The BEST episodes written by Michelle Ferrari

#1 - War of the Worlds

American Experience - Season 26 - Episode 1

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.

#2 - The Gold Rush

American Experience - Season 19 - Episode 9

The story of gold in California and the migration, immigration, and economy that remained after the riches were gone.

#3 - Panama Canal

American Experience - Season 23 - Episode 9

The 1904-1914 construction of the Panama Canal, the 50-mile link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is recalled via archival footage, photos and interviews with workers, as well as insights from historians. The undertaking cost the U.S. about $375 million and 5609 workers (out of 56,307), who perished from both accidents and disease. The documentary also explores what life was like for the workers, who were a mix of Americans, Europeans and West Indians. On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as a global superpower. American ingenuity and innovation had succeeded where, fifteen years earlier, the French had failed disastrously. But the U.S. paid a price for victory: a decade of ceaseless, grinding toil, an outlay of more than 350 million dollars -- the largest single federal expenditure in history to that time -- and the loss of more than 5,000 lives. Along the way, Central America witnessed the brazen overthrow of a sovereign government, the influx of over 55,000 workers from around the globe, the removal of hundreds of millions of tons of earth, and engineering innovation on an unprecedented scale. The construction of the Canal was the epitome of man’s mastery over nature and signaled the beginning of America’s domination of world affairs. The second half of the 19th century was a time of expansion and great technological advancement. Americans built the Brooklyn Bridge and completed the Transcontinental Railroad. The French had constructed the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869 and set their sights on a canal through the Panamanian Isthmus. But after eight years of earthquakes, floods and disease-stunted progress, the French returned home bankrupt. The canal project would lay abandoned for nearly 15 years. When President Theodore Roosevelt came to office in 1901, he saw the creation and control of the canal as the key to America projecting itself as a world powe

#4 - Edison

American Experience - Season 27 - Episode 4

EDISON explores the complex alchemy that accounts for the enduring celebrity of America's most famous inventor, offering new perspectives on the man and his milieu, and illuminating not only the true nature of invention, but its role in turn-of-the-century America's rush into the future.

#5 - The Perfect Crime

American Experience - Season 28 - Episode 8

The shocking story of Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb, two wealthy college students who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 1924 to prove they were smart enough to get away with it. Their trial, with famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow and Cook County Prosecutor Robert Crowe, set off a national debate about morality and capital punishment.

#6 - Rachel Carson

American Experience - Season 29 - Episode 4

She set out to save a species...us. An intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world.

#7 - Roads to Memphis

American Experience - Season 22 - Episode 7

A treatment of the assassination of Martin Luther King by James Earl Ray from the perspective of the actual lives of the two men.

#8 - Miss America

American Experience - Season 14 - Episode 7

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

#9 - Seabiscuit

American Experience - Season 15 - Episode 11

He was boxy, with stumpy legs that wouldn't completely straighten, a short straggly tail and an ungainly gait, but though he didn't look the part, Seabiscuit was one of the most remarkable thoroughbred racehorses in history. In the 1930s, when Americans longed to escape the grim realities of Depression-era life, four men turned Seabiscuit into a national hero. They were his fabulously wealthy owner Charles Howard, his famously silent and stubborn trainer Tom Smith, and the two hard-bitten, gifted jockeys who rode him to glory. By following the paths that brought these four together and in telling the story of Seabiscuit's unlikely career, this film illuminates the precarious economic conditions that defined America in the 1930s and explores the fascinating behind-the-scenes world of thoroughbred racing.

#10 - Las Vegas: An Unconventional History (1): Sin City

American Experience - Season 18 - Episode 3

The story of the circumstances that led to the founding of what would become a huge tourist destination in the desert.

#11 - Las Vegas: An Unconventional History (2): American Mecca

American Experience - Season 18 - Episode 4

#12 - New Orleans

American Experience - Season 19 - Episode 12

The historical, social, and geographic factors that shaped one of America's most uniquely individual cities.

#13 - Kit Carson

American Experience - Season 20 - Episode 10

The true story behind the mountain man whose unique abilities were critical to America's westward expansion.