''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

(PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history. 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 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. 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 also ...

: America's Civil Rights Years'', the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement 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'' wrote that it is "TV's finest history series ever." Steve Johnson of '' Chicago Tribune'' 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