American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries about important or interesting events and people in American history. As of 2020 the show has aired 32 seasons and a total of 350 episodes. Throughout its run the show has received multiple awards and nominations, several episodes have won a Peabody Award and many have been nominated to awards given by guilds like the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Writers Guild of America Awards. Three episodes of the series have been nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards (D-Day Remembered in 1994, Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern and The Battle Over Citizen Kane in 1995). Also, the series received twelve Primetime Emmy Award out of over forty nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series twice in 1998 and 1999, being the inaugural winners of the category, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for Scottsboro: An American Tragedy in 2001 and JFK in 2014 and Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Two Days in October in 2006 and Freedom Riders in 2011.
Academy Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref1994Best Documentary Feature D-Day Remembered 1995 Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern The Battle Over Citizen Kane
Cinema Audio Society Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref 2003 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television - Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials Dominick Tavella, Mark Mandler, John Zecca (for "New York: Center of the World") 2004 Roger Phenix, John Jenkins, Ken Hahn, Joe Hettinger (for "RFK") 2011 G. John Garrett, Rick Angelella, Everett Wong, Coll Anderson (for "Triangle Fire") 2017 John Jenkins, Ken Hahn (for "The Great War")
Directors Guild of America Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref 1992Outstanding Directing – Documentaries Ric Burns (for "The Donner Party") 1996 Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher (for "Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern")
News & Documentary Emmy Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref1993Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Researchers Robert Levi (for "Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo") 2001 Dan T. Carter, Sandra Guardado, Daniel McCabe, Matthew R. McClung, Paul Stekler (for "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire") Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing Steve Fayer, Daniel McCabe, Paul Stekler (for "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire") 2002 Chana Gazit (for "Fatal Food") 2004 Best DocumentaryNew York: Center of the World Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming The Pill Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound Mariusz Glabinski, Marlena Grzaslewicz, Bruce Kitzmeyer, Ira Spiegel, Dominick Tavella (for "New York: Center of the World") 2005 Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Direction Barak Goodman (for "The Fight") Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing David Grubin (for "RFK") 2006 Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form Victory in the Pacific Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing Austin Hoyt (for "Victory in the Pacific") Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research Karen Colbron, Rose M. Compagine, Pamela Gaudiano (for "Fidel Castro") Karen Colbron, Margaret Johnson, Tamio Ota, Polly Pettit, Andrea Ryan, Reiko Sakuma, Kristina Wood, Midori Yanagihara (for "Victory in the Pacific") 2007 Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming The Boy in the Bubble Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing Ric Burns, Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb (for "Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film") Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Lighting Direction & Scenic Design Katha Seidman (for "John & Abigail Adams") 2008 Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research Rich Remsberg, John Rubin (for "The Living Weapon") 2013 Outstanding Historical Programming - Long FormJesse Owens Outstanding Research The Amish Outstanding Music and Sound Tom Phillips, Brian Bracken, Leslie Bloome, Benny Mouthon (for "Jesse Owens") 2015 Outstanding Science and Technology Programming The Poisoner's Handbook 2016 Outstanding Editing: Documentary and Long Form Don Kleszy (for "Last Days in Vietnam") 2017 Outstanding Research The Mine Wars
Peabody Award Year Recipient Result Ref.1993 The Donner Party 1996 Battle of the Bulge, FDR, Malcolm X: Make It Plain 1997 The Battle Over Citizen Kane 1998 The Presidents Series, Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern 1999 Riding the Rails, America 1900 58th Annual Peabody Awards, May 1999. 2001 Playing the China Card (Nixon's China Game) 59th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2000. 2002 Monkey Trail 62nd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2003. 2003 The Murder of Emmett Till 63rd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2004. 2004 Tupperware! 64th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2005. 2005 Two Days in October 65th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2006. 2010 My Lai 70th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2011. 2011 Triangle Fire, Freedom Riders, Stonewall Uprising 71st Annual Peabody Awards, May 2012. 2014 Freedom Summer 2017 Oklahoma City
