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 - The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/8/1974
#2 - Bernstein's Mass
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/27/1974
#3 - Paradise Lost
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/6/1974
#4 - In Fashion
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/13/1974
#5 - Feasting With Panthers
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/27/1974
#6 - A Memory of Two Mondays
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/3/1974
#7 - The Contractor
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/10/1974
#8 - Bach's Mass in B Minor
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/12/1974
#9 - Ceremony of Innocence
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/17/1974
#10 - A Touch of the Poet
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/24/1974
#11 - Antigone
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/13/1974
#12 - Monkey, Monkey, Bottle of Beer, How Many Monkeys Have We Here?
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/22/1974
#13 - Concertgebouw Orchestra: Rubinstein
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/1974
#14 - Berlin Philharmonic: Herbert von Karajan
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/13/1974
#15 - Bernstein at Tanglewood
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/25/1974
#16 - 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)
#17 - 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.
#18 - Brother To Dragons
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/19/1975
#19 - Forget-Me-Not Lane
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/12/1975
#20 - 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.
#21 - Great Performances at the Met: Francesca da Rimini
Season 40 - Episode 26 - Aired 8/18/2013
#22 - Great Performances at the Met: Giulio Cesare
Season 40 - Episode 27 - Aired 8/31/2013
#23 - The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs
Season 23 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/25/1995
#24 - The Hollow Crown: Richard II
Season 41 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2013
King Richard is called upon to settle a dispute between his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and Thomas Mowbray. Richard calls for a duel but then halts it just before swords clash. Both men are banished from the realm. Richard visits John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke’s Father, who, in the throes of death, reprimands the King. After seizing Gaunt’s money and lands, Richard leaves for wars against the rebels in Ireland. Bolingbroke returns to claim back his inheritance. Supported by his allies, Northumberland and the Duke of York, Bolingbroke takes Richard prisoner and lays claim to the throne.
#25 - The Hollow Crown: Henry IV - Part 1
Season 41 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/2013
The heir to the throne, Prince Hal, defies his father, King Henry, by spending his time at Mistress Quickly's tavern in the company of the dissolute Falstaff and his companions. The King is threatened by a rebellion led by Hal’s rival, Hotspur, Hotspur’s father Northumberland, and his uncle Worcester. In the face of this danger to the state, Prince Hal joins his father to defeat the rebels at the Battle of Shrewsbury and Kill Hotspur in hand-to-hand combat.