The WORST episodes of American Experience

#1 - 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.

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

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

#3 - 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.

#4 - 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.

#5 - 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.

#6 - 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.

#7 - 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.

#8 - The Wright Stuff

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

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

#9 - 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.

#10 - America 1900 (4): Anything Seemed Possible

Season 11 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/25/1998

#11 - 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.

#12 - 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.

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

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

#14 - One Woman, One Vote

Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/15/1995

The struggle of the women's movement and the 19th Amendment that finally extended national suffrage to women.

#15 - Freedom on My Mind

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/15/1996

An account of the struggle to register African Americans to vote in the state of Mississippi in the 1960s.

#16 - Midnight Ramble

Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1994

Oscar Micheaux and the History of Race. Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed over 40 movies and despite this was really not known because he was African American . This movie recounts the history of the black film industry from 1910 to the 1940s and includes rare clips and highlights.

#17 - Telegrams from the Dead

Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1994

A program that examines America's fascination with spiritualism and the occult in the second half of the 1800s.

#18 - Eleanor Roosevelt

Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/10/2000

Biography of the wife of FDR, her early life, marriage, and rise to the position of one of the most influential and respected women of the 20th century.

#19 - 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.

#20 - The Wizard of Photography

Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/22/2000

The story of the innovations that made photography affordable and easy enough for any American to enjoy.

#21 - Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/8/2000

The life of the "Yankee Clipper," from his humble beginnings as the son of an Italian-American fisherman in California to his world-wide acclaim.

#22 - George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (2)

Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/24/2000

#23 - George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (1)

Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/23/2000

The tumultuous career of the controversial politician from Alabama.

#24 - Houdini

Season 12 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/24/2000

In 1912 Harry Houdini was lowered into New York's East River in a crate wrapped in chains. The crowd of spectators gasped; reporters pulled out their stop watches. Houdini was out in less than a minute. The resulting media blitz established him forever as the world's greatest escape artist. On stage, Houdini subjected himself to the Water Torture Cell, being buried alive, and other perils of his own design. Throughout his rise from Hungarian immigrant to international star, Houdini confronted our greatest fears entrapment, pain, death -- and emerged victorious. Produced by Nancy Porter. Mandy Patinkin narrates.

#25 - John Brown's Holy War

Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/28/2000

Rise and fall of the volatile and sometimes violent abolitionist.