The BEST episodes of PBS Specials season 2014
Every episode of PBS Specials season 2014, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of PBS Specials season 2014!
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is the most prominent provider of programming to U.S. public television stations, distributing series such as PBS NewsHour, Masterpiece, and Frontline. Since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as America's most trusted national institution. However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public TV stations; in fact, stations usually receive a large portion of their content (including most pledge drive specials) from third-party sources, such as American Public Television, NETA, and independent producers.
#1 - Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America
Season 2014 - Episode 10 - Aired 6/21/2014
American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted helped design many well-known urban parks, including New York's Central Park, and designed the public parks and parkway systems in Buffalo, N.Y.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - Italy's Mystery Mountains
Season 2014 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/15/2014
Two teams of scientists explore the fascinating geologic story of Italy: the continuously erupting volcanoes, the violent earthquakes, the clash of mighty tectonic plates, and the rising of the mountains that produced Michelangelo's famous marble. If they can determine if the northern Apennines are still alive and growing, they might better understand where future earthquakes might strike this highly unstable land.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - The Heiress and Her Chateau: Carolands of California
Season 2014 - Episode 38 - Aired 1/19/2014
The Heiress and Her Chateau: Carolands of California is the 100-year saga of a 100-room mansion, a three-dimensional window into life among America’s elite. Chateau Carolands was built by one of the richest women in the world to be her ultimate dream home, but nothing went as planned. Once the most fabulous house west of the Mississippi, now a foundation, the story of the rise and fall and rise of Chateau Carolands s is a dramatic tale of wealth and ruin, love and loss, art and architecture – with a murder, a porno film, and a couple of earthquakes along the way. It all ends happily, with a multi-million dollar restoration of the Chateau, more grand and glorious now than it ever had been. See how this unique historic architectural masterpiece has come to be preserved for decades to come.
#4 - Ken Burns: On the Record
Season 2014 - Episode 37 - Aired 9/16/2014
Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns sits down with OETA's Dick Pryor to discuss his three decades of making documentaries along with his latest film, "The Dust Bowl,' upcoming projects, and the thrill of filming America's history.
#5 - Great Estates of Scotland: Rosslyn Chapel
Season 2014 - Episode 25 - Aired 10/26/2014
Uncover myths and legends of mysterious Rosslyn Chapel, where part of The Di Vinci Code was filmed. Many believe it to be home to the Holy Grail, the skull of St. Matthew or John the Baptist or even of Jesus Christ. The program seeks answers and makes breathtaking discoveries.
#6 - America After Ferguson
Season 2014 - Episode 46 - Aired 9/26/2014
While the facts of the case are still in dispute, for many the story of Ferguson, Missouri has become a symbol of the larger social divides in America, exposing a persistent disconnect along lines of race, class and identity. Through conversations and special reports, AMERICA AFTER FERGUSON explores these complex questions raised by the events in Ferguson.
#7 - The Navy SEALs: Their Untold Story
Season 2014 - Episode 26 - Aired 11/11/2014
NAVY SEALs--THEIR UNTOLD STORY details their fascinating transformation and the people who made this story happen. Discover how these clandestine commandoes morphed with evolving threats from Hitler to bin Laden. The Navy's first special warfare units date back to World War II, and, without them, much of U.S. and world history would have been written differently, from the beaches of Normandy to the Pacific theater, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Through firsthand accounts and never-before-seen footage, this unprecedented documentary recounts many of the ticking-clock missions of the "Commandoes of the Deep."
#8 - Hitmakers - The Changing Face of the Music Business
Season 2014 - Episode 27 - Aired 11/12/2014
Hitmakers is an up-close look at the music industry's resilience in the digital age, from the perspective of groundbreaking artists, music label mavericks and game-changing managers. These crucial players have shaped the music business over the past 100 years, changing pop culture in the process. Today's artists challenge the paradigm further, taking control of their careers and sometimes shucking the system altogether to record and release music on their own. Record labels large and small also have found they must innovate to thrive. Entertaining and thoughtful, HITMAKERS boasts an unforgettable soundtrack. The special features interviews and performances from notable artists such as Melissa Etheridge, The Roots' Questlove, Sharon Jones, rising DJ/producer Steve Aoki and many more.
