The 13 best PBS TV shows of all time

PBS turns 50 this week, though, like a marriage when you count in the engagement and courtship, it is older than that, having its roots in NET — National Educational Television, founded in 1954 — and the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which, said then-President Lyndon Johnson, “rededicated a part of the airwaves, which belong to all the people … for the enlightenment of the people.” TV in those days was a limited resource — in some parts of the country very limited — and though not entirely without quality, was largely dedicated to making money. “Sesame Street” / “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” Perhaps the greatest contribution PBS has made to television and the world is children’s programming — “The Electric Company,” “Zoom,” “Arthur,” “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” “The Magic School Bus,” “Reading Rainbow.” But no series in 50 years has been more important to the culture — and perhaps to PBS itself — than “Sesame Street,” which premiered in 1969, not just as a show or an educational tool but also as an approach to life. “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” Something completely different arrived in America in 1975 by way of the Dallas PBS affiliate KERA, not long after this convention-shattering series ended its U.K. run. Other chefs would follow onto the network, including Ming Tsai, Martin Yan, Paul Prudhomme and Jacques Pépin, who joined Child in “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.” Television ‘Great British Baking Show’ is the COVID-free TV comfort food we need right now ‘The Great British Baking Show’ is back on Netflix for its 11th season to offer us a sweet escape from the misery of 2020. But they provided many eye-opening hours: I have vivid memories of Twyla Tharp’s company performing “Sue’s Leg”; Joan Micklin Silver’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” with Shelley Duvall and Bud Cort; Jonathan Demme’s film of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Who Am I This Time?,” a fanciful small-town romance with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken getting to know each other through community theater; taped-off-the-stage productions of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George” and “Into the Woods”; Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle; and the groundbreaking miniseries adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” whose first and best series appeared under the flag of “American Playhouse.” Entertainment & Arts Review: PBS documentary of playwright Terrence McNally celebrates a master of connection If you can know a person by the company he keeps, you can judge a playwright by the talent that sticks by him.