American Experience

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

American Experience - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from The American Experience)

American Experience

Genre	Television documentary
Created by	Peter McGhee
Theme music composer	Charles Kuskin (1988–2000) Mark Adler (2000–2008) The Chambers Brothers (2009–2010) Joel Goodman (2011–present)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English (US)
No. of seasons	36
No. of episodes	378 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Judy Crichton (1987–1996) Margaret Drain (1997–2003) Mark Samels (2003–2020) Cameo George (2020–present)^[1]
Running time	Between 55 minutes and two hours
Production company	WGBH-TV
Original release
Network	PBS^[2]
Release	October 4, 1988 (1988-10-04)

American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards,^[3] about important or interesting events and people in American history.

The series premiered on October 4, 1988, and was originally titled The American Experience. It was shortened to American Experience during a rebrand and image update. The show has had a presence on the internet since 1995, and more than 100 American Experience programs are accompanied by their own internet websites, which provide background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials.^[4] The show is produced primarily by WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET (Channel 13) in New York City.

Some programs considered part of the American Experience collection were produced prior to the creation of the series. Vietnam: A Television History was one of them, airing originally in 1983 after taking six years to assemble.^[5] Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Episodes

Season	Episodes	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	First aired	Last aired
1	16	October 4, 1988 (1988-10-04)	January 17, 1989 (1989-01-17)
2	15	October 3, 1989 (1989-10-03)	February 12, 1990 (1990-02-12)
3	12	October 1, 1990 (1990-10-01)	May 6, 1991 (1991-05-06)
4	12	September 30, 1991 (1991-09-30)	February 17, 1992 (1992-02-17)
5	15	September 20, 1992 (1992-09-20)	March 1, 1993 (1993-03-01)
6	7	October 27, 1993 (1993-10-27)	May 25, 1994 (1994-05-25)
7	9	October 11, 1994 (1994-10-11)	May 9, 1995 (1995-05-09)
8	9	October 16, 1995 (1995-10-16)	February 26, 1996 (1996-02-26)
9	9	October 6, 1996 (1996-10-06)	July 28, 1997 (1997-07-28)
10	18	October 5, 1997 (1997-10-05)	March 2, 1998 (1998-03-02)
11	13	November 18, 1998 (1998-11-18)	May 17, 1999 (1999-05-17)
12	15	November 14, 1999 (1999-11-14)	May 23, 2000 (2000-05-23)
13	13	October 17, 2000 (2000-10-17)	April 30, 2001 (2001-04-30)
14	14	September 30, 2001 (2001-09-30)	May 12, 2002 (2002-05-12)
15	13	November 11, 2002 (2002-11-11)	July 14, 2003 (2003-07-14)
16	9	September 8, 2003 (2003-09-08)	May 3, 2004 (2004-05-03)
17	12	October 4, 2004 (2004-10-04)	July 4, 2005 (2005-07-04)
18	13	October 17, 2005 (2005-10-17)	May 22, 2006 (2006-05-22)
19	18	October 2, 2006 (2006-10-02)	May 14, 2007 (2007-05-14)
20	18	January 14, 2008 (2008-01-14)	May 6, 2008 (2008-05-06)
21	10	January 26, 2009 (2009-01-26)	May 18, 2009 (2009-05-18)
22	8	November 2, 2009 (2009-11-02)	May 10, 2010 (2010-05-10)
23	12	October 11, 2010 (2010-10-11)	May 16, 2011 (2011-05-16)
24	7	January 10, 2012 (2012-01-10)	May 1, 2012 (2012-05-01)
25	6	September 18, 2012 (2012-09-18)	February 5, 2013 (2013-02-05)
26	9	October 29, 2013 (2013-10-29)	June 24, 2014 (2014-06-24)
27	8	November 18, 2014 (2014-11-18)	July 14, 2015 (2015-07-14)
28	10	September 14, 2015 (2015-09-14)	August 2, 2016 (2016-08-02)
29	10	October 18, 2016 (2016-10-18)	April 12, 2017 (2017-04-12)
30	6	January 9, 2018 (2018-01-09)	October 16, 2018 (2018-10-16)
31	9	January 15, 2019 (2019-01-15)	September 10, 2019 (2019-09-10)
32	9	January 6, 2020 (2020-01-06)	July 7, 2020 (2020-07-07)
33	5	January 11, 2021 (2021-01-11)	September 28, 2021 (2021-09-28)
34	7	February 7, 2022 (2022-02-07)	November 15, 2022 (2022-11-15)
35	8	January 3, 2023 (2023-01-03)	October 30, 2023 (2023-10-30)
36	TBA	January 23, 2024 (2024-01-23)	TBA

Critical reception

American Experience has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Glenn McNatt of The Baltimore Sun wrote that it is "TV's finest history series ever."^[6] Steve Johnson of Chicago Tribune wrote, "History comes alive in excellent docu-series."^[7]

Home media

A DVD boxset collecting episodes about United States presidents was released on August 26, 2008.^[8] The collection was updated to include the documentary on Bill Clinton's presidency on August 28, 2012,^[9] and the documentary on George W. Bush's presidency^[10] on May 4, 2020.