#9 - Kristin Chenoweth: Coming Home
Season 2014 - Episode 28 - Aired 11/28/2014
Emmy and Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth brings it home — to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, that is — to perform music from her career. With a classically trained voice set off by a gift for acting and comedy, Chenoweth appears at a state-of-the-art theater that now bears her name, performing Broadway, television and film songs like “Popular” and “For Good” from Wicked, songs from her acclaimed performances on “Glee” and beloved music from Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and many more. Backed by a 13-piece orchestra led by musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Chenoweth welcomes song and dance friends from Broadway in a program sure to be unforgettable.
#10 - Richard Pryor: Icon
Season 2014 - Episode 29 - Aired 11/23/2014
Richard Pryor: ICON explores how Pryor transformed from a straight-laced comedian to one of the most controversial and thought-provoking acts of his time. Sex, drugs, race--nothing was off-limits to Pryor. By changing his routine, Pryor changed comedy forever. He opened the door for other comedians to inject social commentary and other once-verboten topics into their humor. From his troubled upbringing in the slums of Peoria, Illinois to his brave battle against multiple sclerosis, examine the roller-coaster life and times of this comedic trailblazer. Though he was one of the most successful and influential entertainers of his generation, Pryor also wrestled with drug addiction and the lingering effects of being raised in a brothel by abusive parents. Featuring interviews with close personal friends and comedians he influenced, including Tracy Morgan and George Lopez, this film defines Richard Pryor's lasting impact on comedy and culture, often in his own words, showing us why he is an American icon.
#11 - Return to the Wild: The Chris McCandless Story
Season 2014 - Episode 30 - Aired 11/25/2014
Twenty years ago, a young American hiker named Chris McCandless, the accomplished son of successful middle class parents, was found dead in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness and became the subject of the best-selling book and movie “Into the Wild.” Now, PBS retraces Chris McCandless’ steps to try to piece together why he severed all ties with his past, burnt or gave away all his money, changed his name and headed into the Denali Wilderness. McCandless' own letters, released for the first time, as well as new and surprising interviews, probe the mystery that still lies at the heart of a story that has become part of the American literary canon and compels so many to this day.
#12 - Royal Paintbox: Artists of the Royal Family
Season 2014 - Episode 31 - Aired 9/12/2014
In a story previously untold on film, HRH The Prince of Wales makes a journey through history to celebrate the artistic gene in his family and reveal an extraordinary treasure trove of work by royal hands past and present. Set against the spectacular landscapes of the Royal Estates and containing insights into works by members of the Royal Family down the centuries and The Prince of Wales's own watercolours, ROYAL PAINTBOX explores a colourful palette of intimate family memory and observation.
#13 - Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power
Season 2014 - Episode 32 - Aired 12/9/2014
Combative, provocative and searingly blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant maverick, a unique American hero. When few thought it possible, then-Captain Rickover undertook to harness the power of the atom to drive the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, whose trip under the polar ice pack was one of the great adventure stories of the 1950s. Later, Rickover built the world's first commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport, PA. Rickover's achievements made him into a national celebrity, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Many questioned Rickover's goal of an all nuclear navy, and others questioned his creation of a technocratic elite, his own navy within the Navy. However, few contested that he had transformed the Navy and changed the course of America's technological development.
#14 - The Candy Bomber
Season 2014 - Episode 33 - Aired 12/2/2014
Hear the heartwarming true story of Colonel Gail “Hal” Halvorsen, the American pilot who brought joy to children living in the rubble of post-war Germany by dropping treats from his plane during the Berlin Airlift in 1948.
#15 - To Catch a Comet
Season 2014 - Episode 34 - Aired 11/19/2014
Billions of kilometers from Earth, a spacecraft the size of a car traveled towards an icy rock 2.5 miles across hurtling through space at tens of kilometers per second. It has been in space for ten years, but on Nov. 12, 2014 it did something no other spacecraft had ever attempted — orbit and land on a comet.
#16 - Great Railways of Europe
Season 2014 - Episode 47 - Aired 12/1/2014
Travel across Europe for a delightful sampling of some of the most dramatic and fascinating railway journeys in the world. From the frozen wastes of Norway to the sunny shores of the Italian Adriatic coast, host Julian Davison guides viewers through breathtaking scenery, providing cultural and historical insights along the way.
