American Experience

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American Experience

Genre	documentary television series
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	over 220 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	PBS
Original run	1988 – present

American Experience (sometimes abbreviated AmEx) is a television program airing on the PBS network in the United States. The program airs documentaries about important or interesting events in American history, many of which have won impressive awards. A trademark of the series is its ability to take lesser-known events in history, such as the history of Coney Island or Tupperware, and expand on the topic, showing how that event reflected larger, more important themes in American culture or society.

The documentaries are extensively researched, often taking years to complete. Many programs are accompanied by websites that have more background information on the subjects covered. The show, which is produced by primarily by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons of the show, was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET in New York and KCET in Los Angeles, began airing in 1988, and has had a presence on the Internet since 1995. Early on, the program was called The American Experience, although the "The" was dropped during a later brand and image update.

Some programs now 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 in 1983 after taking six years to assemble. Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the award-winning 1986 documentary about the African-American civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.