American Masters

American biography television series

American Masters

Created by| Susan Lacy
Theme music composer| Jonathan Tunick (1986–1995)
Country of origin| United States
Original language| English
No. of seasons| 38[1][2]
No. of episodes| 288[3] (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers| Susan Lacy (1986–2013), Michael Kantor (2014–present)
Producer| WNET[1]
Original release
Network| PBS
Release| June 22, 1986 (1986-06-22) –
present
Previous logo

American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.[1]

Groups or organizations featured include: Actors Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, the singer-songwriters of the 1970s, Sun Records, vaudeville, and Warner Bros.

## History

[edit]

American Masters, a series "devoted to America's 'greatest native-born and adopted' artists", was originally scheduled to premiere in September 1985; for "logistical scheduling reasons" the premiere was delayed until summer 1986, though on October 16, 1985, an American Masters "special" called Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait was aired.[4]

The first of the 15 first-season episodes was Private Conversations,[citation needed] a "cinema-verite documentary by Christian Blackwood done in that trickiest of cinematic forms: a film about a film, in this instance the television version of Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff".[5] It aired on June 23, 1986, as one of two episodes not specifically commissioned for the show's first season.[5]

Susan Lacy, American Masters creator and former executive producer, selected each subject, matched them to the specific filmmakers, and oversaw a first-season budget of $8 million.[5] Before creating the series Lacy had been the senior programmer for Great Performances and one of the "architects" of American Playhouse, having written the original proposal for the latter. At the time of the show's premiere, she was also the East Coast head of the Sundance Institute.[5]

In 2014, Michael Kantor succeeded Lacy as executive producer.[6] As an independent producer, Kantor had directed one American Masters episode (Quincy Jones: In the Pocket, season 16, episode 4) and produced and directed the Emmy Award-winning series, Broadway: The American Musical and Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America with WNET. As head of the American Masters series, Kantor created the American Masters podcast in 2016 and the theatrical imprint, American Masters Pictures, in 2016, which brought ten films to the Sundance Film Festival over a period of five years.

After the show's first two seasons, American Masters began producing most of its episodes; in those cases, it hires directors, arranges for funding, manages the budget, and supervises the editing; the show reserves the right to make the final cut on every film it produces.[7] The American Masters production company occasionally plays a more limited role and co-produces some of its episodes, such as the 2005 documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, and then in 2010 The Doors, When You're Strange.

## Episodes

[edit]

Main article: List of American Masters episodes

Season| Episodes| Originally released

|
|

First released| Last released
1| 12| June 23, 1986 (1986-06-23)| September 8, 1986 (1986-09-08)
2| 10| July 6, 1987 (1987-07-06)| November 25, 1987 (1987-11-25)
3| 8| July 11, 1988 (1988-07-11)| June 26, 1989 (1989-06-26)
4| 10| July 3, 1989 (1989-07-03)| December 20, 1989 (1989-12-20)
5| 8| July 2, 1990 (1990-07-02)| September 17, 1990 (1990-09-17)
6| 9| July 1, 1991 (1991-07-01)| May 1, 1992 (1992-05-01)
7| 3| March 14, 1993 (1993-03-14)| March 24, 1993 (1993-03-24)
8| 2| December 8, 1993 (1993-12-08)| May 13, 1994 (1994-05-13)
9| 4| November 30, 1994 (1994-11-30)| March 22, 1995 (1995-03-22)
10| 5| November 29, 1995 (1995-11-29)| May 22, 1996 (1996-05-22)
11| 5| November 25, 1996 (1996-11-25)| June 25, 1997 (1997-06-25)
12| 6| September 17, 1997 (1997-09-17)| June 17, 1998 (1998-06-17)
13| 7| October 28, 1998 (1998-10-28)| August 18, 1999 (1999-08-18)
14| 7| November 1, 1999 (1999-11-01)| May 31, 2000 (2000-05-31)
15| 7| September 27, 2000 (2000-09-27)| April 23, 2001 (2001-04-23)
16| 8| October 7, 2001 (2001-10-07)| March 1, 2002 (2002-03-01)
17| 8| October 2, 2002 (2002-10-02)| July 30, 2003 (2003-07-30)
18| 8| September 3, 2003 (2003-09-03)| August 18, 2004 (2004-08-18)
19| 7| May 11, 2005 (2005-05-11)| September 27, 2005 (2005-09-27)
20| 8| May 10, 2006 (2006-05-10)| January 3, 2007 (2007-01-03)
21| 5| April 4, 2007 (2007-04-04)| July 25, 2007 (2007-07-25)
22| 7| September 12, 2007 (2007-09-12)| May 7, 2008 (2008-05-07)
23| 8| September 23, 2008 (2008-09-23)| July 1, 2009 (2009-07-01)
24| 7| September 2, 2009 (2009-09-02)| July 21, 2010 (2010-07-21)
25| 8| September 20, 2010 (2010-09-20)| June 1, 2011 (2011-06-01)
26| 9| October 21, 2011 (2011-10-21)| May 14, 2012 (2012-05-14)
27| 6| September 24, 2012 (2012-09-24)| May 20, 2013 (2013-05-20)
28| 9| September 10, 2013 (2013-09-10)| August 29, 2014 (2014-08-29)
29| 7| September 23, 2014 (2014-09-23)| July 10, 2015 (2015-07-10)
30| 9| September 4, 2015 (2015-09-04)| May 27, 2016 (2016-05-27)
31| 7| October 25, 2016 (2016-10-25)| May 26, 2017 (2017-05-26)
32| 9| September 1, 2017 (2017-09-01)| August 31, 2018 (2018-08-31)
33| 12| September 7, 2018 (2018-09-07)| August 2, 2019 (2019-08-02)
34| 7| September 13, 2019 (2019-09-13)| July 10, 2020 (2020-07-10)
35| 12| October 20, 2020 (2020-10-20)| July 27, 2021 (2021-07-27)
36| 8| January 11, 2022 (2022-01-11)| December 27, 2022 (2022-12-27)
37| 10| January 24, 2023 (2023-01-24)| October 7, 2023 (2023-10-07)
38| 6| January 2, 2024 (2024-01-02)| December 16, 2024 (2024-12-16)

## Reception

[edit]

Jevon Phillips of Los Angeles Times called the episode "Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir", "Fantastic."[8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "About the Series - American Masters". PBS. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
2. ^ "American Masters Season 32 Episodes". PBS.
3. ^ "Masters - American Masters". PBS.
4. ^ O'Connor, John J. (October 16, 1985). "A Self-portrait Marks Copland's 85th Birthday". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
5. ^ a b c d James, Jamie (June 22, 1986). "Bringing America's Creative Talent into Focus". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
6. ^ "Introducing Michael Kantor, Executive Producer of American Masters | Blog | American Masters". PBS. April 16, 2014.
7. ^ "Susan Lacy: Television Producer, Director, Executive". She Made It. The Paley Center for Media. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
8. ^ Phillips, Jevon (May 4, 2021). "Amy Tan on anti-Asian racism and 'Unintended Memoir,' the new PBS film about her life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 6, 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* American Masters at IMDb
* PBS: American Masters
* American Masters at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Awards for American Masters

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series

1990s|

* American Experience (1998)
* American Experience / American Masters (1999)

2000s|

* American Masters (2000)
* American Masters (2001)
* Biography (2002)
* American Masters (2003)
* American Masters (2004)
* Broadway: The American Musical (2005)
* 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America (2006)
* Planet Earth (2007)
* American Masters / This American Life (2008)
* American Masters (2009)

2010s|

* The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2010)
* American Masters (2011)
* Frozen Planet (2012)
* American Masters (2013)
* American Masters / Years of Living Dangerously (2014)
* The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)
* Making a Murderer (2016)
* Planet Earth II (2017)
* Wild Wild Country (2018)
* Our Planet (2019)

