Masterpiece (TV series)

Masterpiece

Genre Anthology
Presented by Alistair Cooke
Russell Baker
Gillian Anderson
Alan Cumming
Matthew Goode
Theme music composer Jean-Joseph Mouret
Opening theme Sinfonies de Fanfares: Rondeau
Country of origin

United States
Broadcast
Original channel PBS (1971-present)
Original run January 10, 1971 – Present
External links
Official website

Masterpiece (formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre) is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly primetime drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these are produced by the BBC, but the line-up has also included programs shown on the commercial ITV network and Channel 4.

Overview

Masterpiece is best 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, House of Cards, Traffik, and Jeeves and Wooster. More recent popular titles include Prime Suspect and The Forsyte Saga.

The theme music played during the opening credits is the Rondeau from "Symphonies and Fanfares for the King's Supper" 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.

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

One of television's most honored series, the various shows aired on Masterpiece have garnered 33 Primetime Emmys, seven International Emmys, 15 Peabodys, and two Academy Award nominations.

Hosts and producers

Masterpiece was hosted by British/American broadcaster/journalist Alistair Cooke until 1992; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Russell Baker hosted from 1992 to 2004. From 2004 to 2008 it was broadcast without a host.

The original series producer was Christopher Sarson. He was succeeded in 1973 by Joan Wilson. The current series producer, Rebecca Eaton, took over in 1985.[1]

Format change

Original logo before the title change.

Beginning in 2008 the show was split into three different sections. Masterpiece Classic airs in the winter and spring, hosted by Gillian Anderson. Masterpiece Mystery! airs in the summer, hosted by Alan Cumming.[2] Masterpiece Contemporary airs in the fall, hosted by Matthew Goode.[3]

The show's name also changed to simply "Masterpiece", although the word "Theatre" does still appear briefly in the opening credits.

An updated version of the theme music is by Man Made Music, Inc.

Funders

From its 1971 premiere, the series was underwritten by Mobil (which later became Exxon Mobil). After an unprecedented 25 years of support, the series added the funder's name to its title. ExxonMobil ended its sponsorship in 2004, and the series remains without a corporate sponsor. The show is currently funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to various PBS stations from, as PBS puts it, "Viewers Like You".

The Best of Masterpiece Theatre

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 Derek Jacobi and featured interviews with 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 & PBS affiliate web sites, the top 12 series were:

Upstairs, Downstairs
The Forsyte Saga (2002 adaptation)
I, Claudius
Bleak House (2006 adaptation)
Prime Suspect parts 4-7
The Jewel in the Crown
Poldark
House of Cards
Reckless
The Fortunes & Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
Wives & Daughters
Jeeves & Wooster

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.

Parodies

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A series of film, theatre, and television show parodies were shown on Sesame Street as "Monsterpiece Theater", hosted by Alistair Cookie (an alter ego of Cookie Monster) in reference to Alistair Cooke. The theme musics for Monsterpiece Theater (composed by Sam Pottle) was similar to the theme composed by Mouret.
On the 1976 Captain and Tennille TV variety show, a weekly parody sketch spoof of "Masterpiece" was featured called "Masterjoke Theatre" with a different celebrity guest each week playing the host Allistar Banister who before each part of the "Masterpiece" story put on a Groucho Marx style glasses with mustache disguise and at the end of each "Masterjoke Theatre" sketch throw a cream pie in his face all by himself.
On Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd, playing the high-bred but low-brow Leonard Pinth-Garnell, hosted "Bad Theatre," in which horrible, pseudo-intellectual skits were presented.
Pirate TV did a parody called "Rastapiece Theater".
MADtv did a parody called "Master P's Theater".
Disney Channel had a show titled "Mousterpiece Theater" hosted by George Plimpton featuring classic Disney cartoons.
On In Living Color during Season 5 a sketch called "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
Yakko Warner played a Cooke-esque host in "Disasterpiece Theater", a cold opening leading into an Animaniacs episode, in which a wrecking ball obliterates a library set.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Storyteller" opened with the character of Andrew Wells introducing the episode in the style of Masterpiece Theatre.
In the film Heartburn (1986), Rachel (played by Meryl Streep), at two points in the story, is watching a Masterpiece Theatre style program, wherein she imagines that the Alistair Cooke-esque host (played by John Wood) is narrating the story of her own life.
Tracey Ullman's early television special Tracey Ullman: A Class Act (1992) starts out with the famous opening fanfare from the series and a set made up to look like Masterpiece's with Tracey Ullman "standing in for Alistair Cooke."
The sitcom My Name Is Earl had an alternative reality themed episode called "Bad Karma" in which Jason Lee (Earl) introduces the episode in a set made to look like that of Masterpiece Theatre. While there Lee shows the viewers that he really is on a set and not in a real room.
In the television series Arthur (which is primarily shown on PBS) in the episode "Phony Fern", Fern and Muffy claim to have the theme of Masterpiece Theater. In another episode, Kate declares "Welcome to Mashed Peas Theater!"
In the Taz-Mania episode "Dr. Wendel and Mr. Taz", Mr. Thickley introduces the story as part of his series, Taz-Manian Theater.
The South Park episode Pip is based on Great Expectations. The episode is hosted by Malcolm McDowell as a British person ala Alistair Cooke.
The website Boing Boing has a regular series of videos called SPAMasterpiece Theater which dramatizes spam email. It is hosted by comedian John Hodgman.[4]