American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States, featuring award-winning documentaries about significant events and people in American history. Premiering on October 4, 1988, and produced mainly by WGBH-TV in Boston, it has embraced an online presence since 1995 with educational materials accompanying many episodes. The series has also featured earlier works like Vietnam: A Television History (1983) and rebroadcast influential documentaries such as Eyes on the Prize, covering the Civil Rights Movement.
Episodes
Main article: List of American Experience episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 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 | 7 | January 23, 2024 (2024-01-23) | November 30, 2024 (2024-11-30) | |
| 37 | 2 | February 25, 2025 (2025-02-25) | March 25, 2025 (2025-03-25) | |
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."4 Steve Johnson of Chicago Tribune wrote, "History comes alive in excellent docu-series."5
Home media
A DVD boxset collecting episodes about United States presidents was released on August 26, 2008.6 The collection was updated to include the documentary on Bill Clinton's presidency on August 28, 2012,7 and the documentary on George W. Bush's presidency8 on May 4, 2020.
A DVD boxset for the five-part documentary We Shall Remain was released on May 12, 2009.9
Awards
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by American Experience
External links
References
"About the Series . American Experience . WGBH". PBS. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304210802/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/about/award/broadcast ↩
"American Experience | Who We Are". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved October 23, 2012. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/about/ ↩
"American Experience | Vietnam Online | About the TV Series". PBS. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114112715/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/series/index.html ↩
Mcnatt, Glenn (January 13, 2008). "Best of This Week". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 13, 2019. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2008-01-13-0801140207-story.html ↩
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. https://web.archive.org/web/20180916051546/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-10-22-0810210307-story.html ↩
"American Experience: The Presidents Collection". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. August 26, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2020. https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B0019F02YE ↩
"American Experience: The Presidents". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. August 28, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2020. https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Presidents/dp/B0081NAUOO ↩
"American Experience: The Presidents". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. July 21, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2024. https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-George-W-Bush/dp/B084DGNG53?crid=CL1N2CI11SR7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.a6TW36fIVSURKk6n4i68ffyrXC3HuqPMowzmtvduf8yGGOqa-gOj1p56Os70YD4mWW-sNIgn9qZxkEtlVKW7Vzyv4h1jka1B6ZkNaopo_a_4Ycfe0zw6PW2sHbFpCxC1BH3MyO23UgGdwyarBKO_joq_jv0C8AvoJuzoRBNVCYUg_YlMfu1vWoBqTj38uYAoI-D8ZGfCH--Tt3Ijsa6CORjwEF4og0uqMUr-DGBLtsI.aKHdq1rafpSGPVAdpGKW5m61Z0wXFYzafYV74QPyd-k&dib_tag=se&keywords=george+w+bush+american+experience&qid=1733808915&sprefix=george+w+bush+amer%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1 ↩
"We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes". Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. May 12, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2020. https://www.amazon.com/We-Shall-Remain-America-Through/dp/B001UW59JO ↩