#17 - Tales from the Royal Bedchamber
Season 2014 - Episode 36 - Aired 12/21/2014
Host Lucy Worsley gets into bed with Britain’s past monarchs to uncover the secrets and history of the royal bedchamber. She explores the royal bedchamber's role in the public sphere.
#18 - Earth: The Inside Story
Season 2014 - Episode 39 - Aired 4/1/2014
Trace the geologic story of our home planet, beginning with its formation four-and-a-half billion years ago and continuing with its evolution to the present. Shot in top geologic hot spots on all seven continents, interspersed with footage of earthquakes and volcanoes from Nepal to Antarctica, this film features a diverse group of leading geologists who reveal the latest thinking about how the Earth works, from the core to the crust and up into the atmosphere. Earth: The Inside Story contrasts Earth's geology with that of other planets in our solar system, dramatically underscoring how unique our planet is, and delves into the unpredictable sequence of geologic and cosmic events that happened before we humans made our appearance on Earth just a few million years ago. Working up to modern times, the film lends scientific perspective to a question people are asking in light of recent news coverage of major earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and extreme weather: Are the Earth's natural systems undergoing a period of intense upheaval?
#19 - America's Untold Story: 450 Years of the African-American Experience
Season 2014 - Episode 40 - Aired 2/13/2014
The Journey exhibit showcases 450 years of African-American history in St. Augustine.
#20 - The Work of Art: Artown
Season 2014 - Episode 41 - Aired 5/15/2014
The Work of Art: Artown takes us behind the scenes of Reno’s annual art festival, examining its history and impact. The film highlights diverse groups making a difference within our community: a church helping businesses revitalize a neighborhood, a program utilizing art to improve the quality of life for seniors suffering dementia, Burning Man adding cultural and artistic diversity, and more.
#21 - Eisenhower's Secret War (part one)
Season 2014 - Episode 44 - Aired 7/20/2014
Part 1: From Warrior to President From 1950 - 1953 Americans were unsettled by the specter of communism and the Korean War so in the Presidential election of 1952 they looked to America's most famous war hero, General Dwight Eisenhower to secure the U.S. against communism and the Soviet menace. The first hour chronicles Eisenhower's fulfillment of his election promise to end the Korean War, after more than 33,000 military deaths. It also follows the grassroots movement to draft Eisenhower as the Republican candidate for president; Eisenhower's decision to leave his powerful position at NATO; his fight for the Republican Party's nomination against "neo-isolationist" Sen. Robert Taft; his campaign against Democrat Adlai Stevenson; and finally, his election as the 34th president.
#22 - Eisenhower's Secret War (part two)
Season 2014 - Episode 45 - Aired 7/27/2014
Part 2: Building Weapons, Talking Peace From 1953 - 1961, President Eisenhower led the U.S. in a cold war with the Soviet Union - an ideological struggle of democracy versus communism, which teetered on the brink of nuclear annihilation. The second hour recounts President Eisenhower's diplomatic confrontations against the Soviet Union during the early Cold War years, crises prompted by aggressive Kremlin-sponsored action around the world. It also documents his attempts to keep the peace while establishing a clear military superiority for the U.S. During this time, he also faced intense scrutiny domestically, with his political opponents criticizing him for not divulging information about the strength of the U.S. military or the weaknesses of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal.
#23 - The Fidel Castro Tapes
Season 2014 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/2/2014
In 1959, Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. He has been one of the most controversial figures in the world ever since. This is the story of the Cuban dictator’s turbulent career, told in part through media reports, rare images and recordings.
#24 - Hawking
Season 2014 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/29/2014
Stephen Hawking's life, including his scientific discoveries, rise to fame and diagnosis of motor neuron disease.
#25 - Leave It to Beavers
Season 2014 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/14/2014
A growing number of scientists, conservationists and grass-roots environmentalists have come to regard beavers as overlooked tools when it comes to reversing the disastrous effects of global warming and world-wide water shortages. Once valued for their fur or hunted as pests, these industrious rodents are seen in a new light through the eyes of this novel assembly of beaver enthusiasts and “employers” who reveal the ways in which the presence of beavers can transform and revive landscapes. Using their skills as natural builders and brilliant hydro-engineers, beavers are being recruited to accomplish everything from finding water in a bone-dry desert to recharging water tables and coaxing life back into damaged lands.