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The Twentieth Century

TV Series · 1957

The Twentieth Century

30 min · News, Documentary · Ended

Composite

5.3

IMDb

8.0 / 10

95 votes

TMDB

8.0 / 10

3 votes

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Synopsis

The Twentieth Century is a long-running CBS documentary television series that aired from 1957 to 1966, sponsored throughout its run by the Prudential Insurance Company and narrated by Walter Cronkite. Drawing on the resources of CBS News, the series produced both historical compilation documentaries and originally photographed contemporary reports, presenting major political, cultural, scientific, and social developments that shaped the modern world. Episodes combined newsreel footage, eyewitness testimony, and on-location reporting, covering subjects ranging from global conflicts and political change to arts, science, and international social transformation. Popular with audiences and critically respected, the series functioned as a formative model for later American television documentary programming and helped establish the compilation-documentary format as a central mode of broadcast nonfiction.

Cast

Crew

Production

Writing

Seasons & episodes

Season 1 (27 ep)
  • 1. Churchill, Man of the Century

    Oct 20, 1957 · 30 min

  • 2. Guided Missile

    Oct 27, 1957 · 30 min

  • 3. Story of the F.B.I.

    Nov 3, 1957 · 30 min

  • 4. Toward the Unexplored: The Flight of the X-2

    Nov 10, 1957 · 30 min

  • 5. Mach Busters

    Nov 17, 1957 · 30 min

  • 6. Brainwashing

    Nov 24, 1957 · 30 min

  • 7. Vertijets

    Dec 1, 1957 · 30 min

  • 8. Middle East Smoke Screen

    Dec 8, 1957 · 30 min

  • 9. Mussolini

    Dec 15, 1957 · 30 min

  • 10. The Windsors

    Dec 29, 1957 · 30 min

  • 11. War in Spain

    Jan 19, 1958 · 30 min

  • 12. The Face of Crime

    Jan 26, 1958 · 30 min

  • 13. D-Day Buildup

    Feb 2, 1958 · 30 min

  • 14. D-Day Attack

    Feb 9, 1958 · 30 min

  • 15. Crime and the Committee

    Feb 16, 1958 · 30 min

  • 16. Enter with Caution: The Atomic Age

    Feb 23, 1958 · 30 min

  • 17. Trial at Nuremberg

    Mar 2, 1958 · 30 min

  • 18. Hiroshima

    Mar 9, 1958 · 30 min

  • 19. Gandhi

    Mar 16, 1958 · 30 min

  • 20. Class of '58

    Mar 23, 1958 · 30 min

  • 21. Riot in East Berlin

    Mar 30, 1958 · 30 min

  • 22. Victory Over Polio

    Apr 6, 1958 · 30 min

  • 23. F.D.R.: Third Term to Pearl Harbor

    Apr 13, 1958 · 30 min

  • 24. Ceiling Unlimited

    Apr 20, 1958 · 30 min

  • 25. The Crowded Air

    Apr 27, 1958 · 30 min

  • 26. War in China

    May 4, 1958 · 30 min

  • 27. Auto Biography

    May 11, 1958 · 30 min

Season 2 (27 ep)
  • 1. October Classic

    Sep 28, 1958 · 30 min

  • 2. The Red Sell: The Propaganda Mill

    Oct 26, 1958 · 30 min

  • 3. The Red Sell: Report from the Targets

    Nov 2, 1958 · 30 min

  • 4. Rockne of Notre Dame

    Nov 9, 1958 · 30 min

  • 5. The Russo-Finnish War

    Nov 16, 1958 · 30 min

  • 6. Peron and Evita

    Nov 23, 1958 · 30 min

  • 7. The Addicted: Profile of a Young Addict

    Nov 30, 1958 · 30 min

  • 8. The Addicted: Criminal or Patient?

