The BEST episodes of American Masters season 33
Every episode of American Masters season 33, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Masters season 33!
To honor America's most notable creative artists and the inspiration behind their work. Special broadcasts profiles a cross-section of the nation's finest artistic pioneers from the past and present.
#1 - Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage
Season 33 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/13/2019
From award-winning director Ben DeJesus (Great Performances: John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway, John Leguizamo: Tales from a Ghetto Klown), Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a warm and revealing portrait of the charismatic, groundbreaking actor’s journey from his native Puerto Rico to the creative hotbed of 1960s New York City, to prominence on Broadway and in Hollywood. Filled with passion, determination and joy, Juliá’s brilliant and daring career was tragically cut short by his untimely death 25 years ago, at age 54.
#2 - Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
Season 33 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/19/2019
Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was indisputably legendary, so vast and multi-faceted that it was dizzying in its scope and scale. And yet, his life was complex, complicated and contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial prejudice and shifting political territory.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life
Season 33 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/14/2019
Playwright, librettist, scriptwriter and outspoken LGBTQ activist Terrence McNally has long believed in the power of the arts to transform society and make a difference. The film lifts the curtain on the life, career and inspirations of the complicated and brilliant Emmy- and four-time Tony Award-winning writer.
#4 - Joseph Pulitzer: Voice Of The People
Season 33 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/12/2019
Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer becomes one of America's most feared and admired newspaper moguls and a crusader for freedom of the press.
Watch Now:Amazon
#5 - Robert Shaw -- Man of Many Voices
Season 33 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/21/2019
A profile of the conductor, his work with the civil rights movement, and his musical legacy.
Watch Now:Amazon
#6 - Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Season 33 - Episode 9 - Aired 8/2/2019
Explore the remarkable life and legacy of late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin whose groundbreaking work, including “The Left Hand of Darkness,” transformed American literature by bringing science fiction into the literary mainstream.
#7 - Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives
Season 33 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/1/2019
For 40 years, singer and activist Holly Near works on global social justice coalition-building in the women's and lesbian movements.
#8 - Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable
Season 33 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/19/2019
A documentary about an important American still photographer who captured New York City in the 1960s (his work there is said to have influenced the TV show Mad Men) and later the West in Texas and Los Angeles.
#9 - Decoding Watson
Season 33 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2019
Meet James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist behind the double helix as he confronts his complex legacy. With unprecedented access to Watson and his family, "American Masters: Decoding Watson" explores his life, achievements, controversies and contradictions.
#10 - Charley Pride
Season 33 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/22/2019
Raised in segregated Mississippi, country performer Charley Pride proves artistic expression can triumph over prejudice and injustice.
#11 - Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous
Season 33 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/25/2019
One of the most influential artists of the 20thcentury, Mark Rothko’s signature style helped define Abstract Expressionism, the movement that shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York. Interviews with Rothko’s children, Kate and Christopher, as well as leading curators, art historians and conservators present a comprehensive look at the artist’s life and career, complemented by original scenes with Alfred Molina in the role of Rothko. Over a career spanning five decades, Rothko developed his signature style: large, abstract color fields with luminous rectangular forms that balance depth, shape and hue through the delicate layering of many thin washes of paint. While Rothko’s paintings show close attention to formal elements, he was concerned with the way the paintings could represent philosophical questions. In his words, he was “interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom.”
#12 - N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear
Season 33 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/18/2019
Delve into the enigmatic life and mind of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet N. Scott Momaday, best known for “House Made of Dawn” and a formative voice of the Native American Renaissance in art and literature.