2020s|

* The Last Dance (2020)
* Secrets of the Whales (2021)
* The Beatles: Get Back (2022)
* The 1619 Project (2023)
* Beckham (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special

1970s|

* The Body Human / The Great Whales: National Geographic Special (1978)
* Scared Straight! (1979)

1980s|

* The Body Human: The Magic Sense (1980)
* The Body Human: The Bionic Breakthrough / Steve Allen's Meeting of Minds (1981)
* Creativity with Bill Moyers / The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982)
* The Barbara Walters Specials / The Body Human: The Living Code (1983)
* A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers / America Remembers John F. Kennedy (1984)
* * Cousteau: Mississippi / The Living Planet (1985)
* Laurence Olivier: A Life (Great Performances) / Planet Earth / W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986)
* Agnes, the Indomitable DeMille (Great Performances) / Smithsonian World / Unknown Chaplin (American Masters) (1987)
* Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (American Masters) / Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam / Nature (1988)
* Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me (American Masters) / Nature (1989)

1990s|

* Bob Fosse: Steam Heat (Great Performances) / Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre (American Masters) / Smithsonian World (1990)
* The Civil War / Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter (American Masters) (1991)
* Abortion: Desperate Choices / MGM: When Lions Roared (1992)
* Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers / Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie (1993)
* I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School / Later with Bob Costas (1994)
* Baseball / One Survivor Remembers / Taxicab Confessions / TV Nation (1995)
* Survivors of the Holocaust / Time Life's Lost Civilizations (1996)
* Biography / The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century / National Geographic Special: Tigers of the Snow / Without Pity: A Film About Abilities (1997)

2010s|

* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown / Inside the Actors Studio (2013)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown / Vice (2014)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2015)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2016)
* Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2017)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2018)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2019)

2020s|

* Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2020)
* Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (2021)
* Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (2022)
* Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (2023)
* My Next Guest with David Letterman and John Mulaney (2024)

Between 1998–2012, the award was bestowed as Outstanding Nonfiction Series.

* v
* t
* e

Grammy Award for Best Music Film

1980s|

* Duran Duran – Duran Duran (1984)
* Making Michael Jackson's Thriller – Michael Jackson (1985)
* Huey Lewis & The News: The Heart of Rock 'n Roll – Huey Lewis and the News (1986)
* Bring On the Night – Sting (1987)

1990s|

* Rhythm Nation 1814 – Janet Jackson (1990)
* Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em: The Movie – MC Hammer (1991)
* Live! – Blond Ambition World Tour 90 – Madonna (1992)
* Diva – Annie Lennox (1993)
* Ten Summoner's Tales – Sting (1994)
* Zoo TV: Live from Sydney – U2 (1995)
* Secret World Live – Peter Gabriel (1996)
* The Beatles Anthology – The Beatles (1997)
* Jagged Little Pill, Live – Alanis Morissette (1998)
* American Masters: Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart – Lou Reed (1999)

2000s|

* Band of Gypsys: Live at Fillmore East – Jimi Hendrix (2000)
* Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album – John Lennon (2001)
* Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks – Mel Brooks (2002)
* Westway to the World – The Clash (2003)
* Legend – Sam Cooke (2004)
* Concert for George – Various Artists (2005)
* No Direction Home – Bob Dylan (2006)
* Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen (2007)
* The Confessions Tour – Madonna (2008)
* Runnin' Down a Dream – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (2009)

2010s|

* The Beatles Love – All Together Now – The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil (2010)
* When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors – The Doors (2011)
* Back and Forth – Foo Fighters (2012)
* Big Easy Express – Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show (2013)
* Live Kisses – Paul McCartney (2014)
* 20 Feet from Stardom – Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer & Judith Hill (2015)
* Amy – Amy Winehouse (2016)
* The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years – The Beatles (2017)
* The Defiant Ones – Various Artists (2018)
* Quincy – Quincy Jones (2019)

