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American Experience

American Experience Season 15

Watch 'American Experience' Season 15 Online

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Season 15 Episodes

1. Jimmy Carter (1): Jimmy Who?

November 11th, 200255 min

An evocative two-part profile of Jimmy Carter explores how his career has been shaped by what former speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg calls his "moral ideology." Produced by Adriana Bosch ("American Experience" biographies of Reagan and Grant), the film features comments by Carter's wife, Rosalynn, and son Chip, as well as historians, former Vice President Walter Mondale and a number of key Carter aides. Part 1 ends just after the 1976 campaign, which put Carter in the White House. He was, says Hertzberg, "exactly what the American people would say they want."

2. Jimmy Carter (2): Hostage

November 12th, 200255 min

"Hostage," the conclusion of a two-part Jimmy Carter biography, covers his presidency and post-presidency. Human rights were to be "a basic tenet of our foreign policy," Carter declared in 1977, but he was overwhelmed by events in Iran, and economic woes at home led to a "malaise" so severe that the 1978 Camp David accords didn't even give him a boost in the polls. Then came the hostage crisis. But back in Plains, he and Rosalynn regrouped. And now? As former Carter speechwriter Henrdrik Hertzberg puts it: "His values, his devotion to human rights, keep on resonating in a way that his failures and weaknesses don't."

3. Chicago: City of the Century (1): Mudhole to Metropolis

January 13th, 200355 min

A three-part history based on historian Donald L. Miller's book "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America." Part 1 begins with the arrival of French explorers Marquette and Joliet in 1673, and follows the digging of canals, and the arrival of railroads and industry. It ends with the Great Fire of 1871, which interrupted the city's explosive 19th-century growth only momentarily.

4. Chicago: City of the Century (2): The Revolution Has Begun

January 14th, 200355 min

A three-part history based on historian Donald L. Miller's book "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America." Part 2 covers the 1870s and '80s, when the city's can-do business leaders found themselves increasingly at odds with labor. The episode profiles meatpacker Augustus Swift; sleeping-car magnate George Pullman, who established what he hoped would become a utopian workers community; and merchant prince Marshall Field, who had no such notions. Then there were the anarchists.

5. Chicago: City of the Century (3): Battle for Chicago

January 15th, 200355 min

A three-part history based on historian Donald L. Miller's book "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America." Part 3 concludes by exploring the city's ethnic and class tensions during the 1880s and '90s. Ethnic groups banded together in what narrator David Ogden Stiers calls "a defensive communalism," but most immigrants headed first to the city's worst slum, the Near West Side, which was presided over by Alderman Johnny Powers, the "prince of the boodlers," who traded services for votes.

6. The Murder of Emmett Till

January 20th, 200355 min

Recalling the 1955 murder of a 14-year-old black youth in the Mississippi delta, an incident that could very well have launched the civil-rights movement. "He was a sacrificial lamb," says Mamie Till of her son Emmett, a fun-loving Chicago teen who was slain after whistling at a white woman outside a general store in Tallahatchee County, Miss. Less than a month after Till's mutilated body was found, two white defendants were acquitted (in 67 minutes) by an all-white jury.

7. Transcontinental Railroad

January 27th, 200355 min

Charting the race between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific to construct a transcontinental railroad to link the U.S. It ended May 10, 1869, in Promontory Point, Utah. The construction was "the engineering marvel of the 19th century -- and a flat-out swindle,” says narrator Michael Murphy. It was also "the technological manifestation of Manifest Destiny,” says historian Wendell Huffman, one of the program's commentators. And it sealed the fate of the Plains Indians. When the final spike was in place, Murphy says, "America could take its place as the first nation in the world."

8. Partners of the Heart

February 10th, 200355 min

Chronicling the unlikely partnership between a white surgeon and a black "technician" that led to a procedure to correct blue-baby syndrome in 1944. The principals: Vivien Thomas, a black man with only a high-school diploma, and Alfred Blalock, the patrician chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins. Blalock pioneered the surgery to correct the congenital heart defect, but it was Thomas who devised to procedures that were used. And they did it at a time, narrator Morgan Freeman says, when the two "could not share the same lunch table in the Hopkins cafeteria."

