McCARTHY YEARS turns back the clock to the Fifties, a time when the country lurched into a murky period of blacklists and witch-hunts for alleged Communists, all led by a young senator named Joseph McCarthy. Revered for his bravery and incorruptibility, Murrow made a controversial series of broadcasts that challenged McCarthy's abuses of power, which--as this gripping program investigates--signaled the emergence of television news as a momentous and highly influential force in American life.

Join television legend and renowned broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow for this compilation of highlights from his 1950s hit talk show. On a minimal set and in casual style, Murrow invites a series of notable mid-century celebrities -- including Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra -- to open up about their public and private lives.