A DVD boxset for the five-part documentary We Shall Remain was released on May 12, 2009.^[11]

Awards

References

^ "Cameo George Named Executive Producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, WGBH's Acclaimed History Series on PBS" (Press release). WGBH. July 23, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
^ "Broadcast Schedule • American Experience • WGBH". PBS. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
^ "About the Series . American Experience . WGBH". PBS. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
^ "American Experience | Who We Are". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved October 23, 2012.
^ "American Experience | Vietnam Online | About the TV Series". PBS. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
^ Mcnatt, Glenn (January 13, 2008). "Best of This Week". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
^ Johnson, Steve (October 22, 2008). "TV can be good for you". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
^ "American Experience: The Presidents Collection". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. August 26, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
^ "American Experience: The Presidents". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. August 28, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
^ "American Experience: The Presidents". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. July 21, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2024.
^ "We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. May 12, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2020.

External links

American Experience episodes

Seasons: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35

1964
A Brilliant Madness
Adam Clayton Powell
The Amish
Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film
Bataan Rescue
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
The Chinese Exclusion Act
Clinton
Command and Control
Coney Island
D-Day
Daughter from Danang
Dinosaur Wars
The Donner Party
Earth Days
Eyes on the Prize
Family Gathering
Freedom on My Mind
Freedom Riders
Freedom Summer
George H.W. Bush
George W. Bush
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
The Great War
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
John and Abigail Adams
The Johnstown Flood
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Last Days in Vietnam
LBJ
The Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
MacArthur
Malcolm X: Make It Plain
Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind
Midnight Ramble
Miss America
The Mormons
The Murder of Emmett Till
My Lai
New York: A Documentary Film
Nixon's China Game
Radio Bikini
Return with Honor
Roots of Resistance: The Story of the Underground Railroad
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Stonewall Uprising
Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
Truman
Two Days in October
Ulysses S. Grant
Vietnam: A Television History
Walt Disney
We Shall Remain
Wild by Law
Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of the American Century
The Wright Stuff

Awards for American Experience

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
1990s	American Experience (1998) American Experience / American Masters (1999)
2000s	American Masters (2000) American Masters (2001) Biography (2002) American Masters (2003) American Masters (2004) Broadway: The American Musical (2005) 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America (2006) Planet Earth (2007) American Masters / This American Life (2008) American Masters (2009)
2010s	The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2010) American Masters (2011) Frozen Planet (2012) American Masters (2013) American Masters / Years of Living Dangerously (2014) The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015) Making a Murderer (2016) Planet Earth II (2017) Wild Wild Country (2018) Our Planet (2019)
2020s	The Last Dance (2020) Secrets of the Whales (2021) The Beatles: Get Back (2022) The 1619 Project (2023) Beckham (2024)

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
1990s	Vietnam POWs: A Story of Survival (1998) Thug Life in D.C. (1999)
2000s	Children in War (2000) Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (American Experience) (2001) 9/11 (2002) Benjamin Franklin (2003) The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's (2004) Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005) Rome: Engineering an Empire (2006) Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007) Autism: The Musical (2008) 102 Minutes That Changed America (2009)
2010s	Teddy: In His Own Words (2010) Gettysburg (2011) George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2012) Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden (2013) JFK (American Experience) (2014) Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) 13th (2017) The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018) Leaving Neverland (2019)
2020s	The Apollo (2020) Boys State (2021) George Carlin's American Dream (2022) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) Jim Henson Idea Man (2024)

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking
2000s	Death in Gaza (2005) Baghdad ER / Two Days in October (American Experience) (2006) A Lion in the House (Independent Lens) / When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2007) White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2008) The Alzheimer's Project: "The Memory Loss Tapes" (2009)
2010s	The Betrayal – Nerakhoon (POV) (2010) Freedom Riders (American Experience) (2011) Have You Heard from Johannesburg? (Independent Lens) (2012) Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2013) Life According to Sam (2014) Citizenfour (2015) Cartel Land / Jim: The James Foley Story (2016) LA 92 (2017) Strong Island (2018) RBG / The Sentence (2019)
2020s	The Cave (2020) 76 Days (2021) When Claude Got Shot (2022) The Territory (2023) Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2024)

