American Experience

This program used to be called "The American Experience." Then it was suddenly and deliberately truncated to "American Experience" as part of a mysterious "update." An act which should live--in infamy.

Why did the producers of this program remove the "the" from the beginning of the title? I believe that this is something that should not, as Bush the Elder once said, "stand." Who dictated that the "the" should be removed? What sense does it make to take a perfectly reasonable title--"The American Experience" which describes what all Americans have in common, and what makes us Americans--and remove one word, thereby changing the meaning to, well, nothing. "American Experience" is a nonsense phrase. It's stupid.

If this was done "just because" I'd like to question the wisdom of spending money to change all the logos and promotional material, and re-do all the voice-overs and promotions. Scarce resources were spent on a stupid and pointless change for no reason? I don't believe it. This was done for a reason, and I'd like to know why it was done. If the motives were political, then it's a disgrace.

I look forward every day to seeing the next episode of American Experience. This is a keeper. Have the DVD. Would like more extras. Overall great picture.

This is a wonderful film of a time past when in the future nothing has changed...so if you love history, watch it.

Angie Debo was a tireless researcher who did not understand why it is alright to take land that does not belong to you, become rich, and watch others die or become dependents to the state because you stole from them.

Has it become too time-honored a tradition in America?

The filmmaker, Martha Sandlin, does an excellent job of condensing very complicated material and bringing to life a woman who lived a full and energetic life.

BUT IMDb, please!!!! You have the wrong picture for Indians, Outlaws and Angie Debo. PLEASE CORRECT IT!

As a retired history teacher, it's probably not all that surprising that I love this series--especially as I taught American history. However, my love of it is not just for the subject matter but because the show is exceptionally well made throughout--and brings to life many otherwise dull or forgotten events through history. Because of very high production values, the show is nearly always the best example on a given topic that you can find. In addition, although some bash PBS for leaning too far to the left, often I have noticed that the shows are very balanced and have a certain fondness for their subject--no matter the political persuasion. For example, the show seems just as enthusiastic in extolling the virtues of an FDR as well as a George H.W. Bush. All in all, consistently the best historical series on television--brilliant and enjoyable episode after episode.

I always like a great in depth look into the past to help me see where things are coming from. This is exactly that, albeit hard to find. I had to search PBS, youtube, etc. Only to find it split up into 6 archival footages on a random youtube channel. For some reason it is marked as not available when I tried to play this particular episode on PBS, and on amazon the episode is available for download at the price of 29USD! Holy smokes! Anyways it was a good watch which contained interviews with folks who were actually alive during that time. It seems to be the first time a stock market correction took place and a lot of people thought it was permanently over.