    Dec 7, 1958 · 30 min

  • 9. Revolt in Hungary

    Dec 14, 1958 · 30 min

  • 10. Mission Outer Space

    Dec 21, 1958 · 30 min

  • 11. Woodrow Wilson: The Fight for Peace

    Dec 28, 1958 · 30 min

  • 12. The Remagen Bridge

    Jan 4, 1959 · 30 min

  • 13. Jet Carrier

    Jan 11, 1959 · 30 min

  • 14. The Delinquents: A Boy Named Bob

    Jan 18, 1959 · 30 min

  • 15. The Delinquents: The Highfields Story

    Jan 25, 1959 · 30 min

  • 16. Liberation of Paris

    Feb 1, 1959 · 30 min

  • 17. The Frozen War

    Feb 8, 1959 · 30 min

  • 18. The Incredible Turk

    Feb 15, 1959 · 30 min

  • 19. Freedom for the Philippines

    Feb 22, 1959 · 30 min

  • 20. Generation Without a Cause: Self Portrait

    Mar 1, 1959 · 30 min

  • 21. Generation Without a Cause: The Searchers

    Mar 8, 1959 · 30 min

  • 22. Burma Road and the Hump

    Mar 15, 1959 · 30 min

  • 23. The Silent Sentinel

    Mar 22, 1959 · 30 min

  • 24. The Times of Teddy Roosevelt

    Mar 29, 1959 · 30 min

  • 25. From Kaiser to Fuehrer

    Apr 5, 1959 · 30 min

  • 26. Submarine

    Apr 12, 1959 · 30 min

  • 27. Stalingrad

    Apr 19, 1959 · 30 min

Season 3 (27 ep)
  • 1. Reaching for the Moon

    Sep 20, 1959 · 30 min

  • 2. The Movies Learn to Talk

    Oct 25, 1959 · 30 min

  • 3. Suicide Run to Murmansk

    Nov 1, 1959 · 30 min

  • 4. Age of the Jet

    Nov 8, 1959 · 30 min

  • 5. Fall of China

    Nov 15, 1959 · 30 min

  • 6. Goering

    Nov 22, 1959 · 30 min

  • 7. Poland on a Tightrope: Satellite Back in Orbit

    Nov 29, 1959 · 30 min

  • 8. Poland on a Tightrope: The Commissar and the Cardinal

    Dec 6, 1959 · 30 min

  • 9. End of the Battlewagon

    Dec 20, 1959 · 30 min

  • 10. The Olympics

    Dec 27, 1959 · 30 min

  • 11. Crisis at Munich

    Jan 3, 1960 · 30 min

  • 12. The Week That Shook the World

    Jan 10, 1960 · 30 min

  • 13. Dirigible

    Jan 17, 1960 · 30 min

  • 14. Sabotage

    Jan 24, 1960 · 30 min

  • 15. Battle of the Bulge

    Jan 31, 1960 · 30 min

  • 16. The Dust Bowl

    Feb 7, 1960 · 30 min

  • 17. Tarawa

    Feb 14, 1960 · 30 min

  • 18. Downrange

    Feb 21, 1960 · 30 min

  • 19. The Turn of the Century

    Feb 28, 1960 · 30 min

  • 20. Japan's Changing Face: Part 1

    Mar 6, 1960 · 30 min

  • 21. Japan's Changing Face: Part 2

    Mar 13, 1960 · 30 min

  • 22. Patton and the Third Army

    Mar 20, 1960 · 30 min

  • 23. The Power of the Sea: Part 1

    Mar 27, 1960 · 30 min

  • 24. The Power of the Sea: Part 2

    Apr 3, 1960 · 30 min

  • 25. Rommel

    Apr 10, 1960 · 30 min

  • 26. Paris in the Twenties

    Apr 17, 1960 · 30 min

  • 27. La Guardia

    Apr 24, 1960 · 30 min

Season 4 (26 ep)
  • 1. The Violent World of Sam Huff

    Oct 30, 1960 · 30 min

  • 2. The White House Story

    Nov 6, 1960 · 30 min

  • 3. Sub Killers

    Nov 13, 1960 · 30 min

  • 4. Traffic Jam Upstairs

    Nov 20, 1960 · 30 min

  • 5. Over Here

    Nov 27, 1960 · 30 min

  • 6. The Doolittle Raid

    Dec 4, 1960 · 30 min

  • 7. The Berliners: Life in a Gilded Cage

    Dec 18, 1960 · 30 min

  • 8. Admiral Byrd

    Dec 25, 1960 · 30 min

  • 9. P.O.W.: Korea

    Jan 1, 1961 · 30 min

  • 10. P.O.W.: The Road to Resistance

    Jan 8, 1961 · 30 min

  • 11. Battle of Cassino

    Jan 15, 1961 · 30 min

  • 12. City Under the Ice

    Jan 22, 1961 · 30 min

  • 13. Ireland: The Tear and the Smile, Part 1

    Jan 29, 1961 · 30 min

  • 14. Ireland: The Tear and the Smile, Part 2

    Feb 5, 1961 · 30 min

  • 15. The Collage Panic

    Feb 12, 1961 · 30 min

  • 16. Minister of Hate

    Feb 19, 1961 · 30 min

  • 17. France in Ferment

    Feb 26, 1961 · 30 min

  • 18. The Burma Surgeon Today

    Mar 5, 1961 · 30 min

  • 19. The New Marine

    Mar 12, 1961 · 30 min

  • 20. Minuteman!

