American Experience

{{short description|PBS documentary television series}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}

{{Infobox television

| image = American Experience logo.svg

| alt_name =

| genre = Television documentary

| image_size =

| creator = Peter McGhee

| director =

| theme_music_composer = {{Plain list|

• Charles Kuskin {{small|(1988–2000)}}
• Mark Adler {{small|(2000–2008)}}
• The Chambers Brothers {{small|(2009–2010)}}
• Joel Goodman {{small|(2011–present)}}

}}

| country = United States

| language = English (US)

| num_seasons = 36

| num_episodes = 380

| list_episodes = List of American Experience episodes

| executive_producer = {{Plain list|

• Judy Crichton (1987–1996)
• Margaret Drain (1997–2003)
• Mark Samels (2003–2020)
• Cameo George (2020–present){{Cite press release |title=Cameo George Named Executive Producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, WGBH's Acclaimed History Series on PBS |url=https://www.wgbh.org/foundation/press/cameo-george-named-executive-producer-of-american-experience-wgbhs-acclaimed-history-series-on-pbs |publisher=WGBH |access-date=20 January 2021 |date=July 23, 2020}}

}}

| runtime = Between 55 minutes and two hours

| company = WGBH-TV

| network = PBS{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/schedule/

| title = Broadcast Schedule {{*}} American Experience {{*}} WGBH |publisher=PBS |access-date=2014-05-27}}

| first_aired = {{Start date|1988|10|4}}

| last_aired = present

}}

American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards,{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/about/award/broadcast |title=About the Series . American Experience . WGBH|publisher=PBS|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304210802/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/about/award/broadcast|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}} about important or interesting events and people in American history.

The series premiered on October 4, 1988, and was originally titled The American Experience. It was shortened to American Experience during a rebrand and image update. The show has had a presence on the internet since 1995, and more than 100 American Experience programs are accompanied by their own internet websites, which provide background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/whoweare.html | title=American Experience | Who We Are|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)|access-date=October 23, 2012}} The show is produced primarily by WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET (Channel 13) in New York City.

Some programs considered part of the American Experience collection were produced prior to the creation of the series. Vietnam: A Television History was one of them, airing originally in 1983 after taking six years to assemble.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/series/index.html|title=American Experience | Vietnam Online | About the TV Series|publisher=PBS|access-date=October 23, 2012|archive-date=November 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114112715/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/series/index.html|url-status=dead}} Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.