Popular Action Adventure TV Shows on PBS

NOVA

1974

NOVA

1974
7
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.
American Experience

1988

American Experience

1988
7.4
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
Nature

1982

Nature

1982
8.1
Consistently stunning documentaries transport viewers to far-flung locations ranging from the torrid African plains to the chilly splendours of icy Antarctica. The show's primary focus is on animals and ecosystems around the world. A comic book based on the show, meant to be used an as educational tool for kids, was briefly distributed to museums and schools at no cost in the mid-2000s.
Frontline

1983

Frontline

1983
7.3
Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.
Independent Lens

1999

Independent Lens

1999
6.5
This acclaimed Emmy Award-winning anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers and featuring unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.
American Masters

1986

American Masters

1986
7.3
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.
Finding Your Roots

2012

Finding Your Roots

2012
6.2
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.
Unforgotten

2015

Unforgotten

2015
7.6
London police detectives Cassie Stuart and Sunny Khan investigate historic cold cases involving missing persons, murder and long-hidden secrets.
Grantchester

2014

Grantchester

2014
7.3
In 1953 at the hamlet of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers—a charismatic, charming clergyman—turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.
Great Performances

1971

Great Performances

1971
5.3
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Secrets of the Dead

2000

Secrets of the Dead

2000
6.3
Part detective story, part true-life drama, long-running series explores some of the most iconic moments in history to debunk myths and shed new light on past events. Using the latest investigative techniques, forensic science and historical examination, it shatters accepted wisdom, challenges prevailing ideas, overturns existing hypotheses, spotlights forgotten mysteries, and ultimately rewrites history.
Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Television

2017

Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Television

2017
7
Let’s stop doing things in the kitchen that made sense in the 19th century but not in the 21st. Milk Street travels the world to bring you the very best ideas and techniques with no lists of hard-to-find ingredients, strange cookware, or all-day methods to slow you down.
Jamestown

2017

Jamestown

2017
7.3
The early 17th Century story of three courageous, dynamic women who leave their dark pasts behind in England, and make the journey of a lifetime across the ocean for a new life in America.
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors

2014

Variety Studio: Actors on Actors

2014
4.4
PBS SoCal and Variety take you inside the biggest movies and TV shows of the past year through candid conversations with today's hottest actors. Hosted by Variety Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis and Variety Chief Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, each episode brings together pairs of actors engaging in intimate one-on-one discussions about their craft and work.
Endeavour

2013

Endeavour

2013
8.1
The early days of a young Endeavour Morse, whose experiences as a detective constable with the Oxford City Police will ultimately shape his future.
Call the Midwife

2012

Call the Midwife

2012
7.5
Drama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
Mercy Street

2016

Mercy Street

2016
6.1
Follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War - New England abolitionist Mary Phinney and Confederate supporter Emma Green. Based on true stories and set in a Union hospital in the occupied Confederate city of Alexandria, viewers are taken beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War home front as they face the unprecedented challenges of one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history.
Between the Covers

2020

Between the Covers

2020
5.5
Sara Cox hosts this new book club bringing the nation together through sharing the pleasure of reading. Each edition features a celebrity panel discussing their favourite book and two review sections.
Shakespeare Uncovered

2012

Shakespeare Uncovered

2012
6
Celebrity hosts guide viewers through William Shakespeare's plays in performance. Each episode serves as a primer for newcomers to Shakespeare while serving up enough historical and theatrical insights to enchant lifelong fans.
The U.S. and the Holocaust

2022

The U.S. and the Holocaust

2022
8.5
Inspired in part by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibition and supported by its historical resources, this documentary series examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, the eugenics movement in the United States, and race laws in the American south.