The BEST episodes directed by Rob Rapley
#1 - The Poisoner's Handbook
American Experience - Season 26 - Episode 4
The story of New York City's first medical examiner, Charles Norris (1867-1935), and his chief toxicologist, Alexander Gettler (1883-1968), who pioneered the use of forensic science to explain violent and suspicious deaths. Included: remarks from renowned medical examiners Marcella Fierro and Michael Baden; and author Deborah Blum ("The Poisoner's Handbook"). Oliver Platt narrates.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - The Abolitionists: 1854-Emancipation and Victory
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 4
Examine the forces leading to war and to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - The Abolitionists: 1838-1854
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 3
See how the activities of the five principals intersect and affect the anti-slavery movement.
Watch Now:Amazon
#4 - The Greely Expedition
American Experience - Season 23 - Episode 10
In 1881, 25 men led by Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a "sheer blank." Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The film reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy.
Watch Now:Amazon#5 - Murder of a President
American Experience - Season 28 - Episode 7
The story of James Garfield, one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president, and his assassination by a deluded madman named Charles Guiteau. Follow Garfield's unprecedented rise to power, his shooting only four months into his presidency, and its bizarre and heartbreaking aftermath.
#6 - The Secret of Tuxedo Park
American Experience - Season 30 - Episode 2
In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his country’s most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — to a Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Using his connections, his money, and his brilliant scientific mind, Loomis and his team of scientists developed radar technology that played a more decisive role than any other weapon in World War II.
#7 - The Abolitionists: 1820s-1838
American Experience - Season 25 - Episode 2
Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
#8 - Wyatt Earp
American Experience - Season 22 - Episode 2
The complex life of a man who has come to represent western justice but had many connections to lawlessness.
#9 - Buffalo Bill
American Experience - Season 20 - Episode 13
The varied career of William Cody - from western legend to even greater fame in preserving the culture and mystique of the lifestyle through his "Wild West" shows.
#10 - The Great War (3)
American Experience - Season 29 - Episode 10
Chart the ways in which the bloodiest battle in American history, and the ensuing peace, forever changed a president and a nation. In the fall of 1918, the deadly flu swept through cities at home and at the front. When the tide of war turned, the Germans wanted a cease-fire on Wilson's terms. On November 11, 1918, the war was over, but for Wilson, the last fight remained. He negotiated the terms of the peace treaty and won the world over to his League of Nations, but felled by a stroke, he failed to convince the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, with tragic consequences. While Wilson had heralded the triumph of American values abroad, many were worried about democracy at home; with citizens persecuted, "aliens" interned, and cities torn apart by race riots. The Great War changed the country forever. African Americans who had fought in the war found ways to continue to push for change. Women's suffrage gained converts, including Wilson. And America stepped onto the world stage.