L B J
Alfred I. duPont – Columbia Journalism Award
Writers Guild of America Award
Lyndon Baines Johnson rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of power only to suffer disillusionment and defeat as his visions of a Great Society were swallowed in the quagmire of Vietnam. Standing six feet four inches tall with a size 7-3/8 Stetson hat, he was both a charmer and a bully, loved, hated, and feared. The series tells how L B J exploited his mastery of the legislative process to shepherd a collection of progressive programs through Congress with astounding success, while an unpopular and costly war eroded his political base and left him an exile within his own White House.
PBS – American Experience
Four hours
1991
“L B J is historical filmmaking at its deepest and classiest, a full, warm-blooded, ten-gallon sized portrait.”
– Los Angeles Times
“Ranks up there with PBS’s finest – “Eyes on the Prize” and “The Civil War” – it’s equal parts storytelling, filmmaking, and scholarly research.”
– Houston Chronicle
“Documentary television at its best. A superb evocation of a troubling past.”
– Washington Post
“The best straight documentary of the year.”
– New York Newsday
“Visually arresting, beautifully written, and ever-engrossing, it may be the best program on public television this season. Or anywhere else for that matter.”
– Dallas Morning News
“Masterful...an oral and visual storytelling feast, vigorously re-imagining a seminal, larger-than-life personality.”
– USA Today
“Grubin captures Johnson’s Sophoclean rise and fall masterfully. One watches on the edge of the seat.”
– Boston Globe
To learn more about L B J, visit the L B J website.