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Masterpiece (TV series)

Masterpiece (formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre) is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these are produced by the BBC, but the lineup has also included programs shown on the UK commercial channels ITV and Channel 4.

"Masterpiece Theatre" redirects here. For the album by En Vogue, see Masterpiece Theatre (En Vogue album). For the album by Marianas Trench, see Masterpiece Theatre (Marianas Trench album).

Masterpiece

Anthology

United States

English

53

PBS

January 10, 1971 (1971-01-10) â€“
present

Overview[edit]

Masterpiece is known for presenting adaptations of novels and biographies, but it also shows original television dramas. The first title to air was The First Churchills, starring Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill. Other programs presented on the series include The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Elizabeth R; I, Claudius; Upstairs, Downstairs; The Duchess of Duke Street; The Citadel; The Jewel in the Crown; Reckless; House of Cards; Traffik, and Jeeves and Wooster. More recent popular titles include Prime Suspect, The Forsyte Saga, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey.


The theme music played during the opening credits is the Fanfare-Rondeau from Suite of Symphonies for brass, strings and timpani No. 1 by French composer Jean-Joseph Mouret. The theme was performed by Collegium Musicum de Paris. Roland Douatte was the conductor. It was recorded in 1954 by Vogue Records in Paris, France, and was later remastered in stereo and re-released by Nonesuch Records in the 1960s.


During the first seasons in the 1970s, the theme music accompanied varying closeup shots of a waving British flag, which panned out into a still image of a British flag on a staff serving as the P in "Masterpiece". In the late 1970s, the opening video switched to views of antique books and other literary artifacts, many of which titles had been dramatized on the program.


In 1980, Masterpiece gained a sister series, Mystery!, featuring a mix of contemporary and classic British detective and crime series, such as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and Touching Evil. In 2000, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the show, it presented Masterpiece: The American Collection, nine works by American writers, including Thornton Wilder's Our Town, starring Paul Newman.

Awards and nominations[edit]

One of television's most honored series, the various shows aired on Masterpiece have won numerous Emmy and Peabody Awards.[1]


In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #3 in its list of the 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time[2] and #16 in its list of the 60 Greatest Shows of All Time.[3]

Upstairs, Downstairs

(2002 adaptation)

The Forsyte Saga

I, Claudius

(2005 adaptation)

Bleak House

parts 4–7

Prime Suspect

The Jewel in the Crown

(1970s version)

Poldark

House of Cards

Reckless

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

(1999 adaptation)

Wives & Daughters

Jeeves and Wooster

In March 2007, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the show, PBS aired an entertainment special produced and directed by Darcy Corcoran. The Best of Masterpiece was hosted by Sir Derek Jacobi and featured interviews with Dame Helen Mirren, Hugh Laurie, Damian Lewis, Robson Green, Ian Richardson, Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance, Alex Kingston, Anthony Andrews and Jean Marsh. The countdown special was based on more than 20,000 survey responses posted to the Masterpiece and PBS affiliate websites, the top 12 series were:


At the end of the program, Anthony Andrews thanked the audience for voting the 1981 serial Brideshead Revisited as the seventh favorite series. He then pointed out that it had not aired as a part of Masterpiece Theatre. Rather, it had aired as a part of the PBS series entitled Great Performances.

A series of film, theatre, and television show parodies appeared on as "Monsterpiece Theater", hosted by Cookie Monster as "Alistair Cookie". The theme music for "Monsterpiece Theater" (composed by Sam Pottle) was similar to the theme composed by Mouret.

Sesame Street

had a show titled Mousterpiece Theater hosted by George Plimpton, featuring Disney animated shorts.

Disney Channel

On during Season 5 a sketch titled "Parody of Masterpiece" aired in which Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier recited the lyrics of popular gangster rap songs of the early 1990s by artist such as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Cast member Marc Wilmore was the host imitating James Earl Jones.

In Living Color

's long running sketch comedy show Mad TV did a parody called "Master P's Theater", featuring a parody of the New Orleans rapper of the same name.

Fox

In 2008, featured a web series called SPAMasterpiece Theater where humorist John Hodgman read unsolicited email spam in dramatizations in the parody of Masterpiece.[18][19]

Boing Boing Video

List of Masterpiece Theatre episodes

List of Masterpiece Classic episodes

List of Masterpiece Mystery! episodes

List of Masterpiece Contemporary episodes

Mobil Showcase Network

Masterpiece: A Celebration of 25 Years of Outstanding Television by Terrence O'Flaherty (1996),  0-912333-74-X

ISBN

Masterpiece and the Politics of Quality by Laurence Jarvik (1999)  0-8108-3204-6

ISBN

Making Masterpiece: 25 years behind the scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS by Rebecca Eaton (2013)  978-1-4104-6841-3

ISBN

on PBS

Masterpiece

on PBS

Masterpiece Shows

on Apple Podcasts

Masterpiece Studios Podcast

on Twitter

Masterpiece PBS

on YouTube

Masterpiece PBS

at IMDb

Masterpiece Theatre