    Mar 19, 1961 · 30 min

  • 21. As Others See Us

    Mar 26, 1961 · 30 min

  • 22. New York in the Twenties

    Apr 2, 1961 · 30 min

  • 23. Sweden: Trouble in Paradise? Part 1

    Apr 9, 1961 · 30 min

  • 24. Sweden: Trouble in Paradise? Part 2

    Apr 16, 1961 · 30 min

  • 25. General Marshall

    Apr 23, 1961 · 30 min

  • 26. Alert! Defense in the Missile Age

    Apr 30, 1961 · 30 min

Season 5 (26 ep)
  • 1. Hungary Today

    Oct 29, 1961 · 30 min

  • 2. Al Smith

    Nov 5, 1961 · 30 min

  • 3. Guerrilla, Part 1

    Nov 12, 1961 · 30 min

  • 4. Guerrilla, Part 2

    Nov 19, 1961 · 30 min

  • 5. Typhoon at Okinawa

    Nov 26, 1961 · 30 min

  • 6. The Man Who Spied on Pearl Harbor

    Dec 3, 1961 · 30 min

  • 7. The Story of Wendell L. Willkie

    Dec 17, 1961 · 30 min

  • 8. The Great Weather Mystery

    Dec 24, 1961 · 30 min

  • 9. The Jazz of Dave Brubeck

    Dec 31, 1961 · 30 min

  • 10. Siege at Malta

    Jan 7, 1962 · 30 min

  • 11. Sports Cars: The Rage to Race

    Jan 14, 1962 · 30 min

  • 12. The Airport Jam

    Jan 21, 1962 · 30 min

  • 13. Crisis at Suez

    Jan 28, 1962 · 30 min

  • 14. Puerto Rico: The Peaceful Revolution

    Feb 4, 1962 · 30 min

  • 15. Partisan: The Nazi-Soviet War

    Feb 11, 1962 · 30 min

  • 16. Frank Lloyd Wright

    Feb 18, 1962 · 30 min

  • 17. The Age of Anxiety: Part 1

    Feb 25, 1962 · 30 min

  • 18. The Age of Anxiety: Part 2

    Mar 4, 1962 · 30 min

  • 19. The Women Get the Vote

    Mar 18, 1962 · 30 min

  • 20. Get the Graf Spee

    Mar 25, 1962 · 30 min

  • 21. First Man on the Moon

    Apr 1, 1962 · 30 min

  • 22. Czechoslovakia: From Munich to Moscow

    Apr 8, 1962 · 30 min

  • 23. End of an Empire

    Apr 15, 1962 · 30 min

  • 24. Let's Go to the Fair

    Apr 22, 1962 · 30 min

  • 25. The Creative Thirties

    Apr 29, 1962 · 30 min

  • 26. The Satellite That Talks

    May 6, 1962 · 30 min

Season 6 (25 ep)
  • 1. Pollsters and Politics

    Oct 7, 1962 · 30 min

  • 2. I Remember: Dag Hammarskjold

    Oct 28, 1962 · 30 min

  • 3. Germany: Red Spy Target

    Nov 4, 1962 · 30 min

  • 4. Norstad of NATO: War or Peace?

