American Experience Season 15 Episodes

Episode 1

Jimmy Carter (Part I)

Mon, Nov 11, 200285 mins

Jimmy Carter ran for president on a wave of post-Watergate disaffection with Washington politics. But inexperience, inflation, recession, and the Iran hostage crisis, derailed his presidency dramatically. His crowning achievement, the Camp David Accords, created a framework for Middle East peace, inspiring his life since. The film traces his ascent from Plains, Georgia, to the Oval Office and explores the role of religion in his career. This is the first of two parts.

Episode 2

Jimmy Carter: Part 2

Tue, Nov 12, 200280 mins

Jimmy Carter ran for president on a wave of post-Watergate disaffection with Washington politics. But inexperience, inflation, recession, and the Iran hostage crisis, derailed his presidency dramatically. His crowning achievement, the Camp David Accords, created a framework for Middle East peace, inspiring his life since. The film traces his ascent from Plains, Georgia, to the Oval Office and explores the role of religion in his career. This is the second of two parts.

Episode 3

Chicago: City of the Century: Part 1

Mon, Jan 13, 2003

Tells how in just 60 years Chicago grew from a remote, swampy frontier town into one of the most explosively alive cities in the world.

Episode 4

Chicago: City of the Century: Part 2

Tue, Jan 14, 2003

Episode 5

Chicago: City of the Century: Part 3

Wed, Jan 15, 2003

Episode 6

The Murder of Emmett Till

Mon, Jan 20, 200353 mins

A documentary examining the 1955 murder of a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago while visiting relatives in Mississippi, and the broad impact of his death, his funeral, and the subsequent trial and acquittal of his accused killers.

Episode 7

Transcontinental Railroad

Mon, Jan 27, 2003105 mins

Episode 8

Partners of the Heart

Mon, Feb 10, 200360 mins

During World War II and the era of staunch racial segregation, a Black carpenter's son named Vivien Thomas, who had a talent for surgery, along with a white surgeon named Dr. Alfred Blalock, who defied the medical establishment created a partnership that changed the course of cardiac surgery. With only a high school diploma, Thomas became a leading cardiac pioneer and educator of two generations of the United States' premiere heart surgeons. This moving documentary tells the story of Thomas and his relationship with Blalock, one that ushered in advances in surgery that are still in existence today.

Episode 9

The Pill

Mon, Feb 24, 200356 mins

A documentary recounting the development of the birth control pill.

Episode 10

Daughter from Danang

Mon, Apr 7, 2003

A woman taken to America during Operation Babylift returns to Vietnam in order to meet her birth mother.

Episode 11

Seabiscuit

Mon, Apr 21, 200353 mins

He was boxy, with stumpy legs that wouldn't completely straighten a short straggly tail and an ungainly gait; 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. Scott Glenn narrates.

Episode 12

Bataan Rescue

Mon, Jul 7, 2003

Episode 13

Murder at Harvard

Mon, Jul 14, 200350 mins