PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Launches "Campaign '08" Multimedia Website for THE PRESIDENTS Biography Collection
- Television's most-watched history series takes voters from the past to THE PRESIDENTS through video of FDR, Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush -
BOSTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- PBS' AMERICAN EXPERIENCE today launched http://www.pbs.org/presidents/2008, the online component of an unprecedented public television initiative that, for the first time, will make available more than 25 hours of presidential programming online, on TV, and on the go. The project comes at a critical moment in American politics. This year, American voters will take part in a landmark election, where for the first time in over a half-century, neither the sitting President nor vice president is a contender for the Oval Office.
In the coming months, voters will wrestle with tough questions and campaign issues. Who should we trust? How do we end a war? Who is best suited to lead the nation in a volatile world? With THE PRESIDENTS, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE provides an invaluable historical roadmap -- helping viewers to understand where we have been, so that they may better decide where we are going.
THE PRESIDENTS Online
Visitors to the Campaign '08 (http://www.pbs.org/presidents/2008) will select provocative questions that connect today's domestic and international issues and candidate platforms with yesterday's leaders. For example, by selecting "How do you end a war?" users will be able to scan video segments about the resolutions of World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. The site currently features five such questions, which will be updated to reflect hot button election issues leading up to November 2008.
Seven films -- more than twenty-five hours in all -- will be streamed for online viewing, and available for download, beginning with FDR, Truman, and Reagan in February. In the coming months, programs examining Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter will follow. Finally, after a premiere television broadcast on PBS, a new profile of the 41st President, George H.W. Bush, will launch on May 6.
THE PRESIDENTS on TV
In broadcast, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE will roll out THE PRESIDENTS on PBS beginning in May 2008, and continuing up to the 2008 presidential election in November:
-- May 5 & 6 - George H.W. Bush
-- May 12 & 19 - FDR
--
May 25 & 26 - Truman
-- September 15 & 22 - LBJ
-- September
29 - Nixon
-- October 6 & 13 - Jimmy Carter
-- October 20 & 27
- Reagan
THE PRESIDENTS On the Go
A rich array of companion podcasts and vodcasts will be produced monthly for download from THE PRESIDENTS web site, covering themes such as political conventions, debates, presidential character, and more. The first in the series, available now, examines the campaigning season.
"With THE PRESIDENTS, we want to engage viewers in the civic process. To my mind, that involves not just voting on Election Day, but also taking an active interest in where we've been as a nation and what led our country to the place we now hold on the international stage," says AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Mark Samels. "As we enter a pivotal election year, it is interesting to see the many issues the country wrestled with throughout the 20th century -- from war and religion to healthcare and education -- that we are still debating today."
ABOUT AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Television's most-watched history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has been hailed as "peerless" (Wall Street Journal), "the most consistently enriching program on television" (Chicago Tribune), and "a beacon of intelligence and purpose" (Houston Chronicle). On air and online, the series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including twenty-four Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, and fourteen George Foster Peabody Awards, one most recently for Two Days in October.