9. The Pill

February 24th, 200355 min

Charting the development of an oral contraceptive during the 1950s and its effect on "the sexual revolution" of the '60s. It was enormous. Says Sylvia Clark, who grew up before the pill was available: "Women began to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustaining." The hour examines reasons why, as it profiles the pill's key figures, including biologist Gregory Pincus and gynecologist John Rock; heiress Katharine Dexter McCormick, who financed the research; and Margaret Sanger, the activist who spearheaded it. Among Sanger's motivations: her own mother, who had 18 pregnancies (seven of them miscarriages) and died at 49.

10. Daughter from Danang

April 7th, 200355 min

"Daughter from Danang," an Oscar-nominated documentary, chronicles the tearful reunion of an Amerasian refugee with her Vietnamese family 22 years after the war ended. Heidi Bub, who was airlifted out of her homeland as the war was ending, grew up in Tennessee and calls herself "101 percent Americanized." The 1997 reunion is at first joyful, but cultural differences soon emerge, and after a few days she begins to feel "smothered" by her biological mother. Then, when her brother asks for financial support, Heidi turns bitter. It is, says Tran Tuong Nhu, the journalist who accompanied her, "more than she had bargained for."

11. Seabiscuit

April 21st, 200355 min

"Seabiscuit" recalls the squat and ugly racehorse that riveted the nation in the late 1930s. Interviewees include author Laura Hillenbrand ("Seabiscuit: An American Legend"), who charts the Cinderella story of this "equine catastrophe," as narrator Scott Glenn calls him, and his hard-luck jockey, Red Pollard, who kept getting hurt. But Seabiscuit won, often inspiringly and most notably in the 1940 Santa Anita Derby, in which both the horse and jockey were coming off injuries.

12. Bataan Rescue

July 7th, 200355 min

"Bataan Rescue," narrated by Scott Glenn, recalls the daring January 1945 commando raid that freed 513 survivors of the 1942 Bataan Death March who were being held in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines. Rescuers recall how they did it, and POWs describe what it meant to them. "That's the night I was reborn," says one. "That's my birthday."

13. Murder at Harvard

July 14th, 200355 min

Historian Simon Schama ("A History of Britain") plays sleuth -- searching, he says, "not for literal truth, but for poetic truth" -- as he speculates about whether an innocent man was executed for a 154-year-old "Murder at Harvard." The victim was prominent Boston physician-turned-businessman George Parkman, who disappeared on Nov. 23, 1849. Remains thought to be his were found a week later in the Harvard Medical College's basement, and chemistry professor John Webster, who owed Parkman money, was convicted of the crime on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

All Seasons

Season 36

Season 36

Jan 23, 2024
Season 35

Season 35

Jan 3, 2023
Season 34

Season 34

Feb 7, 2022
Season 33

Season 33

Jan 11, 2021
Season 32

Season 32

Jan 6, 2020
Season 31

Season 31

Jan 15, 2019
Season 30

Season 30

Jan 9, 2018
Season 29

Season 29

Jan 10, 2017
Season 28

Season 28

Jan 19, 2016
Season 27

Season 27

Jan 6, 2015
Season 26

Season 26

Jan 7, 2014
Season 25

Season 25

Jan 8, 2013
Season 24

Season 24

Jan 10, 2012
Season 23

Season 23

Oct 11, 2010
Season 22

Season 22

Nov 2, 2009
Season 21

Season 21

Jan 26, 2009
Season 20

Season 20

Jan 14, 2008
Season 19

Season 19

Oct 2, 2006
Season 18

Season 18

Oct 17, 2005
Season 17

Season 17

Oct 4, 2004
Season 16

Season 16

Sep 8, 2003
Season 15

Season 15

Nov 11, 2002
Season 14

Season 14

Sep 10, 2001
Season 13

Season 13

Oct 17, 2000
Season 12

Season 12

Nov 14, 1999
Season 11

Season 11

Nov 18, 1998
Season 10

Season 10

Oct 5, 1997
Season 9

Season 9

Oct 6, 1996
Season 8

Season 8

Oct 16, 1995
Season 7

Season 7

Oct 12, 1994
Season 6

Season 6

Oct 27, 1993
Season 5

Season 5

Sep 20, 1992
Season 4

Season 4

Sep 30, 1991
Season 3

Season 3

Aug 27, 1990
Season 2

Season 2

Oct 3, 1989
Season 1

Season 1

Oct 4, 1988
Specials

Specials

Jan 15, 2003