2020s|

* Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé – Beyoncé (2020)
* Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice – Linda Ronstadt (2021)
* Summer of Soul – Various Artists (2022)
* Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story – Various Artists (2023)
* Moonage Daydream – David Bowie (2024)
* American Symphony – Jon Batiste (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Producers Guild of America Award for Best Non-Fiction Television

* Biography (2002)
* Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003)
* The Amazing Race (2004)
* 60 Minutes (2005)
* 60 Minutes (2006)
* Planet Earth (2007)
* 60 Minutes (2008)
* 60 Minutes (2009)
* Deadliest Catch (2010)
* American Masters (2011)
* American Masters (2012)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013)
* Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
* The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)
* Making a Murderer (2016)
* Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2017)
* Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2018)
* Leaving Neverland (2019)
* The Last Dance (2020)
* The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
* Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (2022)
* Welcome to Wrexham (2023)
* Steve! (Martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (2024)

* v
* t
* e

PBS

Documentaries|

* Independent Lens (episodes) (since August 9, 1999)
* PBS Short Film Festival (since 2012)
* POV (episodes) (since July 5, 1988)

Drama|

* Masterpiece (since January 10, 1971)

Music and fine arts|

* American Masters (episodes) (since June 22, 1986)
* Art:21 (since 2001)
* Austin City Limits (performers) (since January 3, 1976)
* Bluegrass Underground (since 2011)
* Craft in America (since 2007)
* Great Performances (episodes) (since November 4, 1972)
* Next at the Kennedy Center (since 2023)

History|

* American Experience (episodes) (since October 4, 1988)
* Antiques Roadshow (since January 9, 1997)
* Finding Your Roots (episodes) (since March 25, 2012)
* Secrets of the Dead (since May 15, 2000)

News and public affairs|

* Amanpour & Company (since September 10, 2018)
* BBC World News America (since June 3, 2019 from American Public Television)
* Firing Line (episodes) (April 4, 1966 – December 26, 1999; since June 22, 2018)
* Frontline (episodes) (since January 17, 1983)
* PBS News Hour (since October 20, 1975)
* To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbé (since April 3, 1992)
* Washington Week (since February 23, 1967)

Personalities|

* Samantha Brown
* Ken Burns
* Ric Burns
* Amy Holmes
* Bill Moyers
* Hari Sreenivasan
* Judy Woodruff

How-to and special interest|

* MotorWeek (since October 15, 1981)
* This Old House (episodes) (since January 1, 1979)

Science and nature|

* Nature (episodes) (since October 10, 1982)
* Nova (episodes) (since March 3, 1974)

Networks|

* Create
* PBS
* PBS America (UK)
* PBS Digital Studios
* PBS Kids
* PBS YOU1
* World Channel

Major stations|

* Boston
* WGBH
* WGBX
* Chicago
* WTTW
* Dallas
* KERA
* Houston
* KUHT
* Los Angeles
* KCET
* KLCS
* KOCE
* Maryland
* MPT
* Miami–Ft. Lauderdale–West Palm Beach
* WLRN
* WPBT
* WXEL
* New Jersey
* NJ PBS
* New York
* WLIW
* WNET
* Philadelphia–Wilmington–Lehigh Valley
* WHYY
* WLVT
* Pittsburgh
* WQED
* San Francisco/Watsonville/San Jose
* KQED/KQET
* KQEH
* Tampa–St. Petersburg
* WEDQ
* WEDU
* Washington, D.C.
* WETA
* WHUT

Former|

* BBC OS (January 1, 2020 – March 30, 2023)
* A Chef's Life (September 7, 2013 – October 22, 2018)
* Need to Know (May 7, 2010 – June 28, 2013)
* We'll Meet Again with Ann Curry (January 23, 2018 – January 8, 2019)

Related|

* Public broadcasting in the United States
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting
* America's Public Television Stations
* List of PBS member stations
* List of programs broadcast by PBS
* PBS Distribution
* PBS Satellite Service
* Executive Order 14290

* 1Defunct network
* 2Distributed by American Public Television (APT)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

Other|

* MusicBrainz series

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