The WORST episodes of Great Performances
Every episode of Great Performances ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Great Performances!
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on PBS since 1972. The show is produced by WNET in New York City. It is one of the longest running performing arts anthologies on television, second only to Hallmark Hall of Fame. Great Performances presents concerts, ballet, opera, an occasional documentary, and plays. The series has also won many television awards, including an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and an Image Award, with nods from the Directors Guild of America and the Cinema Audio Society.
#1 - Berlin Philharmonic: Herbert von Karajan
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/13/1974
#2 - A Memory of Two Mondays
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/3/1974
#3 - The Contractor
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/10/1974
#4 - Bach's Mass in B Minor
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/12/1974
#5 - Ceremony of Innocence
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/17/1974
#6 - A Touch of the Poet
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/24/1974
#7 - The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/8/1974
#8 - Monkey, Monkey, Bottle of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here?
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/22/1974
#9 - Concertgebouw Orchestra: Rubinstein
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/1974
#10 - Feasting With Panthers
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/27/1974
#11 - Bernstein at Tanglewood
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/25/1974
#12 - Zalmen, or The Madness of God
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/8/1975
Joseph Wiseman stars in Elie Wiesel's drama set in post-Stalinist Russia. (THEATER IN AMERICA)
#13 - The Seagull
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/29/1975
This quintessential Chekhov drama--his first success--is both comic and tragic. A group of friends and relations gather at a country estate to see the first performance of an experimental play written and staged by the young man of the house, Konstantin (Frank Langella), an aspiring writer who dreams of bringing new forms to the theatre.
#14 - Brother To Dragons
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/19/1975
#15 - Forget-Me-Not Lane
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/12/1975
#16 - Pagliacci
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/19/1975
#17 - The School For Scandal
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/2/1975
#18 - Rules of the Game
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/30/1975
The main characters are an impulsive young woman, Silvia Gala (Joan Van Ark), the lover she exasperates (David Dukes) and her cynical, sneering spouse, Leone (John McMartin). The husband's apathetic attitude is that life is a game played by arbitrary rules, and his role is that of an unemotional observer. His philosophy is severely put to the test when his wife draws him into a duel with a nobleman who drunkenly accosted her.
#19 - Hogan's Goat
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/12/1973
#20 - The Hollow Crown: Henry V
Season 41 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2013
Henry V has settled onto the throne and has the makings of a fine King. The French Ambassador brings a challenge from the French Dauphin. Inspired by his courtiers, including Exeter and York, Henry swears that he will, with all force, answer this challenge. The Chorus tells of England’s preparations for war and Henry’s army sails for France. After Exeter’s diplomacy is rebuffed by the French King, Henry lays a heavy siege and captures Harfleur. The French now take Henry’s claims seriously and challenge the English army to battle at Agincourt. Henry and his meager forces prove victorious against all odds.
#21 - Great Performances' 40th Anniversary Celebration
Season 41 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/2013
#22 - Stephen Sondheim's 'Company' With the New York Philharmonic
Season 41 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/2013
Great Performances presents the New York Philharmonic’s concert staging of legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical, “Company,” with an all-star cast. The groundbreaking musical premiered in 1970 and had Broadway revivals in 1995 and 2006. “Company” centers on Bobby, a confirmed bachelor, celebrating his 35th birthday with his ten closest friends, who happen to be five couples. Captured from the stage of Avery Fisher Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
#23 - Moby Dick From San Francisco Opera
Season 41 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/2013
#24 - Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma'
Season 41 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/2013
Hugh Jackman returns in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” in time for the landmark musical’s 70th anniversary. Jackman — who recently starred in the hit film version of “Les Miserables” — can be seen again in his breakout musical role as cowpoke Curly in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!,” Friday, November 15 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival.