American Experience - Season 10
Season 10
Episodes
Truman: An Accident of Democracy
Truman: The Moon, the Stars and All the Planets
Truman: Hell
A Midwife's Tale
Mr. Miami Beach
Influenza 1918
In September of 1918, soldiers at an army base near Boston suddenly began to die. The cause of death was identified as influenza, but it was unlike any strain ever seen. As the killer virus spread across the country, hospitals overfilled, death carts roamed the streets and helpless city officials dug mass graves. It was the worst epidemic in American history, killing over 600,000 — until it disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun.
Reagan: Lifeguard
Reagan: An American Crusade
Surviving the Dust Bowl
In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains — the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the "Dust Bowl."
This episode is the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease — even death — for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters.
Riding the Rails
Recently Updated Shows
King of the Hill
King of the Hill depicts the life and times of Hank Hill, his family, and their neighbors in the fictional suburb of Arlen, Texas, the heartland of America. A hard-working, loyal family man and proud Texan, Hank always strives to be a voice of common sense and reason. After years away, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed America, while Bobby balances owning a restaurant and enjoying life as a young adult.
Harry Wild
Literature professor Harriet "Harry" Wild is adjusting to retirement when she's mugged. While recovering at the home of her son, a detective in the Dublin police, Harry gleans a clue for his current case. But when she's rebuffed, Harry decides to solve the crime herself. Recruiting an unlikely young sidekick, she finds a new path as a private investigator.
The Ark
The Ark takes place 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive.
Survivor
Eighteen to twenty castaways will compete against each other on Survivor. All castaways will compete to outwit, outplay, outlast and ultimately be crowned Sole Survivor.
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is an Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy showcase.
Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.