Primetime Emmy Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref 1996 Outstanding Informational SpecialThe Battle Over Citizen Kane Outstanding Achievement in Informational Programming 1998Outstanding Non-Fiction SeriesAmerican Experience 1999 2000New York: A Documentary Film Outstanding Achievement in Informational Programming Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program Allen Moore and Budyd Squires (for "New York: A Documentary Film") 2001 Outstanding Informational Special Scottsboro: An American Tragedy 2002 Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program Michael Chin, Jon Else and Buddy Squires (for "Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film") 2003 Outstanding Directing for a Nonfiction Programming Stanley Nelson Jr. (for "The Murder of Emmett Till") Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming Michelle Ferrari (for "Seabiscuit") Marcia A. Smith (for "The Murder of Emmett Till") Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera) Vicente Franco (for "Daughter from Danang") Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera) Toby Shimin (for "Seabiscuit") Kim Roberts (for "Daughter from Danang") Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera) Kevin Lee (for "Seabiscuit") 2004 Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming Laurie Kahn (for "Tupperware!") 2005Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst 2006 Two Days in October Outstanding Sound Editing For Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera) Jack Levy, Daniel Colman, Vince Balunas, Jeff K. Brunello, Kim Roberts, Doug Madick (for "Two Days in October") 2007Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple 2008 Oswald's Ghost Walt Whitman Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming Mark Zwonitzer (for "Walt Whitman") 2009 Outstanding Non-Fiction Series American Experience Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming David Grubin (for "The Trials Of J. Robert Oppenheimer") 2010 Outstanding Non-Fiction Series American Experience Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking My Lai Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program Barak Goodman (for "My Lai") 2011 Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Freedom Riders Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming Stanley Nelson Jr. (for "Freedom Riders") Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program Lewis Erskine and Aljernon Tunsil (for "Freedom Riders") 2012 Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking The Amish Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming Barak Goodman (for "Clinton") 2013 Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special Death and the Civil War Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series The Abolitionists 2014 Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking The Amish: Shunned Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special JFK Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Programming Mark Zwonitzer (for "JFK") 2015 Keven McAlester and Mark Bailey (for "Last Days in Vietnam") 2016 Mark Zwonitzer, Sarah Colt and Tom Jennings (for "Walt Disney") 2017Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Oklahoma City 2020 Chasing the Moon
Television Critics Association Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref 1997Outstanding Achievement in News and InformationAmerican Experience 1998 1999 2009 We Shall Remain
Writers Guild of America Awards Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref 1992Best Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events David Grubin (for "LBJ") Robert Levi and Geoffrey C. Ward (for "Duke Ellington: Reminiscing in Tempo") 1993 Ric Burns (for "The Donner Party") 1994 Marty Ostrow (for "America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference") 1995 Ric Burns (for "The Way West") David Grubin (for "FDR: Part 1") Thomas Lennon and Mark Zwonitzer (for "The Battle of the Bulge: World War II's Deadliest Battle") 1996 Chana Gazit (for "Chicago 1968") Thomas Lennon and Richard Ben Cramer (for "The Battle Over Citizen Kane") 1997 Elena Mannes and L. Franklin DeVine (for "New York Underground") 1998 David Grubin (for "Truman") Chana Gazit (for "Surviving the Dust Bowl") Adriana Bosch (for "Reagan: Part 2") 1999 Stephen Stept (for "Hoover Dam") Chana Gazit (for "Meltdown at Three Mile Island") 2001 Barak Goodman (for "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy") Ken Emerson & Randy MacLowry (for "Steven Foster") 2002 Christine Lesiak (for "Monkey Trail") 2003 Marcia Smith (for "The Murder of Emmett Till") Michelle Ferrari (for "Seabiscuit") 2004 Barak Goodman (for "The Fight") Mel Bucklin (for "Emma Goldman") David Grubin (for "RFK") Llewellyn M. Smith and Elizabeth Deane (for "Reconstruction") 2005 Adriana Bosch (for "Fidel Castro") Barak Goodman (for "Kinsey") Mark Zwonitzer (for "The Massie Affair") 2006 Arthur Gelb, Barbara Gelb and Ric Burns (for "Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film") Elizabeth Deane (for "John and Abigail Adams") Mark Davis (for "The Alaska Pipeline") Barak Goodman (for "The Boy in the Bubble") 2007 Ronald Blumer (for "Alexander Hamilton") 2008 Michelle Ferrari (for "Kit Carson") 2009 David Grubin (for "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer") Barak Goodman (for "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln") Mark Zwonitzer (for "We Shall Remain: Episode Three: Trail of Tears") Ric Burns (for "We Shall Remain: Episode Two: Tecumseh's Vision") 2010 Ronald H. Blumer (for "Dolley Madison") 2011 Mark Davis (for "Dinosaur Bone War") Stanley Nelson (for "Freedom Riders") Austin Hoyt (for "The Great Famine") Mark Zwonitzer (for "Triangle Fire") 2012 David Belton (for "The Amish") Barak Goodman (for "Clinton") Ric Burns (for "Death and the Civil War") 2013 Randall MacLowry and Michelle Ferrari (for "Silicon Valley") Rob Rapley (for "The Abolitionists") 2015 Chana Gazit (for "The Forgotten Plague") 2017 Stephen Ives (for "The Great War: Part II") Michelle Ferrari (for "Rachel Carson") Rob Rapley (for "The Great War: Part III") 2018 Michelle Ferrari (for "The Eugenics Crusade") Sharon Grimberg (for "The Circus: Part One") John Maggio (for "Into the Amazon") 2019 Robert Stone (for "Chasing The Moon Part One: A Place Beyond The Sky") 2020 John Maggio (for "The Poison Squad")
References
External links American Experience website