight-of-hand and its small circle of eccentric devotees. Jay is also a best-selling author, historian, actor and a leading collector of antiquarian books and artifacts. Told largely in Jay’s own distinctive voice, the documentary traces the story of his achievement and that of other master magicians.
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - John Muir in the New World
Season 25 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/18/2011
This documentary explores the life and legacy of America’s first environmentalist and Sierra Club’s founder. Mountaineers portray Muir in reenactments filmed in Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada, Alaska, Wisconsin, and Alhambra Valley.
Watch Now:Amazon#11 - Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval
Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/29/1995
A documentary on the man who pioneered the use of early television for dramatic storytelling.
#13 - Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Season 35 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/3/2021
The life and career of author Amy Tan, with archival imagery, home movies, photographs, animation and original interviews.
#14 - Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable
Season 33 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/19/2019
A documentary about an important American still photographer who captured New York City in the 1960s (his work there is said to have influenced the TV show Mad Men) and later the West in Texas and Los Angeles.
Watch Now:Amazon#15 - Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny
Season 32 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/1/2017
A trove of never-before-seen archival footage provides an unconventional look at the fiercely independent style of filmmaking that emerged out of Austin, Texas in the late 1980s and 1990s with Linklater as its poster boy.
Watch Now:Amazon#16 - James Beard: America's First Foodie
Season 31 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/19/2017
Experience a century of food through the life of one man, James Beard (1903-1985). Dubbed the “Dean of American Cookery” by The New York Times, Beard was a Portland, Ore., native who loved and celebrated the bounty of the Pacific Northwest. He spoke of the importance of localism and sustainability long before those terms had entered the vernacular.
Watch Now:Amazon#18 - Althea
Season 30 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/4/2015
This is the story of Althea Gibson (1927-2003), a truant from the rough streets of Harlem, who emerged as the unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s. She was the first African American to play and win at Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals (precursor of the U.S. Open) — a decade before Arthur Ashe. Interviewees include Wimbledon champion Dick Savitt and Billie Jean King.
Watch Now:Amazon#19 - August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
Season 29 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/20/2015
Unprecedented access to Wilson’s theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and new dramatic readings bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling a century of African-American life. Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.
Watch Now:Amazon#20 - Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning
Season 28 - Episode 9 - Aired 8/29/2014
Her celebrated photograph Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized and arresting images in the world, a haunting portrait that came to represent the suffering of America’s Great Depression. Yet few know the story, struggles and profound body of work of the woman who created the portrait: Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 — Oct. 11, 1965). American Masters — Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning premiering nationwide Friday, August 29 at 9-11 pm on PBS (check local listings) explores the life, passions and uncompromising vision of the influential photographer, whose enduring images document five turbulent decades of American history, including the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II Japanese internment camps. Peabody- and five-time Emmy award-winning cinematographer Dyanna Taylor — the granddaughter of Lange and writer/social scientist Paul Schuster Taylor — directs and narrates this intimate American Masters documentary. Taylor, who learned to see the visual world through her grandmother’s eyes, combines family memories and journals with never-before-seen photos and film footage to bring Lange’s story into sharp focus. The result is a personal documentary of the artist whose empathy for people on the margins of society challenged America to know itself. The film features newly discovered interviews and vérité scenes with Lange from her Bay Area home studio, circa 1962-1965, including work on her unprecedented, one-woman career retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Showcasing more than 800 works by Lange, her first husband Maynard Dixon and second husband Paul Schuster Taylor combined, American Masters — Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning reveals the camera as Lange’s first muse and the confluence of artists at work and in love. Explaining the impact of these relationships on Lange’s life and documentary photography style, filmmaker/narrator Dyanna Taylor demonstrates the challenges of balancing
#21 - Billie Jean King
Season 28 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/2013
For the first time, American Masters profiles a sports figure: Billie Jean King, a determined woman who has been a major force in changing and democratizing the cultural landscape. American Masters Billie Jean King premieres nationally Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) to commemorate the 40th anniversaries of the Billie Jean King v. Bobby Riggs “The Battle of the Sexes” match on Sept. 20, 1973, and the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) by King on June 20 of that year. This new documentary traces the incredible life of the single most important female athlete of the 20th century as her 70th birthday nears.
Watch Now:Amazon#25 - Woody Allen: A Documentary (1)
Season 26 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/20/2011
A film that traces the life and accomplishments of America's unique and recognized comedian/writer/filmmaker.