The Best Episodes Written By Ken Burns
Every TV Episode Written by Ken Burns Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters
Ken Burns Ratings Summary
The best episode written by Ken Burns is "War is All Hell: 1865", rated 8.2/10 from 5 user votes. It was "directed by Ken Burns". "War is All Hell: 1865" aired on 9/27/1990 and is rated 0.2 point(s) higher than their second highest rated, "Inning One: Our Game".
8.2/10 5 votes#1 - 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
8.0/10 2 votes#2 - 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#3 - 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#4 - 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#5 - 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#6 - 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#7 - 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
7.8/10 5 votes#8 - 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#9 - 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#10 - 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#11 - 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#12 - 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
7.5/10 6 votes#13 - 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#14 - 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
7.5/10 2 votes#15 - Inning Five: Shadow Ball
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 9/22/1994
The story of the Negro Leagues in the 1930s. “Shadow Ball” refers to a common pre-game feature in which the players staged a mock game with an imaginary ball. Though unintended, the pantomime was an apt metaphor for the exclusion of blacks from major league play at that time.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.2/10 6 votes#16 - A Very Bloody Affair: 1862
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1990
1862 saw the birth of modern warfare and the transformation of Lincoln's war to preserve the Union into a war to emancipate the slaves. Episode Two begins with the political infighting that threatened to swamp Lincoln's administration and then follows Union General George McClellan's ill-fated campaign on the Virginia Peninsula, where his huge army meets a smaller but infinitely more resourceful Confederate force. During this episode we witness the battle of ironclad ships, partake of camp life, and watch slavery begin to crumble. We meet Ulysses S. Grant, whose exploits come to a bloody climax at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. The episode ends with rumors of Europe's readiness to recognize the Confederacy.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
7.0/10 2 votes#17 - Inning Two: Something Like a War
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1994
In 1894, a sportswriter named Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson takes over a struggling minor league - the Western League - and turns it into a financial success. Inning Two, Something Like a War, takes viewers through 1910 and introduces some of the game's most celebrated and colorful characters, including Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
Director: Ken Burns
Writer: Ken Burns
