The Best Episodes Directed By Ken Burns
Every TV Episode Directed by Ken Burns Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters
Ken Burns Ratings Summary
The best episode directed by Ken Burns is "The Adventure: 1956-1960", rated 9.3/10 from 3 user votes. It was "written by N/A". "The Adventure: 1956-1960" aired on 1/29/2001 and is rated 0.6 point(s) higher than their second highest rated, "Dedicated to Chaos: 1940-1945".
9.3/10 3 votes#1 - The Adventure: 1956-1960
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 1/29/2001
Critics who had believed that Charlie Parker was "too much" musically, could not have welcomed the arrival of Ornette Coleman. Coleman and John Coltrane would edge jazz toward even more freedom, eventually dropping all traditional structures. While these artists alienated many listeners, Miles Davis would record the most popular jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.7/10 3 votes#2 - Dedicated to Chaos: 1940-1945
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 1/23/2001
"Dedicated to Chaos" finds jazz musicians teetering on the brink of the modern era, fighting against the straightjacket of clichéd, big band arrangements. The revolution started at Minton’s Playhouse, a rundown club where musicians like Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Christian jammed on Monday nights. When they hooked up with a young saxophone player from Kansas City named Charlie Parker, the bop insurgency had arrived.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.7/10 3 votes#3 - Risk: 1945-1955
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 1/24/2001
The bop revolution’s influence would spread to other musicians, but unlike swing, it would never become a popular music. The rapid-fire solos and complicated chord structures made bop a musician’s music, unfit for dancing. Indeed, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie’s music even alienated established musicians like Armstrong. "Risk" provides an in-depth biography of the bright, brief life of Parker, and includes interviews with his former wife.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.7/10 3 votes#4 - A Masterpiece by Midnight: 1960 to the Present
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 1/31/2001
Obviously Ken Burns knows that he can’t fit the last thirty-nine years of jazz history onto two hours of video tape, so from the outset, that shouldn’t be expected. There’s an excellent biography of John Coltrane, and footage of Miles Davis’ wonderful mid-‘60s quintet. There is also a nice, small section on the magnificent Charles Mingus.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.6/10 5 votes#5 - Gumbo: Beginnings to 1917
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2001
"Gumbo" traces the roots of jazz from the 1800s to 1917. The viewer will catch glimpses of Jelly Roll Morton, who erroneously claimed to have invented jazz, and the tragic, though influential, figure of trumpeter Buddy Bolden.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.4/10 5 votes#6 - The Gift: 1917-1924
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/9/2001
How can one explain the genius of a Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington? Blessed with skill and talent far exceeding their peers, one can only define what they possess as a gift from the gods. These early portraits are imperative, because both figures have been so canonized that it is easy to forget the significance of their gifts.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.3/10 3 votes#7 - Swing: The Velocity of Celebration - 1937-1939
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 1/22/2001
Swing would be reacquainted with its blues roots by way of Kansas City, when Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm brought their hot sound to the Big Apple. Basie would also give Billie Holiday her first break, offering her a chance to travel, perform, drink, and gamble with the rest of the band. Another young singer named Ella Fitzgerald would get her start in Chick Webb’s band at the Savoy Ballroom, and then be named top female vocalist—over Billy Holiday—by Down Beat in 1937.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.2/10 5 votes#8 - War is All Hell: 1865
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 9/27/1990
The episode begins with William Tecumseh Sherman's brilliant march to the sea, which brings the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spells the end of the Confederacy. In March, following Lincoln's second inauguration, first Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall to Grant's army. Lee's tattered Army of Northern Virginia flees westward towards a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. There the dramatic and deeply moving surrender of Lee to Grant takes place. The episode ends in Washington where John Wilkes Booth begins to dream of vengeance for the South.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.2/10 4 votes#9 - Our Language: 1924 -1929
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/10/2001
Colorful characters like the tragic Bix Beiderbecke, powerhouse Bessie Smith, and the braggart Jelly Roll Morton, make the study of jazz fascinating. Perhaps most touching in this episode is the extended portrait of the troubled, white cornet player, Bix Beiderbecke, whose family disapproved of his chosen profession, and who would never be allowed to record with greats like Louis Armstrong due to segregation in the music business.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.2/10 4 votes#10 - The True Welcome: 1929-1934
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 1/15/2001
"The True Welcome" continues many of the stories begun in Episode 3, following several troubling years for Louis Armstrong (who was arrested for marijuana possession), Duke Ellington’s growth as a composer, and Benny Goodman discovering gold in Fletcher Henderson’s arrangements. "The True Welcome" also has a nice section on rich kid John Hammond, Sr. who would become one of jazz’ biggest promoters
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
8.0/10 2 votes#11 - Inning One: Our Game
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1994
In New York City, in the 1840s, people need a diversion from the "railroad pace" at which they work and live. They find it in a game of questionable origins. Inning One, Our Game, looks at the origins of baseball in the 1840s and takes the story up to 1900. Burns refutes the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown and traces its roots instead to the earliest days of the nation.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 1 votes#12 - Inning Three: The Faith of Fifty Million People
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/20/1994
Examine the century's second decade, which was dominated by the Black Sox scandal. George Herman “Babe” Ruth makes his first major league appearance (as a member of the Boston Red Sox) and a wave of immigration helps fill the stands with new fans, eager to “become American” by learning America's game.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 2 votes#13 - Inning Six: The National Pastime
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 9/25/1994
