The WORST episodes of American Experience

#1 - Gold Fever

Season 9 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/12/1997

The story of the last great gold rush in North America, the search in the Yukon and Klondike at the end of the 19th century.

#2 - 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.

#3 - 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.

#4 - 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.

#5 - Race for the Super Bomb

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.

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

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

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

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

#8 - 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.

#9 - Vietnam: A Television History (7): Vietnamizing the War

Season 9 - Episode 19 - Aired 6/30/1997

As the U.S. turns over the war to the South Vietnamese army, American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens feel the dimming prospects for victory. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#10 - Vietnam: A Television History (5): America's Enemy

Season 9 - Episode 17 - Aired 6/16/1997

The war Americans seldom saw: the view from North Vietnam, featuring the perspectives of communist leaders, Vietcong guerrillas and American prisoners of war. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#11 - Vietnam: A Television History (3): LBJ Goes to War

Season 9 - Episode 15 - Aired 6/2/1997

Charging that North Vietnam has attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Lyndon B. Johnson orders bombing raids and sends 200,000 troops into an undeclared war. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#12 - Vietnam: A Television History (1): The First Vietnam War (1946-1954)

Season 9 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/26/1997

This program traces the rise of a pro-American Vietnamese nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, whose Viet Minh guerrillas grab a stunning victory over French colonial forces. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#13 - 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.

#14 - Around the World in 72 Days

Season 9 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/28/1997

Groundbreaking New York reporter Nellie Bly uses all manner of transportation to beat the fictional feat of Verne's Phileas Fogg.

#15 - 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.

#16 - 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.

#17 - 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.

#18 - T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign

Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/6/1996

#19 - 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.

#20 - The Wright Stuff

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

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

#21 - 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.

#22 - 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.

#23 - 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.

#24 - 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.

#25 - 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.