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American Masters

PBS · 1986– · Airing now · Music · ★ 7.6/10

Now in its 30th year, American Masters has produced an exceptional library of more than 160 television programs, bringing unique originality and perspective to exploring the lives and illuminating the creative journeys of our most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers – those who have "left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape". Balancing a broad cast of characters and artistic approaches, while preserving historical authenticity and intellectual integrity, these portraits resonate the attention, style and substance each subject deserves. American Masters sustains high audience awareness and loyalty, averaging 2-to-5 million viewers per program.

Next episode: S40 E8 “Liz Diller” — November 24, 2026 on PBS

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American Masters episode guide

Season 1 · 12 episodes · Jun 23, 1986 – Sep 8, 1986
  1. Arthur Miller: Private Conversations
  2. Phillip Johnson: A Self Portrait
  3. Katherine Anne Porter: The Eye of Memory
  4. The Unknown Chaplin: Part 1
  5. The Unknown Chaplin: Part 2
  6. The Unknown Chaplin: Part 3
  7. Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day
  8. James Levine: A Life in Music
  9. Aaron Copland: About the Composer
  10. Thomas Eakins: A Motion Portrait
  11. Georgia O'Keeffe
  12. Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts
Season 2 · 12 episodes · Jul 6, 1987 – Nov 20, 1987
  1. Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer
  2. Directed by William Wyler
  3. Rubinstein Remembered
  4. Nik and Murray
  5. George Gershwin Remembered
  6. Maurice Sendak: Mon Cher Papa
  7. The Negro Ensemble Company
  8. Unanswered Prayers: The Life and Times of Truman Capote
  9. The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch
  10. Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow
  11. Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (Part 2)
  12. Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (Part 3)
Season 3 · 8 episodes · Jul 11, 1988 – Jun 26, 1989
  1. Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me
  2. A Duke Named Ellington
  3. Andre Kertesz of the Cities
  4. Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul
  5. Rivera in America
  6. Saint-Gaudens: Masque of the Golden Bowl
  7. Neil Simon: Not Just for Laughs
  8. Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of Group Theater
Season 4 · 10 episodes · Jul 3, 1989 – Dec 20, 1989
  1. Harold Clurman: A Life of Theatre
  2. Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!
  3. Satchmo: The Life of Louis Armstrong
  4. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket
  5. Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker
  6. Jasper Johns: Ideas in Paint
  7. Mort Sahl: Shaping Laughter
  8. W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult
  9. Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius
  10. Milos Forman: Portrait
Season 5 · 8 episodes · Jul 2, 1990 – Sep 17, 1990
  1. Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer
  2. John Cassavetes
  3. Martin Scorsese Directs
  4. You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
  5. Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter
  6. John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen
  7. Sanford Meisner: The Theater's Best Kept Secret
  8. John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I'm Saying It
Season 6 · 10 episodes · Jul 1, 1991 – May 1, 1992
  1. Helen Hayes: First Lady of the American Theatre
  2. Miracle on 44th Street: A Portrait of the Actor's Studio
  3. A. Einstein: How I See the World
  4. Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One
  5. Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days
  6. Menuhin: A Family Portrait
  7. Robert Motherwell and the New York School
  8. Ray Charles: The Genius of Soul
  9. Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
  10. Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey
Season 7 · 3 episodes · Mar 14, 1993 – Mar 24, 1993
  1. Paul Simon: Born at the Right Time
  2. George Lucas: Heroes, Myths & Magic
  3. D.W. Griffith: Father of Film
Season 8 · 2 episodes · Dec 8, 1993 – May 13, 1994
  1. Benny Goodman: Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing
  2. Martha Graham: The Dancer Revealed
Season 9 · 4 episodes · Nov 30, 1994 – Mar 22, 1995
  1. Rediscovering Will Rogers
  2. Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
  3. Placido Domingo: A Musical Life
  4. Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul
Season 10 · 5 episodes · Nov 29, 1995 – May 22, 1996
  1. Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval
  2. William Styron: The Way of the Writer
  3. Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light
  4. Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud
  5. Nichols and May: Take Two
Season 11 · 5 episodes · Nov 25, 1996 – Jun 25, 1997
  1. Lena Horne: In Her Own Voice
  2. Danny Kaye: A Legacy of Laughter
  3. Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde
  4. Jack Paar: As I Was Saying
  5. Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper
Season 12 · 6 episodes · Sep 17, 1997 – Jun 17, 1998
  1. The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
  2. Vaudeville
  3. Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
  4. Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart
  5. Don Hewitt: 90 Minutes on 60 Minutes
  6. Alexander Calder
Season 13 · 7 episodes · Oct 28, 1998 – Aug 18, 1999
  1. Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note
  2. The Line King: Al Hirschfeld
  3. Paul Robeson: Here I Stand
  4. Robert Rauschenberg: Inventive Genius
  5. The Lives of Lillian Hellman
  6. Dashiell Hammett: Detective, Writer
  7. Yours for a Song: The Women of Tin Pan Alley