This episode covers the 1940s and includes Joe DiMaggio's celebrated hitting streak, the awe-inspiring performance of Ted Williams and what Burns calls “baseball's finest moment” — the debut of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 2 votes#14 - Inning Seven: The Capitol of Baseball
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 9/26/1994
Viewers are taken through the 1950s when New York City had three successful baseball teams and dominated the World Series. By the end of the decade, the Giants and Dodgers had left New York, a signal that the old game was changed forever.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 1 votes#15 - Inning Eight: A Whole New Ball Game
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 9/27/1994
The field is moved to the 1960s. This episode traces the emergence of television, the expansion to new cities and the building of anonymous multipurpose stadiums that robbed the game of its intimacy and some of its urban following.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 1 votes#16 - Inning Nine: Home
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 9/28/1994
The final episode looks at baseball from the 1970s to the present, including the establishment of the free agent system, the rise in player salaries, the continued expansion, the dilution of talent, the ongoing battles between labor and management and the scandals.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
8.0/10 4 votes#17 - Swing: Pure Pleasure - 1935-1937
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 1/17/2001
1935 was the year that swing became the most popular music in the country and that the king of swing, Benny Goodman, became a matinee idol. Americans, stifled by the Depression, seemed determined to dance their troubles away. "Swing: Pure Pleasure" follows the continuing careers of Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Armstrong, and the discovery of Billie Holiday.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 5 votes#18 - The Better Angels of Our Nature: 1865
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 9/27/1990
This extraordinary final episode of The Civil War begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee's surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events of five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. After chronicling Lincoln's poignant funeral, the series recounts the final days of the war, the capture of John Wilkes Booth and the fates of the Civil War's major protagonists. The episode then considers the consequences and meaning of a war that transformed the country from a collection of states to the nation we are today.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.6/10 5 votes#19 - Simply Murder: 1863
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 9/25/1990
The nightmarish Union disaster at Fredericksburg comes to two climaxes that spring: at Chancellorsville in May, where Lee wins his most brilliant victory but loses Stonewall Jackson; and at Vicksburg, where Grant's attempts to take the city by siege are stopped. During the episode we learn of fierce Northern opposition to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the miseries of regimental life and the increasing desperation of the Confederate homefront. As the episode ends, Lee decides to invade the North again to draw Grant's forces away from Vicksburg.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.6/10 5 votes#20 - The Universe of Battle: 1863
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 9/25/1990
This episode opens with a dramatic account of the turning point of war: the Battle of Gettysburg, the greatest ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. For three days 150,000 men will fight to the death in the Pennsylvania countryside, culminating in Pickett's legendary charge. This extended episode then goes on to chronicle the fall of Vicksburg, the New York draft riots, the first use of black troops, and the western battles at Chickamauga, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The episode closes with the dedication of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg in November, where Abraham Lincoln struggles to put into words what is happening to his people.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.6/10 5 votes#21 - Valley of the Shadow of Death: 1864
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 9/26/1990
Episode six begins with a biographical comparison of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. In 30 days, the two armies lose more men than both sides have lost in three years of war. With Grant and Lee finally deadlocked at Petersburg, we visit the ghastly hospitals north and south and follow General Sherman's Atlanta campaign through the mountains of north Georgia. As the horrendous casualty lists increase, Lincoln's chances for re-election begin to dim, and with them the possibility of Union victory.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.6/10 5 votes#22 - Most Hallowed Ground: 1864
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 9/26/1990
The episode begins with the presidential election of 1864 that sets Abraham Lincoln against his old commanding general, George McClellan. The stakes are nothing less than the survival of the Union itself: with Grant and Sherman stalled at Petersburg and Atlanta, opinion in the North has turned strongly against the war. But 11th-hour victories at Mobile Bay, Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley tilt the election to Lincoln and the Confederacy's last hope for independence dies. In an ironic twist, poignantly typical of the Civil War, Lee's Arlington mansion is turned into a Union military hospital and the estate becomes Arlington National Cemetery, the Union's most hallowed ground.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.6/10 17 votes#23 - Déjà Vu (1858-1961)
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/2017
After a century of French occupation, Vietnam emerges independent but divided into North and South.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Geoffrey C. Ward
7.5/10 6 votes#24 - The Cause: 1861
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/1990
Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and States' rights, John Brown at Harper's Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides. Along the way the series' major figures are introduced: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and a host of lesser-known but equally vivid characters. The episode comes to a climax with the disastrous Union defeat at Manassas, Virginia, where both sides now learn it is to be a very long war.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.5/10 6 votes#25 - Forever Free: 1862
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1990
This episode charts the dramatic events that led to Lincoln's decision to set the slaves free. Convinced by July 1862 that emancipation was now morally and militarily crucial to the future of the Union, Lincoln must wait for a victory to issue his proclamation. But as the year wears on there are no Union victories to be had, thanks to the brilliance of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. The episode comes to a climax in September 1862 with Lee's invasion of Maryland. On the banks of Antietam Creek, the bloodiest day of the war takes place, followed shortly by the brightest: the emancipation of the slaves.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns