The BEST episodes of American Masters season 20

#1 - John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend

Season 20 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/10/2006

#2 - Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, Part 1

Season 20 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/20/2006

Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol. Ric Burns' absorbing profile of Andy Warhol (1928–1987) traces the pop icon's rise from poverty to an artist who said art critic Dave Hickey, “changed the world.”

#3 - Marilyn Monroe: Still Life

Season 20 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/19/2006

#4 - Woodie Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home

Season 20 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/12/2006

#5 - Walter Cronkite: Witness to History

Season 20 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/26/2006

Walter Cronkite was the man who gave us the news for two tumultuous decades in the late 20th century. As historian, journalist and author David Halberstam says in praise of the great CBS newsman: "Most Americans really learned of the evening news and learned of Vietnam and learned of the civil rights movement and learned of Watergate with Walter Cronkite as the man who ushered it into their homes. And did it with great professionalism over a very long time and was I think absolutely true to himself." In AMERICAN MASTERS Walter Cronkite: Witness to History, a documentary narrated by Katie Couric, historians, fellow journalists and CBS colleagues appraise the career of the man who was called "the most trusted man in America." CBS writer and commentator Andy Rooney, legendary producer/director Don Hewitt, correspondents Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl and Barbara Walters, columnists Molly Ivins and Helen Thomas, Senator John McCain and President Jimmy Carter guide the viewer from Cronkite's early days as a foreign correspondent in World War II through his thirty-year career at CBS News.

#6 - Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, Part 2

Season 20 - Episode 7 - Aired 9/20/2006

Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol. Ric Burns' absorbing profile of Andy Warhol (1928-87) traces the pop icon's rise from poverty to an artist who said art critic Dave Hickey, “changed the world.”

#7 - Sketches of Frank Gehry

Season 20 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/27/2006

Frank Gehry loves to sketch. It is the beginning of his architectural process. From Gehry’s sketches flow the models, one after another, each a refinement, that will eventually become finished buildings unlike any others in the architectural world. It is this sketch quality, what he calls the “tentativeness, the messiness,” that Gehry clings to as a way of guarding against formula or repetition. And it is this sketch quality that Sydney Pollack was so keen to explore in the film SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, seen on AMERICAN MASTERS. Beginning with Gehry’s own original sketches for each major project, Pollack’s film explores Gehry’s process of turning these evanescent, abstract drawings into tangible, three-dimensional form: finished buildings of titanium and glass, concrete and steel, wood and stone. Working closely with his colleagues, Gehry takes his sketch ideas and, as quickly as possible, makes them three-dimensional, the better to see how his buildings work, how they fit with their neighbors, how they function in the most essential way. Model after model is scanned into a sophisticated computer and rendered into working drawings.

#8 - Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

Season 20 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/3/2007

This film traces the artistic self-realization of Annie Leibovitz, from childhood through the death of her beloved friend, Susan Sontag, and includes snippets of Leibovitz's last visual memories of Sontag. The film traces the arc of her photographic life, her aspirations to artistry, and the trajectory of her career through phases that included the tumultuous sixties in Berkeley, CA., touring with the Rolling Stones, a mentorship by Hunter S. Thompson, and, later, capturing the last candid moments of John Lennon's life with Yoko Ono. It closes with her reflections on life, children, and the the wake of her relationship with Sontag. The archival material presented here is invaluable for framing an understanding of this immeasurably influential visual artist.

#9 - The World of Nat King Cole

Season 20 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/17/2006

Archival performances, home movies and interviews illustrate singer Nat King Cole's achievements during a 30-year music and television career.