Documentary1988–PBS

The Best Episodes of American Experience

Every episode of American Experience ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of American Experience!

Best episode
S31E7 The Feud
8.6108 votes
Worst episode
S37E8 Bombshell
1.04 votes
Top season
Season 31
8.0avg
Binge time
16d 5h
396 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons37

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    American Experience Season 31 Episode 7 - The Feud
    8.6/10(108 votes)

    S31:E7

    Anderson Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, the patriarchs of the legendary feud, were entrepreneurs seeking to climb up from hardship after fierce economic competition and rapid technological change had turned their lives upside down. When members of both families took their grievances to court, their dispute escalated into a war between two families and a struggle between two states. The Feud reveals more than an isolated story of mountain lust and violence between “hillbillies” — the Hatfield - McCoy feud was a microcosm of the tensions inherent in the nation’s rapid industrialization after the Civil War.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. American Experience Season 7 Episode 1 - FDR (1): The Center of the World (1882-1921)
    8.5/10(176 votes)

    S7:E1

    Polio at age 39, president at age 50. Explore the public and private life of a determined man who steered the United States through two monumental crises: the Depression and World War II. FDR served as president longer than any other, and his legacy still shapes our understanding of the role of government and the presidency. A film by award winning filmmaker David Grubin. This first episode looks at the early life of FDR. Born into a wealthy family, there was little about his youth that would suggest the giant of history that he would become. His entry into state politics and a significant meeting with a woman named Eleanor would change his life and the course of a nation.

    Director:David Grubin
    Writer:David Grubin

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  3. American Experience Season 13 Episode 7 - Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, Part I
    8.5/10(159 votes)

    S13:E7

    Parts 1 and 2 of a six-part chronicle of the Abraham Lincoln-Mary Todd relationship begins with their childhoods and courtship. He, of course, was born into poverty; she, however, grew up in luxury, the daughter of a Kentucky banker and slave owner. (Several of her brothers would die fighting for the South in the Civil War.) While he was something of a rube when they met, she was the opposite, polished and refined. Yet they shared something in common: a love of politics. The marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln proves to be a tempestuous affair accented by her temper, his depression and their political ambitions. Included: his elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and, later, the presidency.

    Director:David Grubin
    Writers:David Grubin, Geoffrey C. Ward

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  4. American Experience Season 26 Episode 4 - Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
    8.4/10(385 votes)

    S26:E4

    The story of outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, whose turn-of-the-century exploits made headlines, led them to be pursued by Pinkerton detectives and inspired the popular 1969 film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. American Experience Season 9 Episode 1 - T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign
    8.5/10(121 votes)

    S9:E1

    TR is born into a wealthy New York family that has a strong sense of social justice. He fights his severe asthma through a strenuous exercise program. He becomes New York State assemblyman. Then tragedy strikes with the untimely deaths of his beloved first wife and his mother. To escape his grief, he flees to the Dakota Badlands for the rigors of ranch life. When he returns, his political career flourishes; he eventually becomes William McKinley's Vice President.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. American Experience Season 22 Episode 6 - My Lai
    8.3/10(246 votes)

    S22:E6

    What drove a company of American soldiers — ordinary young men from around the country — to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? American Experience focuses on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities and then bring them to light.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of American Experience

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  7. American Experience Season 16 Episode 1 - New York (8): The Center of the World
    8.4/10(73 votes)

    S16:E1

    Filmmaker Ric Burns adds a poignant postscript to his series "New York: A Documentary Film" with this chronicle of the World Trade Center's rise and fall. Burns recounts Sept. 11 wrenchingly, but he devotes more than half the film to the Center's rise. This isn't a pretty story: It's one of economic, political, architectural and engineering labyrinths. The result was a critical and commercial flop, though historian Kenneth Jackson says: "It's more important to history now that it's gone."

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. American Experience Season 5 Episode 3 - The Donner Party
    8.2/10(529 votes)

    S5:E3

    Of all the 19th century pioneer stories, none exerts so powerful a hold on the American imagination as this, during the worst winter ever recorded in the High Sierras. In June, 1846, 87 men, women and children began their legendary 2,000 mile journey from Illinois to California. They packed huge wagons, took food, hired servants. When family leaders made the fateful decision to take an untried short cut to beat the coming winter, only half would come out alive.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. American Experience Season 31 Episode 6 - Woodstock
    8.3/10(113 votes)

    S31:E6

    In August, 1969, half a million people from all walks of life and every corner of the country converged on a small dairy farm in upstate New York. They came to hear the concert of their lives, but most experienced something far more profound: a moment that would change them and the country forever, and define a cultural revolution.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. American Experience Season 7 Episode 2 - FDR (2): Fear Itself (1922-1933)
    8.3/10(109 votes)

    S7:E2

    In this second episode, the subject is FDR's courageous fight with polio. With his wife Eleanor Roosevelt at his side, FDR, wins the Democratic nomination for president. He takes office at the beginning of the Great Depression. Exhorting the nation to keep the faith, FDR utters his famous words: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

    Director:David Grubin
    Writer:David Grubin

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  11. American Experience Season 27 Episode 7 - Blackout
    8.3/10(107 votes)

    S27:E7

    First responders, journalists, shop owners, those inside the pressure-packed control center of Con Edison on West End Avenue, and other New Yorkers tell about what happened when the lights went out on July 13, 1977

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. American Experience Season 16 Episode 4 - Citizen King
    8.3/10(98 votes)

    S16:E4

    "Citizen King," a reverential chronicle of the final five years of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, employs eyewitnesses to the history King made to recall it. Among them: Coretta Scott King, former representative William Gray, author David Halberstam, civil-rights veterans Joseph Lowery, Roger Wilkins and Taylor Branch, long-time political figure Andrew Young, former senator Harris Wofford, former attorney general Ramsey Clark and theologian James Cone.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. American Experience Season 26 Episode 2 - 1964
    8.2/10(190 votes)

    S26:E2

    Recalling 1964, a pivotal year in U.S. history. While the Beatles captured the imaginations of the nation's youth, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, unveiled his vision of a "Great Society" and squared off against Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. Also covered: the murders of three Freedom Summer volunteers; and the influence of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique." Based in part on Jon Margolis' "The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964."

