The BEST episodes of American Experience
Every episode of American Experience ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Experience!
Presents an absorbing look at the personalities, events and resources that have had a profound impact on the shaping of America's past and present.
#1 - The Battle Over Citizen Kane
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/29/1996
Orson Welles' movie stirs the ire of publisher William Randolph Hearst, the man who the film was patterned after.
#2 - Secrets of a Master Builder
Season 13 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/30/2000
The contributions of James B. Eads in understanding and altering the great Mississippi River during the second half of the 19th century.
#3 - Partners of the Heart
Season 15 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/10/2003
A tale of the partnership between a white doctor and a young African-American in pioneering cardiac surgical procedures during the World War II era.
#4 - FDR (3): The Grandest Job in the World (1933-1940)
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1994
In episode three, the subject is FDR's leadership of America during the Great Depression. The nation turned to this son of great wealth for a host of social programs that promised a New Deal for the common man.
#5 - We Shall Remain (4): Geronimo
Season 21 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/4/2009
A portrait of the Chiracahua Apache who was one of the last Native Americans to continue armed resistance in North America.
#6 - We Shall Remain (5): Wounded Knee
Season 21 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/11/2009
Rebellious Lakota and allies take up arms in 1973 and force an examination of the failures of the reservation system in the United States.
#7 - The Abolitionists: 1838-1854
Season 25 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/15/2013
See how the activities of the five principals intersect and affect the anti-slavery movement.
#8 - God Bless America and Poland, Too
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/22/1990
Episode focusing on Polish immigration in the 1910s and the contributions of Poles to the United States.
#9 - The Rise and Fall of Penn Station
Season 26 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/18/2014
In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad successfully accomplished the enormous engineering feat of building tunnels under New York City's Hudson and East Rivers, connecting the railroad to New York and New England, knitting together the entire eastern half of the United States. The tunnels terminated in what was one of the greatest architectural achievements of its time, Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station covered nearly eight acres, extended two city blocks, and housed one of the largest public spaces in the world. But just 53 years after the station’s opening, the monumental building that was supposed to last forever, to herald and represent the American Empire, was slated to be destroyed.
#10 - Freedom Summer
Season 26 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/24/2014
In the summer of 1964, more than 700 students join with organizers and local blacks to canvas for voter registration, create Freedom Schools and establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
#11 - The Boys of '36
Season 28 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/2/2016
A group of working-class boys from the University of Washington, in the United States, surprise a nation when they capture the gold medal in rowing at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin.
#12 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Season 26 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/11/2014
Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, better known as Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, form the Wild Bunch gang and pull off the longest string of holdups in history.
#14 - The Civilian Conservation Corps
Season 22 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/2/2009
FDR establishes a back-to-work program that generates employment and addresses some of the nation's environmental needs during the Great Depression.
#15 - War of the Worlds
Season 25 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/2013
Shortly after 8 p.m. on October 30th, 1938, the voice of a panicked radio announcer broke in with a news bulletin reporting strange explosions taking place on the planet Mars, followed minutes later by a report that Martians had landed in the tiny town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey. It turned out to be H.G. Wells' classic 'The War of the Worlds', performed by 23-year-old Orson Welles. Although most listeners understood that the program was a radio drama, the next day's headlines reported that thousands of others plunged into panic, convinced that America was under a deadly Martian attack. 75 years after the original radio broadcast, 'American Experience' examines the elements that came together to create one of the biggest mass hysteria events in U.S. history.
#16 - The Poisoner's Handbook
Season 26 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2014
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.
#17 - 1964
Season 26 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2014
Recalling 1964, a pivotal year in U.S. history. While the Beatles captured the imaginations of the nation's youth, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, unveiled his vision of a "Great Society" and squared off against Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. Also covered: the murders of three Freedom Summer volunteers; and the influence of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique." Based in part on Jon Margolis' "The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964."
#18 - Nixon (3): The Fall
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/15/1990
Chronicle of the 37th President - from his earliest ambitions to his innovative foreign policy and paranoia of perceived rivals.
#19 - LBJ (2)
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/1/1991
Lyndon Johnson's ascension to the Presidency and the controversial events of his tenure such as the Great Society and the Vietnam War are chronicled here.
#20 - JFK: Part 1
Season 25 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/2013
JFK’s rise to power. With illuminating interviews from family members, including sister Jean Kennedy Smith, historian Robert Dallek, and author Robert Caro, this episode offers new insight into Kennedy’s early years. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is one of nine children born to one of the wealthiest men in America. Unlike his robust siblings, he is haunted by a mysterious illness. Finally diagnosed with Addison’s disease, he will spend his life in and out of hospitals and in constant pain. Jack Kennedy first bursts onto the national stage as a war hero through his courageous rescue of his PT-109 crewmen. When his older brother, Joe Jr., is killed in the line of duty in 1944, the family’s political hopes shift to Jack. Despite the odds, he wins his Grandfather Fitzgerald’s old Massachusetts congressional seat. With his congressional win, Kennedy rises in power and influence, unseating Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in a surprising victory.
#21 - Walt Disney (2)
Season 27 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/15/2015
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE offers an unprecedented look at the life and legacy of one of America’s most enduring and influential storytellers in Walt Disney, a new two-part, four-hour film premiering Monday and Tuesday, September 14-15, 2015, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS
Watch Now:Amazon#22 - The Amish: Shunned
Season 26 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/4/2014
Filmed over the course of twelve months, The Amish: Shunned follows seven former members of the Amish community as they reflect on their decisions to leave one of the most closed and tightly-knit communities in the United States. Estranged from family, the ex-Amish find themselves struggling to understand and make their way in modern America. Interwoven through the stories are the voices of Amish men and women who remain staunchly loyal to their traditions and faith. They explain the importance of obedience, the strong ties that bind their communities together, and the pain they endure when a loved one falls away.
#23 - Geronimo and the Apache Resistance
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/22/1988
Account of the famous Native American leader's battle against the US in the American southwest from the viewpoints of historians and modern Apaches.
#24 - Henry Ford
Season 25 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/29/2013
An absorbing life story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management, and a thought-provoking reminder of how Ford's automobile forever changed the way we work, where we live, and our ideas about individuality, freedom, and possibility.
#25 - New York (5): Cosmopolis (1919-1931)
Season 12 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/18/1999
In this short but dazzling period, New York became the focal point of an extraordinary array of human and cultural energies, reaching its highest levels of urban excitement and glamour. In just over a decade, New York gave birth to its signature skyscrapers, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, and to artistic creations like F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," and to the jazz compositions of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Along the way, Harlem emerged as the undisputed capital of the African- American experience and the new media industries of advertising, radio networks, public relations, and magazines found their homes in midtown Manhattan.
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