''American Experience'' is a

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. 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 Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

. 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: G ...

"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 WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's se ...

in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons of the show, it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

(Channel 13) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. 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: 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 a ...

'' 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 ''We Shall Remain'' (2009) is a five-part, 7.5-hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans in the United States, from the 17th century into the 20th century. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writ ...

'' 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