Season 14 · 7 episodes · Nov 1, 1999 – May 31, 2000
  1. Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood
  2. Norman Rockwell: Painting America
  3. Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For
  4. Paul Taylor: Dancemaker
  5. Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light
  6. Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso
  7. The Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation
Season 15 · 8 episodes · Sep 27, 2000 – Apr 23, 2001
  1. Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
  2. Mailer on Mailer
  3. On Cukor
  4. Lucille Ball: Finding Lucy
  5. Bob Marley: Rebel Music
  6. A Conversation with Gregory Peck
  7. Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye
  8. Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians
Season 16 · 8 episodes · Oct 7, 2001 – Mar 1, 2002
  1. Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
  2. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams
  3. Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds
  4. Quincy Jones: In the Pocket
  5. Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records
  6. Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance
  7. Ralph Ellison: An American Journey
  8. Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer
Season 17 · 8 episodes · Oct 2, 2002 – Jul 30, 2003
  1. Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving
  2. Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
  3. Juilliard
  4. Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution
  5. Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind
  6. Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied
  7. Robert Capa: In Love and War
  8. The Education of Gore Vidal
Season 18 · 8 episodes · Sep 3, 2003 – Aug 18, 2004
  1. Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist
  2. James Brown: Soul Survivor
  3. Cary Grant: A Class Apart
  4. Balanchine
  5. Judy Garland: By Myself
  6. Henry Luce and Time-Life's America: A Vision of Empire
  7. Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues
  8. Julia! America's Favorite Chef
Season 19 · 7 episodes · May 11, 2005 – Sep 27, 2005
  1. James Dean: Sense Memories
  2. Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice
  3. George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
  4. Bob Newhart: Unbuttoned
  5. Willa Cather: The Road is All
  6. Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea
  7. Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
Season 20 · 9 episodes · May 10, 2006 – Jan 3, 2007
  1. John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
  2. The World of Nat King Cole
  3. Woodie Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home
  4. Marilyn Monroe: Still Life
  5. Walter Cronkite: Witness to History
  6. Andy Warhol: A Documentary: Part 1
  7. Andy Warhol: A Documentary: Part 2
  8. Sketches of Frank Gehry
  9. Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
Season 21 · 9 episodes · Apr 4, 2007 – Nov 5, 2007
  1. Novel Reflections on the American Dream
  2. Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built
  3. Les Paul: Chasing Sound
  4. David Hockney: The Colors of Music
  5. John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature
  6. Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends
  7. Orozco: Man of Fire
  8. Good Ol' Charles Schulz
  9. Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character
Season 22 · 9 episodes · Feb 27, 2008 – Sep 25, 2008
  1. Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
  2. Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun
  3. Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
  4. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet (1923-1935)
  5. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: Good War, Uneasy Peace (1935-1950)
  6. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: A New Reality (1950-1970)
  7. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: Woodstock Notions (1970-1989)
  8. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: The Big Tent (1980-Present)
  9. The Brothers Warner
Season 23 · 8 episodes · Feb 18, 2009 – Dec 28, 2009
  1. Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About
  2. Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
  3. Hollywood Chinese
  4. Neil Young: Don't Be Denied
  5. Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes
  6. Trumbo
  7. Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound
  8. Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind 'Little Women'
Season 24 · 8 episodes · Jan 11, 2010 – Dec 27, 2010
  1. Sam Cooke: Crossing Over
  2. I.M. Pei: Building China Modern
  3. The Doors: When You're Strange
  4. Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself
  5. Cachao: Uno Más
  6. A Letter to Elia
  7. Lennon NYC
  8. Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould
Season 25 · 9 episodes · Jan 12, 2011 – Dec 29, 2011
  1. Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides
  2. Troubadors: Carole King/James Taylor & the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter
  3. John Muir in the New World
  4. James Levine: America's Maestro
  5. Pearl Jam Twenty
  6. Bill T. Jones: A Good Man
  7. Woody Allen: A Documentary: Part 1
  8. Woody Allen: A Documentary: Part 2
  9. Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Season 26 · 8 episodes · Jan 23, 2012 – Dec 28, 2012
  1. Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
  2. Cab Calloway: Sketches
  3. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel
  4. Harper Lee: Hey, Boo
  5. Johnny Carson: King of Late Night
  6. The Day Carl Sandburg Died
  7. Inventing David Geffen
  8. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance
Season 27 · 6 episodes · Feb 22, 2013 – Dec 27, 2013
  1. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll
  2. Philip Roth: Unmasked
