# American Experience (1988)

> A long-running PBS documentary series that tells self-contained stories from American history through archival footage and narration.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1112

## Facts

- Seasons: 37
- Episodes: 396
- Episode runtime: 55 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: documentary, history
- Network: PBS
- Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Liev Schreiber, Linda Hunt, Jason Robards, Mary McDonnell, Donald Sutherland, Peter Coyote, Alfre Woodard
- TMDB rating: 8.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094416/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: measured, reflective, curious, sober, informative

## Synopsis

American Experience (1988-present) is a US public television history docuseries created for PBS, the long-running strand that brings the nation's past to life through archival footage, period photographs and narration. Across thirty-seven seasons and nearly four hundred episodes, each hour-long installment stands alone, following a different episode of American history rather than one continuing storyline. Narrators including Linda Hunt, Liev Schreiber and Peter Coyote guide viewers through events, with expert interviews and primary documents filling in the human detail behind famous figures and forgotten communities. The tone is measured, sober and curious, leaning toward reflective and engaging rather than sensational, and the themes return again and again to ambition, struggle, public life and the cost of progress. Fans of The Civil War, Frontline and Cosmos: A Personal Voyage will find similar rewards in its careful blend of scholarship and storytelling. Viewers looking for a dependable, family friendly history series can dip into any episode without needing to watch in order.

## Shows like American Experience

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- [The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/57967)
- [The West (1996)](https://ember.film/tv/28324)
- [The Food That Built America (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/78210)
- [The War (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/29234)
- [Five Came Back (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/61653)
- [The Civil War (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/8991)
- [Nature (1982)](https://ember.film/tv/13940)
- [Modern Marvels (1993)](https://ember.film/tv/5779)

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