The Twentieth Century

Overview

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.

Seasons

Season 1

195727 episodes

Season 2

195827 episodes

Season 3

195927 episodes

Season 4

196026 episodes

Season 5

196126 episodes

Season 6

196225 episodes

Season 7

196325 episodes

Season 8

196420 episodes

Season 9

196518 episodes