Episodes

A musical prodigy accepted to Juilliard at age six, Marvin Hamlisch devoted his talents to musical theater and pop music composition. The composer and conductor earned four Grammys, four Emmys, three Oscars, three Golden Globes, a Tony Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. Barbra Streisand, Steven Soderbergh, Quincy Jones, Christopher Walken are among those who admire Hamlisch as a person and a musician.

Filmmaker Shane Salerno’s 10-year investigation culminates in the first work to get beyond The Catcher in the Rye author's impenetrable wall of privacy and seclusion. American Masters presents the exclusive, never-before-seen director’s cut of Salinger as the series’ 200th episode, featuring 15 minutes of new material. Salinger is an intricately structured mystery that reveals the author’s private world: how World War II influenced his life and work, his painstaking writing methods, his many relationships with young women, and the literary secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.

Examine the dramatic life of writer/activist Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple. Her story is told with poetry and lyricism, and includes interviews with Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Howard Zinn, Gloria Steinem, Sapphire and Walker herself.

American Masters: A Fierce Green Fire is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, spanning 50 years of activism. Chronicling the largest movement of the 20th century, the film tells vivid stories about people fighting – and succeeding – against the odds, from the Grand Canyon to Love Canal, from the oceans to the Amazon. A film by Academy Award-nominee Mark Kitchell.

Co-founder of The Paris Review, George Plimpton (1927–2003) was a fascinated and fascinating journalist who lived fully, strangely and incredibly. With George Plimpton’s own narration, the film includes extensive archival footage of his sport stunts and participatory journalism gigs, and interviews with friends, family and contemporaries. Premieres nationally Friday, May 16, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS.

Tanaquil Le Clercq (1929–2000) was a star ballerina with the New York City Ballet who greatly influenced choreographers George Balanchine (her husband) and Jerome Robbins (her friend). Filmmaker Nancy Buirski spotlights Le Clercq’s ballet career, influence on dance, and her struggle with polio, which paralyzed her at the height of her fame.

Her photograph Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized and arresting images in the world, a portrait that came to represent America's Great Depression. Yet few know the story, struggles and profound body of work of the woman who created the portrait: Dorothea Lange. Directed and narrated by Lange's granddaughter Dyanna Taylor, the two-hour film premieres Friday, August 29 at 9 pm on PBS.

The baby boomer generation (1946-1964) has significantly and uniquely changed our world. 2014 marks an important shift in American culture, as the last boomers turn 50. American Masters: The Boomer List, premiering Tues., Sept. 23, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS, tells the story of this influential generation through the lives of 19 iconic boomers. Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

American Masters – Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work takes the audience on a year-long ride with Joan Rivers in her 76th year of life; it peels away the mask of an iconic comedian, laying bare both the struggle and thrill of living life as a groundbreaking female performer. The film by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg premieres September 23, 2014 at 10:30 pm on PBS (check local listings).

Bing Crosby (1903-1977) was the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the 20th century. For more than three decades, through radio, film, television and records, he reigned supreme. For this new documentary, Crosby’s estate granted American Masters access to the entertainer’s archives, including never-before-seen home movies, Dictabelt recordings, photos and more.