Watch the full documentary Harper Lee: Hey Boo here on the American Masters Web site.
Harper Lee: Hey, Boo illuminates the phenomenon behind Lee’s first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the 1962 film version, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Offering an unprecedented look into Lee’s mysterious life, Emmy®-winning filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy (author of Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of To Kill a Mockingbird) interviews Lee’s friends and family, including her centenarian sister Alice, who share intimate recollections, anecdotes and biographical details for the first time: her rise from small-town Alabama girl to famous author, her tumultuous friendship with Truman Capote, and the origin of her most memorable characters: Atticus Finch, his daughter Scout, her friend Dill, and Boo Radley. The documentary also explores the context and history of the novel’s Deep South setting and the social changes it inspired after publication and through the film starring Gregory Peck. Tom Brokaw, Rosanne Cash, Anna Quindlen, Scott Turow, Oprah Winfrey, and others reflect on the novel’s power, influence, popularity, and the ways it has shaped their lives. Lee gave her last interview in 1964 and receded from the limelight.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” in my opinion is one of the greatest novels ever written. I read it when i was 13 as required reading in a literature class. I now have about 6 copies of the book, leather bound, faux leather bound, the original facsimile 1st edition, paperback-you name it, I have it. I ,love first person narration because I feel as though the author is talking to me. This story put a face on racism as Twain’s huckleberry Finn did. Also I love southern writers.
I wanted to watch this in Safari on my iPad… you need Flash. Sigh. PBS needs to upgrade, or offer options for MPEG streaming instead of Flash video.
I first read “To Kill a Mockingbird” around 1970, in junior high school. It was required reading. I’m Black, and with my first hand experience with racism, I wasn’t particularly interested in reading the book. However, I wanted a good grade in class, so I read it. I’m glad that I did. Harper Lee presented characters and situations in a manner that transcends ethnicity, and culture. Tom Robinson’s treatment by many, and ultimate fate, were restatements of treatment received by many of my relatives. However, “To Kill a Mockingbird” did more for me than restate my frustration with discrimination and injustice. I gained a deeper perspective of societal complexities with the story arcs of all the characters. Thank you for presenting this interesting program.
Hi Wade -
PBS has an iPad app for viewers who want to watch our available online programs on the iPad. We’re currently working on a solution to direct viewers who find our programs on the open web directly to the app they need to use to watch the program on various devices.
You can find the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pbs-for-ipad/id398349296?mt=8
Hope you enjoy the documentary!
I want to show this doc to my students. Would love to watch it again, but am having trouble with our server. When will it show again on PBS?????
Loved the book….have the movie…fell in love with Gregory Peck after his role in this movie! I was born in Jamaica & have many relatives of different color. Stories like this have always had a place in my heart.
As a High School English language and literature teacher in Mexico City, I have recommended Harper Lee’s fascinating novel to both young and old. It is full of lessons to be learned, models to be followed, characters to be admired. I believe that she opened the consciences of many people. The reader ultimately realizes how racism, at all levels, among diverse races, is an issue which is prevalent today, just as it was in the U.S. South, in the 1930s. Thank you Harper Lee for a Master Piece recognized in any society.
I, too, would love to sit quietly on the chaise and enjoy this on my ASUS (Droid) tablet, but alas, it does not support Flash either. I caught the last ten minutes and realized what a treasure I missed.
I enjoyed this show so much–To Kill A Mockingbird (movie) is my favorite of all time. I recently bought the book on the 50th anniversary of its publication and intend to read it soon. Everyone should read and see the movie!
I missed the TV shows from the American Masters series on Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee. Is there a future televised date that will allow me to catch them again on TV?
There seems to be some confusion regarding some of your programming. I missed the Harper Lee episode of American Masters last evening, as I was watching “To Kill a Mockingbird” on USA at the same time it was aired on PBS. Today I noted that the program was not being aired again, and not for the remainder of the week ahead. That said, I THEN discovered after watching the documentary on Margaret Mitchell this afternoon, that you were promoting the Harper Lee documentary, “coming up next,” as in following what I was watching, only to THEN discover that was not so, as the original programming about aquatic creatures as advertised in DirecTV guide was aired. ????? Can you tell me just WHEN EXACTLY the Harper Lee documentary that was shown last night will be aired once again?? Thank you.
I loved the Harper Lee episode of American Masters. I saw it 4/9/12
when will this be shown again?
Thank you
What I find frightening – almost horrifying, is the fact that this manuscript was rejected nearly a dozen times by large publishing houses. HOW MANY classics have been overlooked, missed, ignored and flat our rejected?
Unfortunately, I have never read the book. However after watching this documentary on Harper Lee, I have made it a priority in buying the book or even checking it out from my local library. I enjoyed the show American Masters. That particular episode explained all about “To Kill A Mockingbird” and the type of American writer Ms.Lee was. I plan to get other Harper Lee books and read more about her as a person and author. I hope the dvd of this episode comes out for sell at pbs.org.
I’ve tried to watch this online repeatedly for the past two days but this will not load. Other “American Masters” episodes will play so it’s not my computer. I’ve had another computer trying to watch this as well. Is there any way to correct it? Thanks!
The watch the episode here button is not working. Help!
I am having the same problem as Pamela with trying to watch the Harper Lee documentary, it will not load while the others load just fine.I’ve tried to watch on two different computers now, one is a mac and the other a pc. Is there something on my end I should be doing? Any help would be great!
I too am not able to watch online for past few days (since the 19th)- rather than showing the “85:00-0:00″ when I hit play, it shows “0.00-0.00″ which seems like there’s no video there to view. It was great, and I am actually suppose to use it in my final in a few days(already submitted and approved by professor) so I hope it comes back up soon..it was a great piece!
The “watch the full documentary” features does not work–it won’t play when the play buttons are pushed.
I cannot access the Harper Lee Documentary or the Phil Ochs Documentary.
Just wanted to let you know Amercan Masters Videos won’t play on the most up-to-date Version of Flash Player (11).
Second, for some reason, the Harper Lee video (verses the other videos) is not able to play on anything, regardless of version of Flash. It comes up with 0/0 minutes.
Just as stated by Pamela Loring, I have been trying to watch this episode as well. I am a teacher and my class has read the book. I would love to complete the class with an author study. Would you please tell me how to fix the problem so I could show this episode to my class. Thanks for the help!
Hi Tanya -
Unfortunately this is a problem here on PBS’ side. We are currently migrating a number of videos to a new server and an error occurred with the video for AMERICAN MASTERS Harper Lee: Hey Boo. We’re currently working on fixing this. While I don’t have an approximate date that this will be solved, I can promise we are looking to restore this video ASAP.
Thank you for your patience.
Missed the documentary the first time around. Is there a possibility that it will be on again? (Would love to watch it on the PBS iPad but it unfortunately is not available in Canada.)
I am in the same boat as Mike above – I missed it first time around. Are there any additional showings planned?
wonderful..!!
i would only quible with Diane Mc Whorter,her attitude was a bit frivolous at times,and the things she said about Capote, were petty if not asinine. to do a post mortem labeling job, and call someone a “sociopath”,is really just engaging, so much gratuitous gossipy nonsense.
would be nice if it was closed captioned… couldn’t watch it at all.