Week of Oct. 9: Ken Burns: America's Best Documentary Filmmaker

Only last week, Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" was broadcast on PBS, and it is now out on DVD.

Burns' relationship with PBS goes back almost 30 years; it started in 1981 with "Brooklyn Bridge," a documentary about the fabled bridge that PBS still shows sometimes.

The relationship reached full flower in 1990 with "The Civil War," the most-watched documentary in the history of public television. Burns' style seems very basic - interviews of current historians and other figures, with old pictures (and, where warranted, film) of historical figures, complete with actors and actresses reading quotes, excerpts from letters, etc. of those historical figures. It's a format now standard for historical documentaries, and Burns perfected it on "The Civil War."

His next major work was "Baseball," which debuted in 1994 while Major League Baseball players were on strike. Some factual errors were rightly criticized, but the documentary proved a salve to baseball fans angry at both players and owners and introduced many baseball fans to Buck O'Neill, a star of the Negro Leagues who charmed the country as an interview subject.

Other works have included "The West," "Lewis and Clark" and "Thomas Jefferson." In 2001, "Jazz" made its debut.

His most recent documentary before "America's National Parks" was "The War," about World War II. That one did take some justifiable criticism for its lack of diversity in some circles. However, World War II may be the most chronicled-by-documentary story of the most recent millenium; it would have been difficult for Burns to have the definitive documentary.

For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org/kenburns. All of his documentaries are available on DVD.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!