The WORST episodes of American Experience

#1 - Hawaii's Last Queen

Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/27/1997

In 1893, the last sovereign ruler of Hawaii is removed by forces that want the islands to come under the official jurisdiction of the United States.

#2 - Fly Girls

Season 11 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/24/1999

The lives of the Women Air Service Pilots (WASPs) and their flying exploits within the US during World War II.

#3 - Lost in the Grand Canyon

Season 11 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/5/1999

Geologist and explorer John Wesley Powell undertakes a dangerous water trip down the Colorado River with a crew of adventure-seekers.

#4 - Meltdown at Three Mile Island

Season 11 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/22/1999

An account of the causes of the partial core meltdown at the Pennsylvania nuclear power plant in 1979 and the reactions of staff and the public.

#5 - Rescue at Sea

Season 11 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/15/1999

The collision of two large ocean-going vessels in 1909 puts the new wireless telegraph to the test.

#6 - Alone on the Ice

Season 11 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/8/1999

An account of Robert Byrd's adventures at the poles and his trials in Antarctica.

#7 - Race for the Superbomb

Season 11 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/11/1999

The United States and the Soviet Union work on weapons even more powerful than the earlier atomic bomb during the height of the Cold War.

#8 - America 1900 (1): Spirit of the Age

Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/18/1998

America 1900 presents a comprehensive picture of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Both the program and the site offer compelling images, information, and documents about American life. Students will be able to grasp historical concepts and issues through the stories of ordinary people across the country. Diverse voices and faces will help expand students' knowledge and understanding of the time period and how it relates to our lives today. The program also explores key themes such as the impact of technology, the rise of racism, immigration and the search for a national identity, and the rise of America as a world power. A film by David Grubin Productions, Inc. Produced and directed by David Grubin. Written by Judy Crichton and David Grubin.

#9 - Vietnam: A Television History (9): Peace Is at Hand

Season 9 - Episode 21 - Aired 7/14/1997

As President Nixon escalates the bombing of Hanoi and North Vietnamese troops advance, negotiators struggle for four years to sign a peace treaty that will be broken quickly. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#10 - Big Dream, Small Screen

Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/10/1997

How Philo Farnsworth combined his work with other emerging technologies to contribute to the development of television.

#11 - MacArthur (1): Destiny

Season 11 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/17/1999

Part 1 of a two-part biography of Douglas MacArthur takes "America's first soldier" from his brilliant WWI service into WWII, when his knack for alienating superiors hindered his "return" to the Philippines.

#12 - The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie

Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/20/1997

A chronicle of the rise of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, his steel empire, and his philanthropy.

#13 - Spy in the Sky

Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/26/1996

The Cold War forces the United States to build very high altitude U2 planes to record photographs of opposing nations.

#14 - The Wright Stuff

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/12/1996

The story of Wilbur and Orville Wright and the earliest days of aviation.

#15 - Daley: The Last Boss

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/22/1996

Biography of Chicago mayor Richard Daley, considered one of the last major heads of big city "machine" politics in the United States.

#16 - Chicago 1968

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/13/1995

The nation watches a political convention that in many ways is a symbol of the turbulent times in which it was held.

#17 - Edison's Miracle of Light

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/23/1995

Inventor Thomas A. Edison experiments with electricity, long-burning filaments, and glass bulbs to give America an alternative to gas lights.

#18 - Murder of the Century

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/16/1995

The nation is fascinated by the high-profile murder of a famous architect, apparently because of jealousy over a popular female stage performer.

#19 - The Way West (1): Westward, the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1845-1864)

Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/8/1995

#20 - Return with Honor

Season 13 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/13/2000

An account of American P.O.W.s in Vietnam and their return to life in the United States.

#21 - A Brilliant Madness

Season 14 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/28/2002

Story of the life of MIT mathematician John Nash - from exceptional theory to struggles with mental illness.

#22 - Ansel Adams

Season 14 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/21/2002

From the day that a 14-year-old Ansel Adams first saw the transcendent beauty of the Yosemite Valley, his life was, in his words, "colored and modulated by the great earth-gesture of the Sierra." Few American photographers have reached a wider audience than Adams, and none has had more impact on how Americans grasp the majesty of their continent. In this elegant, moving and lyrical portrait of the most eloquent and quintessentially American of photographers, producer Ric Burns seeks to explore the meaning and legacy of Adams' life and work. At the heart of the film are the great themes that absorbed Adams throughout his career: the beauty and fragility of "the American earth," the inseparable bond of man and nature, and the moral obligation the present owes to the future.

#23 - Monkey Trial

Season 14 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/17/2002

Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan square-off in a battle of rhetoric and legal manuevers over the teaching of evolution in Tennessee.

#24 - Miss America

Season 14 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/27/2002

The growth of the famed beauty contest from a small promotional event for late-season tourism to a national phenomenon.

#25 - Stephen Foster

Season 13 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/23/2001

Chronicle of the short life of one of America's first nationally-recognized songwriters.