    Nov 11, 1962 · 30 min

  • 5. The Fighting E

    Nov 18, 1962 · 30 min

  • 6. So That Men Are Free

    Nov 25, 1962 · 30 min

  • 7. Laval: Portrait of a Traitor

    Dec 2, 1962 · 30 min

  • 8. Army of the Damned

    Dec 16, 1962 · 30 min

  • 9. Zero Hour in Greece

    Jan 6, 1963 · 30 min

  • 10. From Jet to Dyna-soar

    Jan 13, 1963 · 30 min

  • 11. Air Drop at Arnheim

    Jan 20, 1963 · 30 min

  • 12. Italy's Booming North

    Jan 27, 1963 · 30 min

  • 13. Finland's Tug of War

    Feb 3, 1963 · 30 min

  • 14. Beachhead at Anzio

    Feb 10, 1963 · 30 min

  • 15. We Fed Our Enemies

    Feb 17, 1963 · 30 min

  • 16. Attack on Singapore

    Feb 24, 1963 · 30 min

  • 17. Franco Spain: Part 1

    Mar 3, 1963 · 30 min

  • 18. Franco Spain: Part 2

    Mar 10, 1963 · 30 min

  • 19. Rhodes Scholar

    Mar 17, 1963 · 30 min

  • 20. Red Ships Off Our Shores

    Mar 24, 1963 · 30 min

  • 21. Ethiopia: The Lion and the Cross, Part 1

    Mar 31, 1963 · 30 min

  • 22. Ethiopia: The Lion and the Cross, Part 2

    Apr 7, 1963 · 30 min

  • 23. The Booming World of Boats

    Apr 14, 1963 · 30 min

  • 24. The Western Hero

    Apr 21, 1963 · 30 min

  • 25. Frogmen of the Future

    Apr 28, 1963 · 30 min

Season 7 (25 ep)
  • 1. Keep It Cool

    Oct 27, 1963 · 30 min

  • 2. Mountbatten, Man of Action

    Nov 3, 1963 · 30 min

  • 3. The Road to Berlin

    Nov 10, 1963 · 30 min

  • 4. A Child Is to Love

    Nov 17, 1963 · 30 min

  • 5. The Battle for Norway

    Dec 1, 1963 · 30 min

  • 6. Verdun: End of the Nightmare

    Dec 8, 1963 · 30 min

  • 7. SAC: Aloft and Below - Part 1

    Dec 15, 1963 · 30 min

  • 8. SAC: Aloft and Below - Part 2

    Dec 22, 1963 · 30 min

  • 9. Too Young to Hate

    Dec 29, 1963 · 30 min

  • 10. The Plots Against Hitler, Part 1

    Jan 5, 1964 · 30 min

  • 11. The Plots Against Hitler, Part 2

    Jan 12, 1964 · 30 min

  • 12. Invasion of Sicily

    Jan 19, 1964 · 30 min

  • 13. Firebrand on Ice: Stan Mikita

    Feb 2, 1964 · 30 min

  • 14. The Songs of Harold Arien

    Feb 9, 1964 · 30 min

  • 15. Deep in the Heart of Houston

    Feb 16, 1964 · 30 min

  • 16. Depressed Area, U.S.A.

    Feb 23, 1964 · 30 min

  • 17. The Agony of Austria

    Mar 1, 1964 · 30 min

  • 18. Traffic Round the World

    Mar 8, 1964 · 30 min

  • 19. John L. Lewis

    Mar 22, 1964 · 30 min

  • 20. Up Jet

    Mar 29, 1964 · 30 min

  • 21. Yugoslavia: Bridge or Tightrope?

    Apr 5, 1964 · 30 min

  • 22. Jimmy Walker

    Apr 12, 1964 · 30 min

  • 23. Man with a Mission: Dr. Howard A. Rusk

    Apr 19, 1964 · 30 min

  • 24. Cameras Aloft, Secrets Below

    Apr 26, 1964 · 30 min

  • 25. Lenin and Trotsky

    May 3, 1964 · 30 min

Season 8 (20 ep)
  • 1. Smear, the Game of Dirty Politics

    Oct 25, 1964 · 30 min

  • 2. Who Killed Anne Frank?

    Dec 13, 1964 · 30 min

  • 3. Duke Ellington Swings Through Japan

    Dec 20, 1964 · 30 min

  • 4. Anthony Eden

    Dec 27, 1964 · 30 min

  • 5. TAC: The Lightning Punch

    Jan 3, 1965 · 30 min

  • 6. Target: North Africa

    Jan 10, 1965 · 30 min

  • 7. Korea, the Line

    Jan 17, 1965 · 30 min

  • 8. The Strange Case of Rudolf Hess

    Jan 24, 1965 · 30 min

  • 9. The Nisei: The Pride and the Shame

    Jan 31, 1965 · 30 min

  • 10. The Sailing Oysterman

    Feb 7, 1965 · 30 min

  • 11. Heartbreak Country, Italy's South

    Feb 14, 1965 · 30 min

  • 12. Siege of Leningrad

    Feb 21, 1965 · 30 min

  • 13. Pop Buell, Hoosier at the Front

    Feb 28, 1965 · 30 min

  • 14. The Navajos and Annie Wauneka

    Mar 7, 1965 · 30 min

  • 15. Taming of the Mekong

    Mar 14, 1965 · 30 min

  • 16. The Warsaw Uprising

    Mar 21, 1965 · 30 min

  • 17. Man with a Violin: Isaac Stern

    Apr 4, 1965 · 30 min

  • 18. The Dissenter, Norman Thomas

    Apr 11, 1965 · 30 min

  • 19. The Supersonic Jet Race

    Apr 18, 1965 · 30 min

  • 20. The Farmer, Feast or Famine

    Apr 25, 1965 · 30 min

Season 9 (1 ep)
  • 18. Man of the Month: The Draftee

    Apr 17, 1966 · 30 min

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