    Director:Stephen Ives
    Writer:Stephen Ives

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  14. American Experience Season 12 Episode 1 - New York (1): The Country and the City
    8.3/10(84 votes)

    S12:E1

    The Country and the City, 1609-1825: New York, notes narrator David Ogden Stiers, "was a business proposition from the very start," when Henry Hudson, exploring for the Dutch East India Company, sailed into its harbor. Part 1 also focuses on New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary; and Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who built the Erie Canal. "All America," says Stiers, "now met in New York."

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. American Experience Season 29 Episode 6 - The Great War: Part 1
    8.2/10(167 votes)

    S29:E6

    Part 1 of 3. President Woodrow Wilson vowed to keep the U.S. out of World War I after hostilities erupted in Europe in August 1914. It was a promise he kept until 1917, when the Germans resumed "unrestricted submarine warfare"— a policy it had started and then stopped in 1915 — and began sinking U.S. ships. An intercepted telegram also showed Germany trying to convince Japan and Mexico to declare war on America.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. American Experience Season 29 Episode 8 - The Great War: Part 3
    8.2/10(161 votes)

    S29:E8

    Part 3 of 3. In the fall of 1918: a major American offensive that could bring a swift end to the war, a lost U.S. battalion surrounded by German forces, a deadly flu epidemic on the homefront.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. American Experience Season 26 Episode 3 - The Amish: Shunned
    8.2/10(158 votes)

    S26:E3

    The Amish practice of shunning those who leave their faith is explored through the experiences of individuals who have left their communities. Also: faithful Amish men and women share the heartbreak they feel when a loved one leaves.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. American Experience Season 22 Episode 8 - Into the Deep: America, Whaling and the World
    8.2/10(134 votes)

    S22:E8

    The 300-year saga of the American whaling industry, from its origins off the coast of New England, through the age of deep ocean whaling, and on to its demise in the decades following the Civil War.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. American Experience Season 26 Episode 5 - The Rise and Fall of Penn Station
    8.2/10(134 votes)

    S26:E5

    The story of New York's Pennsylvania Station, which opened to the public in 1910. One of the greatest architectural and engineering achievements of its time, it covered nearly eight acres and required the construction of 16 miles of underground tunnels. It closed its doors some 50 years later, giving way to Madison Square Garden, a high-rise office building and sports complex.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. American Experience Season 11 Episode 1 - America 1900
    8.4/10(48 votes)

    S11:E1

    Over one hundred years ago, Americans looked forward to the uncertainty of a new century with a mixture of confidence, optimism and anxiety. Following a range of characters from famous public figures to ordinary citizens, this chronicle of a year in the life of America examines the forces of change that would come to shape the twentieth century.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. American Experience Season 10 Episode 1 - Truman (1): An Accident of Democracy
    8.2/10(122 votes)

    S10:E1

    A study of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president. Part 1 covers his service during World War I; his accomplishments as a small-time Kansas City politician; his two terms as a Missouri senator.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. American Experience Season 9 Episode 2 - T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (2): The Bully Pulpit
    8.3/10(67 votes)

    S9:E2

    After McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt becomes an "accidental" president. Seeing himself as a crusader, TR uses the presidency to advance his agenda of social reform. He expands the power of the presidential office and comes to dominate American politics. Yet, the night he is elected to a second term, TR announces he will not run again, ultimately weakening his second term.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. American Experience Season 7 Episode 5 - Telegrams from the Dead
    8.2/10(109 votes)

    S7:E5

    For 40 years, a new religion called spiritualism affected the nation as no other ever had. Abraham Lincoln, P.T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, senators, and scientists argued over the discoveries of the spirit world as revealed through mediums. Congress debated whether to provide $40,000 to research the feasibility of using the new wireless technology to reach the other world. But by 1880, as one spectacular fraud after another was revealed, the movement began to fade.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. American Experience Season 19 Episode 11 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
    8.2/10(109 votes)

    S19:E11

    Examines the story behind the November 1978 mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, where more than 900 people were led to their deaths by cult leader Jim Jones. Included: comments from Jones' son, Jim Jr.; survivor Stanley Clayton; and Hue Fortson, whose wife and child died in the incident.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. American Experience Season 28 Episode 1 - Bonnie & Clyde
    8.1/10(354 votes)

    S28:E1

    Though their exploits were romanticized, the Barrow gang was believed responsible for at least 23 murders, including two policemen, as well as numerous robberies and kidnappings. Discover the true story of the most famous outlaw couple in U.S. history -- Bonnie and Clyde.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Feud" is the best rated episode of American Experience. It scored 8.6/10 from 108 votes. Written and directed by Unknown, it aired on September 10, 2019. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "FDR (1): The Center of the World (1882-1921)".

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