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.
#2 - Sam Cooke: Crossing Over
Season 24 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/11/2010
Sam Cooke put the spirit of the black church into popular music, creating a new American sound and setting into motion a chain of events that forever altered the course of popular music and race relations in America.
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#3 - Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
Season 28 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/7/2014
Writer and activist Alice Walker (b. Feb. 9, 1944) made history as the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her seminal novel The Color Purple (1982), for which she won the National Book Award. American Masters presents Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, premiering nationally Friday, February 7 at 9 p.m. on PBS in honor of Walker’s 70th birthday and Black History Month. Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar’s new documentary tells Walker’s dramatic life story with poetry and lyricism, and features new interviews with Walker, Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, Sapphire and the late Howard Zinn in one of his final interviews. American Masters — Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth charts Walker’s inspiring journey from her birth into a family of sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia, to the present. The film explores Walker’s relationship with her mother, poverty, and participation in the Civil Rights Movement, which were the formative influences on her consciousness and became the inherent themes in her writing. Living through the violent racism and seismic social changes of mid-20th century America, Walker overcame adversity to achieve international recognition as one of the most influential — and controversial — writers of the 20th century.
#4 - The Day Carl Sandburg Died
Season 26 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/24/2012
For much of the 20th century, Sandburg was synonymous with the American experience, a spokesman on behalf of the people. One of the most successful writers in the English language, Sandburg was a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner for his poetry as well as part of his six-volume Lincoln biography. Yet, after his death, Sandburg’s literary legacy faded and his poems, once taught in schools across America, were dismissed under the weight of massive critical attack.
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#5 - 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.
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#6 - John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker & the Legend
Season 20 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/10/2006
#8 - Woody Allen: A Documentary (1)
Season 25 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/20/2011
A film that traces the life and accomplishments of America's unique and recognized comedian/writer/filmmaker.
#9 - American Ballet Theatre: A History
Season 29 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/15/2015
Delving into the rich history of one of the world’s preeminent ballet companies, Ric Burns combines intimate rehearsal footage, virtuoso performances and interviews with American Ballet Theatre’s key figures.
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Season 25 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/21/2011
Iconic writer, director, actor, comedian, and musician Woody Allen allowed his life and creative process to be documented on-camera for the first time. With this unprecedented access, Emmy®-winning, Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Robert Weide followed the notoriously private film legend over a year and a half to create the ultimate film biography.
#15 - Becoming Helen Keller
Season 35 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/19/2021
Revisit the complex life and legacy of the author, advocate and human rights pioneer. Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, used her celebrity and wit to champion rights for women, people with disabilities and people living in poverty.
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#16 - Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
Season 33 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/13/2019
From award-winning director Ben DeJesus (Great Performances: John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway, John Leguizamo: Tales from a Ghetto Klown), Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is 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.
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Season 32 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/19/2018
Explore the inner life and works of the activist, playwright and author of “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry. Narrated by actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson and featuring the voice of Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose as Hansberry.
#18 - Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny
Season 31 - Episode 6 - 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.
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Season 29 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/10/2015
One of the biggest American bestsellers of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) was thought to be the first and only novel by Harper Lee. However, on July 14, 2015, Go Set a Watchman was released, featuring characters from Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Newly updated version of Mary McDonagh Murphy’s 2012 documentary, Harper Lee: Hey, Boo.
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#21 - Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Season 25 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/29/2011
From 1941 to 1978, this husband-and-wife team brought unique talents to their partnership. He was an architect by training, she was a painter and sculptor. Together they are considered America’s most important and influential designers, whose work helped, literally, shape the second half of the 20th century and remains culturally vital and commercially popular today. They are, perhaps, best remembered for their mid-century modern furniture, built from novel materials like molded plywood, fiberglass-reinforced plastic, bent metal wire and aluminum – offering consumers beautiful, functional, yet inexpensive products. Revered for their designs and fascinating as individuals, Charles and Ray have risen to iconic status in American culture. But their influence on significant events and movements in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. Charles and Ray Eames are now profiled as part of American Masters. A film by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey. Narrated by James Franco.
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