PBS CHANNELS HAVE PLENTY OF GERSHWIN TONIGHT AND FRIDAY

“George Gershwin Remembered,” a profile in the PBS “American Masters” series, will be shown tonight at 8 on KOCE Channel 50; tonight at 9 on KPBS Channel 15, and then Friday at 9 p.m. on KCET Channel 28.

By all accounts, George Gershwin was brash, cocky, supremely egocentric and a busy charmer of pretty women. An actress told one of his fellow composers that Gershwin had entertained her half the night talking about his work, then stopped and said, “But I’ve talked enough about me; what do YOU think about my music?”

He was, of course, a supremely gifted composer whose popular songs are remarkable in their rhythmic and structural freshness. But he wanted to do more than write tunes, and was planning a string quartet, an opera and a ballet when he died suddenly of an undiagnosed brain tumor in 1937 at the age of only 39.

His serious works, “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Concerto in F” and “Porgy and Bess,” have had mixed reponses from critics but found great favor with audiences. At very least, he identified a musical turf that was north of Tin Pan Alley if south of Salzburg, and he drew a wide following to it.

“George Gershwin Remembered” is a fairly standard collage of stock footage (Ellis Island, early New York), clips from the Gershwin movies and present interviews, including recollections from his sister, Frances Godowsky, Kay Swift, one of the girlfriends who was also a composer and wrote “Fine and Dandy,” Leonard Bernstein and Irving Caesar, Gershwin’s first lyricist and his collaborator on “Swanee,” the composer’s first big hit.

There are also some rare home movies of Gershwin playing tennis and of his lyricist brother Ira singing in a joyful croak. At that, the high points of the program are some charming keyboard demonstrations by performer Michael Feinstein and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on just what made Gershwin special.

It is amazing how much he achieved in 39 years and how many of his songs--”Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Lady Be Good,” dozens of others--are part of the world’s musical memory. It is haunting to think what he might have done in a longer life.

Peter Adam wrote and directed “George Gershwin Remembered.” Susan Lacy is executive producer of the “American Masters” series.