S1, E1: Four-time Emmy(R)-winner Bryan Cranston ('Breaking Bad') delivers a tour-de-force performance as Lyndon B. Johnson in this riveting HBO Films picture. Reprising the role that netted him a Tony(R) on the stage, Cranston plays the former president during his tumultuous first year in office after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film follows LBJ as he stakes his presidency on an historic and unprecedented piece of human-rights legislation--the 1964 Civil Rights Act--that would lead to an unlikely alliance with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a battle with the southern party leaders who brought him to power. Co-starring Anthony Mackie, Melissa Leo, Bradley Whitford, Stephen Root and Frank Langella. Directed by Jay Roach; screenplay by Robert Schenkkan, based on the play written by Robert Schenkkan.