Lorianne Crook

Music performances, interviews and comedy were featured in this daily series, which replaced `Nashville Now' in October 1993 when host Ralph Emery retired. The 90-minute program had some of country's top names, including Waylon Jennings, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Tanya Tucker, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, the Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Billy Ray Cyrus, Barbara Mandrell and Dolly Parton.

In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics.

American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.