''American Experience'' is a
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
airing on the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. The program airs
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in
American history
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densel ...
.
The series premiered on October 4, 1988 and was originally titled ''The American Experience'', but the
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
...
"The" was dropped during a later 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 have more background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials. The show is produced primarily by
WGBH-TV in
Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons of the show, it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as
WNET (Channel 13) in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Some programs now 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. Also, in 2006, ''American Experience'' rebroadcast ''
Eyes on the Prize
''Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement'' is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network, and it als ...
: America's Civil Rights Years'', the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
during the 1950s and 1960s.
Episodes
Critical reception
''American Experience'' has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Glenn McNatt of ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' wrote that it is "TV's finest history series ever." Steve Johnson of ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' wrote, "History comes alive in excellent docu-series."
Home media
A DVD boxset collecting episodes about United States presidents was released on August 26, 2008. The collection was updated to include the
documentary on
Bill Clinton's presidency on August 28, 2012.
A DVD boxset for the five-part documentary ''
We Shall Remain'' was released on May 12, 2009.
Awards
References
External links
''American Experience'' website*
{{WGBH
1988 American television series debuts
1980s American documentary television series
1990s American documentary television series
2000s American documentary television series
2010s American documentary television series
2020s American documentary television series
PBS original programming
Peabody Award-winning television programs
Television series about the history of the United States
Television series by WGBH