v t e TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
1980s	Nightline (1985) Nightline / The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America (1986) Eyes on the Prize (1987) Nightline (1988) CNN (1989)
1990s	CNN (1990) CNN’s Gulf War coverage (1991) Frontline (1992) Frontline (1993) Nightline (1994) Frontline / Nightline (1995) Frontline (1996) American Experience (1997) American Experience (1998) Cold War (1999)
2000s	ABC 2000 Today (2000) Jazz (2001) Frontline (2002) Frontline (2003) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2004) Frontline (2005) Frontline (2006) Planet Earth (2007) The War (2008) The Alzheimer’s Project (2009)
2010s	Life (2010) Restrepo (2011) 60 Minutes (2012) The Central Park Five (2013) Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2015) Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (2016) O.J.: Made in America (2017) Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2018) Leaving Neverland (2019)
2020s	The Last Dance (2020) Framing Britney Spears (2021) The Beatles: Get Back (2022) The U.S. and the Holocaust (2023) Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (2024)

v t e PBS
Documentaries	Independent Lens (episodes) (since August 9, 1999) PBS Short Film Festival (since 2012) POV (episodes) (since July 5, 1988)
Drama	Masterpiece (since January 10, 1971)
Music and fine arts	American Masters (since June 22, 1986) Art:21 (since 2001) Austin City Limits (since January 3, 1976) Bluegrass Underground (since 2011) Craft in America (since 2007) Great Performances (episodes) (since November 4, 1972) Next at the Kennedy Center (since 2023)
History	American Experience (episodes) (since October 4, 1988) Antiques Roadshow (since January 9, 1997) Finding Your Roots (since March 25, 2012) Secrets of the Dead (since May 15, 2000)
News and public affairs	Amanpour & Company (since September 10, 2018) BBC World News America (since June 3, 2019 from American Public Television) Firing Line (episodes) (April 4, 1966 – December 26, 1999; since June 22, 2018) Frontline (episodes) (since January 17, 1983) PBS News Hour (since October 20, 1975) To the Contrary (since April 3, 1992) Washington Week (since February 23, 1967)
Personalities	Samantha Brown Ken Burns Ric Burns Michael Gerson Amy Holmes Bill Moyers Hari Sreenivasan Judy Woodruff
How-to and special interest	MotorWeek (since October 15, 1981) This Old House (episodes) (since January 1, 1979)
Science and nature	Nature (episodes) (since October 10, 1982) Nova (episodes) (since March 3, 1974)
Networks	Create PBS PBS America (UK) PBS Digital Studios PBS Kids PBS YOU¹ World Channel
Major stations	Boston WGBH WGBX Chicago WTTW Dallas KERA Houston KUHT Los Angeles KCET KLCS KOCE Maryland MPT Miami–Ft. Lauderdale–West Palm Beach WLRN WPBT WXEL New Jersey NJ PBS New York WLIW WNET Philadelphia–Wilmington–Lehigh Valley WHYY WLVT Pittsburgh WQED San Francisco/Watsonville/San Jose KQED KQEH KQET Tampa–St. Petersburg WEDQ WEDU Washington, D.C. WETA WHUT
Former	BBC OS (January 1, 2020 – March 30, 2023) A Chef's Life (September 7, 2013 – October 22, 2018) Need to Know (May 7, 2010 – June 28, 2013) We'll Meet Again with Ann Curry (January 23, 2018 – January 8, 2019)
Related	Public broadcasting in the United States Corporation for Public Broadcasting America's Public Television Stations List of PBS member stations List of programs broadcast by PBS PBS Distribution PBS Satellite Service
¹Defunct network ²Distributed by American Public Television (APT)

v t e GBH
Television stations	WFXZ-CD¹ WGBH-TV WGBX-TV WGBY-TV
Radio stations	WCAI WCRB WGBH WNAN WZAI
Media accessibility\| efforts	Media Access Group (closed captioning and audio description) Descriptive Video Service
Television productions	American Experience Antiques Roadshow Arthur Ask This Old House Basic Black Between the Lions Cook's Country Curious George Decoding COVID-19 Design Squad Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman Food Trip with Todd English French in Action Frontline Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie Greater Boston High School Quiz Show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One Martha Speaks Masterpiece Molly of Denali Nova Nova ScienceNow Peep and the Big Wide World Pinkalicious & Peterrific Postcards from Buster Religious America Rough Cut with Fine Woodworking Simply Ming The New Yankee Workshop The Victory Garden This Old House Time Warp Trio Work It Out Wombats! Zoom 1972–1978 1999–2005
Radio productions	Innovation Hub The World
Distributions	PBS Distribution Public Radio International²
¹WFXZ-CD maintains a channel sharing agreement with WGBH-TV. ²Merged into Public Radio Exchange

Categories:

Hidden categories: