American Experience

Stars: Kate Burton, Sandra Day O'Connor
Director(s): Michelle Ferrari
Writer(s): Michelle Ferrari

In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the ...

Stars: Robert Chiles, Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst III
Director(s): Amanda Pollak
Writer(s): Gene Tempest

In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the ...

Stars: Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst III, George Hearst

The history of jeans, from their roots in slavery to the Wild West, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop.

Stars: James Sullivan, Kimberly Jenkins, Rabbit Goody
Director(s): Michael Bicks, Anna Lee Strachan
Writer(s): Michael Bicks, Anna Lee Strachan

The American Diplomat explores the lives and legacies of three African-American ambassadors, Edward R. Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan, who pushed past historical and institutional racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. At the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, they were asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home. Colloquially referred to as "pale, male, and Yale," the U.S. State Department fiercely maintained and cultivated ...

Director(s): Leola Calzolai-Stewart

Flood in the Desert tells the dramatic story of the March 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam and its aftermath, which was the second deadliest disaster in California history. The resulting flood killed over 400 people, destroyed millions of dollars of property, and washed away the reputation of one of the most celebrated men in Southern California, William Mulholland. A self-taught engineer, Mulholland had ensured Los Angeles' remarkable growth by building a cement aqueduct that piped water from the Owens Valley across the Mojave Desert and into the arid city, 233 ...

Stars: Andre Braugher
Director(s): Rob Rapley
Writer(s): Rob Rapley