As of July 2026, American Experience Season 9 aired in 1996 with 22 episodes — streaming now on DocPlay Amazon Channel. Full episode guide and where to watch below.
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American Experience Season 9

1996 22 Episodes Documentary ⭐ 7/10

Right now you can watch American Experience Season 9 on and — and it earns the access it was given. A compact run that never overstays its welcome. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. The access the production secured is remarkable, and it does justice to it. There is no real reason to keep putting it off.

There is a reason American Experience Season 9 keeps coming up in conversation. American Experience Season 9 approaches its subject with the rigour that makes documentary storytelling worth taking seriously. Season 9 of American Experience includes 22 episodes. It aired from October 1996 to July 1997. Episodes include "T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign", "T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (2): The Bully Pulpit", "The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie". It was aired in 1996. American Experience Season 9 lets its subjects speak for themselves rather than shaping them into a predetermined narrative. There is real craft here, even in the moments that do not fully land.

Documentary fans who value serious storytelling will find American Experience Season 9 essential viewing. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single week. The subject drives every choice here, not the other way around. The kind of production you finish and immediately want to read more about.

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🎬 American Experience Season 9 — Episode Guide

E1
T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign
1996-10-06
TR is born into a wealthy New York family that has a strong sense of social justice. He fights his severe asthma through a strenuous exercise program. He becomes New York State assemblyman. Then tragedy strikes with the untimely deaths of his beloved first wife and his mother. To escape his grief, h...
E2
T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (2): The Bully Pulpit
1996-10-06
After McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt becomes an "accidental" president. Seeing himself as a crusader, TR uses the presidency to advance his agenda of social reform. He expands the power of the presidential office and comes to dominate American politics. Yet, the night he is elected to a second ...
E3
The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie
1997-01-20
A look at the poor emigrant boy who built a fortune in railroads and steel, and, unlike any industrialist of his time, began to systematically give it away; a man full of contradictions and inner conflict.
E4
Hawaii's Last Queen
1997-01-27
Liliu'okalani moved easily between two worlds -- she had dined at the White House, had been a guest at Buckingham Palace, yet never abandoned her Hawaiian traditions. A writer and composer, she was thrust into a role she was never prepared to play, caught between two opposing forces.
E5
The Telephone
1997-02-03
At first rented only "to persons of good breeding," seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, within a decade the telephone had begun to transform American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.
E6
Big Dream, Small Screen
1997-02-10
The little known story of Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy who first sketched out his idea for electronic television at the age of fourteen. An eccentric genius, Farnsworth spent years battling corporate giants to receive acknowledgment for his invention.
E7
New York Underground
1997-02-17
It began with the blizzard of 1888 -- mountains of snow twenty feet high, horse cars and omnibuses abandoned, the city paralyzed. There was no doubt New York needed a public transportation system. It would be an American epic -- the largest public works project in history, overshadowed only by the P...
E8
Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
1997-04-14
A story of the realities leading to the vanishing role of the family farm in the United States.
E9
Around the World in 72 Days
1997-04-28
At the age of nineteen, Nellie Bly talked her way into an improbable job on a newspaper, then went on to become "the best reporter in America." She was serious and spunky. To expose abuse of the mentally ill, she had herself committed. But when she travelled around the world in just 72 days, beating...
E10
Gold Fever
1997-05-12
The 1890's in America were desperate times. A depression brought bank and business failures and forced millions of men and women from their jobs. When gold was discovered in a frozen no man's land between Canada and Alaska, 100,000 people made the treacherous journey in search of riches.
E11
Vietnam: A Television History (Part 1 & 2)
1997-05-26
"Vietnam: A Television History" begins by tracing the "Roots of a War" to French colonialism. "America's Mandarin" looks at the start of America's involvement in Vietnam during the 1950s and '60s.
E12
Vietnam: A Television History (3): LBJ Goes to War
1997-06-02
LBJ Goes to War (1964-65) examines the escalating American involvement following the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Interviewed: Gen. William Westmoreland (USA Ret.) and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
E13
Vietnam: A Television History (4): America Takes Charge
1997-06-09
In "America Takes Charge (1965-67)," GIs recall combat experiences during the years of U.S. military escalation. Also: a sequence in which Americans and Vietnamese describe the same operation.
E14
Vietnam: A Television History (5): America's Enemy
1997-06-16
As "Vietnam: A Television History" continues, "America's Enemy (1954-67)" examines the escalating war from the point of view of North Vietnamese leaders and their followers, beginning with the country's partition after the French defeat. Interviewed: former Premier Pham Van Dong.
E15
Vietnam: A Television History (6): Tet 1968
1997-06-23
Vietnam: A Television History": TV-news footage graphically recalls "Tet 1968," the bold North Vietnamese and Vietcong offensive. The attacks gave the enemy a "brilliant political victory" in the U.S, says former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
E16
Vietnam: A Television History (7): Vietnamizing the War
1997-06-30
"Vietnam: A Television History": The gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and their replacement by the South Vietnamese are recalled in "Vietnamizing the War (1968-73)." But morale was low among Americans still in the country, and veterans interviewed recall racial divisions and the availability of dru...
E17
Vietnam: A Television History (8): Cambodia and Laos
1997-07-07
America's involvement in—and secret bombing of—Cambodia and Laos are chronicled as "Vietnam: A Television History" continues. After the bombing halt in August 1973, the Communist Khmer Rouge advanced on the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, and finally, in April 1975, the city fell.
E18
Vietnam: A Television History (9): Peace is at Hand
1997-07-14
"Vietnam: A Television History": "Peace Is at Hand (1968-73)" recalls the peace negotiations in Paris, including Henry Kissinger's "secret" talks with Le Duc Tho. As the talks dragged on, the U.S. stepped up air attacks.
E19
Vietnam: A Television History (10): Homefront USA
1997-07-21
"Vietnam: A Television History - Homefront U.S.A.," traces the widening rift between supporters and opponents of the war, from the first demonstrations in the mid-1960s to the May 1970 Kent State shootings.
E20
Vietnam: A Television History (11): The End of the Tunnel
1997-07-28
"Vietnam: A Television History" concludes with "The End of the Tunnel," which recalls the 1973 Paris accords and the subsequent collapse of South Vietnam. Included: vivid footage of helicopter evacuations in Saigon during the final hours before the Communists took the city on April 30, 1975.

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