  3. Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
  4. Billie Jean King
  5. Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin'
  6. Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love
Season 28 · 9 episodes · Jan 21, 2014 – Dec 2, 2014
  1. Salinger
  2. Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
  3. A Fierce Green Fire
  4. Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
  5. Tanaquil Le Clercq: Afternoon of a Faun
  6. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning
  7. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
  8. The Boomer List
  9. Bing Crosby Rediscovered
Season 29 · 7 episodes · Jan 23, 2015 – Sep 25, 2015
  1. Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice
  2. August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
  3. Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler
  4. American Ballet Theatre: A History
  5. Althea
  6. Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey
  7. The Women's List
Season 30 · 9 episodes · Jan 29, 2016 – Dec 27, 2016
  1. Mike Nichols: An American Master
  2. B.B. King: The Life of Riley
  3. Carole King: Natural Woman
  4. Fats Domino: The Birth of Rock N' Roll
  5. Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl
  6. Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue
  7. The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End
  8. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
  9. Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future
Season 31 · 11 episodes · Jan 3, 2017 – Dec 29, 2017
  1. By Sidney Lumet
  2. Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
  3. Patsy Cline
  4. James Beard: America's First Foodie
  5. Jacques Pépin: The Art of Craft
  6. Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
  7. Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny
  8. Tyrus Wong
  9. Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive
  10. Inspiring Woman Web Series
  11. This Is Bob Hope...
Season 32 · 8 episodes · Jan 19, 2018 – Oct 14, 2018
  1. Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart
  2. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
  3. Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived
  4. Eva Hesse
  5. Everybody Knows... Elizabeth Murray
  6. Andrew Wyeth
  7. Basquiat: Rage to Riches
  8. Itzhak
Season 33 · 12 episodes · Jan 2, 2019 – Nov 18, 2019
  1. Decoding Watson
  2. Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
  3. Charley Pride: I'm Just Me
  4. Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives
  5. Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People
  6. Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable
  7. Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life
  8. Robert Shaw - Man of Many Voices
  9. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
  10. Raul Julia: The World's a Stage
  11. Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous
  12. N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear
Season 34 · 9 episodes · Feb 25, 2020 – Dec 29, 2020
  1. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
  2. Mae West: Dirty Blonde
  3. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
  4. And She Could Be Next Part Two
  5. Unladylike2020: The Changemakers
  6. Walter Winchell: The Power of Gossip
  7. Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is
  8. Keith Haring: Street Art Boy
  9. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page
Season 35 · 10 episodes · Jan 18, 2021 – Oct 19, 2021
  1. How It Feels To Be Free
  2. Flannery O'Connor
  3. Twyla Moves
  4. Never Too Late: The Doc Severinsen Story
  5. Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
  6. Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
  7. Ballerina Boys
  8. Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away
  9. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It
  10. Becoming Helen Keller
Season 36 · 8 episodes · Jan 11, 2022 – Dec 27, 2022
  1. Ailey
  2. Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
  3. Waterman - Duke: Ambassador of Aloha
  4. Joe Papp in Five Acts
  5. Brian Wilson - Long Promised Road
  6. Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
  7. The Adventures of Saul Bellow
  8. Groucho & Cavett
Season 37 · 9 episodes · Jan 24, 2023 – Oct 6, 2023
  1. Roberta Flack
  2. Dr. Tony Fauci
  3. In the Making
  4. Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
  5. Little Richard: The King and Queen of Rock and Roll
  6. Jerry Brown: The Disrupter
  7. Floyd Abrams: Speaking Freely
  8. A Song for Cesar
  9. Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
Season 38 · 6 episodes · Jan 2, 2024 – Dec 16, 2024
  1. HOPPER: An American Love Story
  2. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
  3. The Incomparable Mr. Buckley
  4. Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames
  5. Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined
  6. Brenda Lee: Rockin' Around
Season 39 · 8 episodes · Feb 21, 2025 – Dec 12, 2025
  1. The Disappearance of Miss Scott
  2. LIZA: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
  3. Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
  4. Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
  5. Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny
  6. Marcella
  7. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
  8. Starring Dick Van Dyke
Season 40 · 8 episodes · Dec 16, 2025 – Nov 24, 2026
  1. Ten Times Better
  2. Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire
  3. Sun Ra: Do the Impossible
  4. Bella! This Woman's Place Is in the House
  5. W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
  6. Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
  7. American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez
  8. Liz Diller
Season 41 · 1 episode · Dec 29, 2026
  1. Gene Wilder

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