American Experience Season 20 Episodes

Episode 1

Oswald's Ghost

Mon, Jan 14, 200883 mins

Episode 2

The Lobotomist

Mon, Jan 21, 200855 mins

This program tells the gripping tale of medical intervention gone awry.

Episode 3

Eyes on the Prize II (Parts I & II): The Time Has Come/Two Societies

Sun, Feb 3, 2008

"The Time Has Come 1964-1966": Explores Black militancy and the roots of the Black power movement. Also tracks the influence of ideas of Black separatism and Black nationalism on a new generation of Blacks and analyzes the long-term impact they had on whites who supported the freedom movement. "Two Societies 1965-1968": Northern cities served as the backdrop for confrontations on a scale the civil rights movement had never seen before the mid-1960s. Scarred by widespread discrimination, Black inner-city neighborhoods became sites of crumbling houses, poverty and street violence. Although the Black-led movement for social change and equality in the North had a long history, it had not received the same media attention the struggle in the South had.

Episode 4

Grand Central

Mon, Feb 4, 200851 mins

On January 8, 1902, a commuter train traveling through a tunnel in New York City's Grand Central Depot ran into another train, killing 17 people. An engineer's innovative response to the crisis gave birth to one of America's greatest establishments: Grand Central Terminal.

Episode 5

Eyes on the Prize II (Parts III & IV): Power!/The Promised Land

Sun, Feb 10, 2008

"Power. 1966-1968": Explores the influence of the idea of Black power on freedom movement. Follows leaders of three Black communities in their efforts to gain political and economic power that would enable advancements in employment, housing and education. "The Promised Land 1967-1968": Martin Luther King, Jr. stakes out new ground for himself and the rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. He is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel.

Episode 6

Eyes on the Prize II (Parts V & VI): Ain't Gonna' Shuffle No More/A Nation of Law?

Sun, Feb 17, 2008

"Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More 1964-1972": Explores a call to pride and a push for unity to galvanize Blacks. Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at the traditionally Black Howard University fight to bring the growing Black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of the institution. "A Nation of Law? 1968-1971": Black activism is increasingly met with violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement. A five-day inmate takeover at Attica Prison calls the public's attention to conditions there leaves 43 dead, of which 39 were killed by police.

Episode 7

Kit Carson

Mon, Feb 18, 200880 mins

Episode 8

Eyes on the Prize II (Parts VII & VIII): The Keys to the Kingdom/Back to the Movement

Sun, Feb 24, 2008

"The Keys to the Kingdom 1974-1980": In the 1970s, anti-discrimination rights are put to the test. Boston Whites violently resist the federal school desegregation order. Atlanta's mayor Jackson proves affirmative action can work, but Bakke decision challenges that policy. "Back to the Movement 1979-Mid 1980s": Explores new and old challenges that Black communities faced 25 years after civil rights struggle began. Also explores Black communities in Miami and Chicago and chronicles their dramatically different responses to these challenges.

Episode 9

Buffalo Bill

Mon, Feb 25, 200854 mins

In 1886, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show played to over one million people in New York City. It was one of the most elaborate shows on earth. There were cowboys and Indians, sharp shooters including the famed Annie Oakley, hundreds of horses, buffalo, elk and donkeys, with more than 200 cast members, all moving about in a sweeping western landscape of mountains and plains. It would go on to dazzle crowds in London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona, cementing the legend of the Wild West in the minds of people around the globe. Behind the extravaganza was one man -- a meager plainsman turned international celebrity and frontier hero, whose meteoric rise to fame was made possible only by his genius, and his hucksterism. His name was William Cody, better known to the world as Buffalo Bill.

Episode 10

Minik, the Lost Eskimo

Mon, Mar 31, 200860 mins

This installment provides a provocative look at the collision of race, culture and the burgeoning science of anthropology as it recounts the life of Minik, later named Minik Wallace, a Greenland Inuit who came to America in 1897 courtesy of explorer Robert Peary. Considered an uncommon species at the time, 7-year-old Minik and four other Eskimos were taken to New York City for study at the American Museum of Natural History.

Episode 11

Walt Whitman

Mon, Apr 14, 2008120 mins

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is today one of the most-recognized figures in American literary history: poet, patriot and faithful advocate of democracy. His name graces shopping malls, highway rest stops, and local high schools. He has adherents around the globe. But in his own time, critics denounced Walt Whitman as a "lunatic raving in pitiable delirium." They pronounced his signature book of poetry, Leaves of Grass, "slimy," "vile," and "beastly." One reviewer wished to see him whipped in public; another suggested he commit suicide. He was famously "banned in Boston." "I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul. I go with the slaves of the earth equally with the masters. And I will stand between the master and the slaves, entering into both so that both will understand me alike." - Walt Whitman.

Episode 12

Roberto Clemente

Mon, Apr 21, 200853 mins

Roberto Clemente is an in-depth look at an exceptional baseball player and committed humanitarian who challenged racial discrimination to become baseball's first Latino superstar. Featuring interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors David Maraniss and George F. Will; Clemente's wife Vera; Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda; and former teammates, the documentary presents an intimate and revealing portrait of a man whose passion and grace made him a legend.

Episode 13

George H.W. Bush: Part I

Mon, May 5, 2008110 mins

Follow George H.W. Bush from his childhood into war as a combat pilot in the U.S. Navy. Later, the Bushes moved to the oil fields of Texas where he became a Republican leader, the party that he would lead - and struggle with - as President.

Episode 14

George H.W. Bush: Part II

Tue, May 6, 2008

George H.W. Bush: Part II -- President Bush was a pivotal player during a critical moment in world history. But despite soaring approval ratings following victory in the Persian Gulf, his years as president after the war were marked by almost unrelieved decline.