TV series
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
Streaming, rental and purchase options
Checked Jul 22, 2026
American Masters is available to stream on YouTube TV in United States. You can also rent or buy it from Google Play and Apple TV. Use the direct links below to open the provider.
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.
Episode 1
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.
Where to watch American Masters
Episode 2
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.
Where to watch American Masters
Episode 3
Raised in segregated Mississippi, country performer Charley Pride proves artistic expression can triumph over prejudice and injustice.
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Episode 4
For 40 years, singer and activist Holly Near works on global social justice coalition-building in the women's and lesbian movements.
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Episode 5
Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer becomes one of America's most feared and admired newspaper moguls and a crusader for freedom of the press.
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Episode 6
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.
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Episode 7
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.
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Episode 8
A profile of the conductor, his work with the civil rights movement, and his musical legacy.
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Episode 9
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.
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Episode 10
American Masters and Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES join forces to present the first documentary about Raúl Juliá, the versatile Puerto Rican actor whose work on stage and screen took the world by storm. Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage premieres Friday, September 13, 2019 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS, pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video App in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
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Episode 11
Explore the life of the celebrated artist whose luminous color field paintings helped define the abstract expressionist movement, which shifted the art world epicenter from Paris to New York.
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Episode 12
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.
Where to watch American MastersEpisode information updated Jul 24, 2026
Scarlett JohanssonSelf
Goran VišnjićRobert Capa (voice)
Patsy ClineSelf (archive footage)
Maya AngelouSelf
Sidney LumetSelf
Oprah WinfreySelf
CommonSelf
Bill ClintonSelf
PBSUnited States
Eagle Rock EntertainmentUnited Kingdom
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