David Brinkley

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Self (archive footage)

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

This Week

Self

ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program, currently hosted by George Stephanopoulos.

The Emmy Awards

Self

An annual awards ceremony honoring the best in U.S. prime time television programming as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The Sixties

Self (archive footage)

The space race, the cold war, "free love," civil rights and more: The decade of the 1960s shaped our history -- and changed the world. In collaboration with Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, CNN explores perhaps the most transformative decade of the modern era in a 10-part documentary series and brings new insights into how those events shaped today.

The Seventies

Self

A documentary series focusing on the ongoing Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, evolving music industry, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the sexual revolution, and the rise of foreign and domestic terrorism.

NBC Nightly News

NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network in the United States, and is the #1-rated newscast in America. NBC Nightly News is produced from Studio 3B at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City. Since 2025, the broadcast has been anchored by Tom Llamas on weeknights, José Díaz-Balart on Saturday and Hallie Jackson on Sunday. On weeknights, it is broadcast live over most NBC stations from 6:30-7:00 p.m. Eastern and occasionally updated for Pacific Time Zone viewers in a "Western Edition". Its current theme music was composed by John Williams.

Whose Vote Counts, Explained

Self (archive footage)

The right to vote is at the foundation of America's democracy. But not every vote is created equal. How does the system work, and can it be fixed?

Breakdown: 1975

Self - Co-Host, NBC Nightly News (archive footage)

In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art.

The Movie Orgy

Self (archive footage)

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

Powaqqatsi

(archive footage)

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

4 Little Girls

Self - Reports on Chambliss Trial (archive footage) (uncredited)

On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.

NBC: The First Fifty Years

Self

A celebration of 50 years of NBC broadcasting in radio and television, since first going on the airwaves on 15 November 1926.

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

Self (archive footage)

Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann

Self - Host

David Brinkley hosts this shattering two-hour documentary about the trial of the man whose role in deporting the Jews of Europe for extermination made him the target of a 15-year manhunt by Israeli agents. Rare videotapes of the trial, exclusive interviews with courtroom witnesses, prosecutors, and others recount the emotionally explosive proceedings.

All Power to the People!

Self (archive footage)

Using government documents, archive footage and direct interviews with activists and former FBI/CIA officers, All Power to the People documents the history of race relations and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the 1960s and 70s. Covering the history of slavery, civil-rights activists, political assassinations and exploring the methods used to divide and destroy key figures of movements by government forces, the film then contrasts into Reagan-Era events, privacy threats from new technologies and the failure of the “War on Drugs”, forming a comprehensive view of the goals, aspirations and ultimate demise of the Civil Rights Movement…

Agnelli

Self (voice)

Documentary about the life of Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli, an influential Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat.

Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words

Self (archive footage)

From 1971 to 1973, Richard Nixon secretly recorded his private conversations in the White House. This film chronicles the content of those tapes, which include Nixon's conversations on the war in Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers leak, his Supreme Court appointments, and more--while also exposing shocking statements he made about women, people of color, Jews, and the media.