Step back in time and onto the frontier with "America’s Wild West," a new PBS special that explores the lives of the larger-than-life men and women who helped tame the West. Rebels, pioneers, heroes, villains and icons of frontier culture, they captured the imagination of a nation and inspired a stampede of novels, television shows and big-screen dramas.
Timeline: American Frontiers
Explore major events in America's Westward expansion in this timeline. Early European settlers granted themselves expansion into other peoples' lands. They pushed the frontier ever westward, displacing Native Americans, Mexicans, Canadians and others along the way. These pioneers traveled under the banner of Manifest Destiny, the idea that European Americans had a mission to expand the nation's boundaries and democratic institutions to the continent's Western shores.
"America’s Wild West" corrals some of the best moments from the award-winning series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and its Wild West Collection and features excerpts from "Annie Oakley," "Billy the Kid," "Buffalo Bill," "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid," "Custer’s Last Stand," "Jesse James," "Kit Carson" and "Wyatt Earp."
Featuring scenes from eight powerful documentaries, "America’s Wild West" explores the real stories behind the legendary figures whose lives and exploits take center stage in the invention of the mythic Wild West, from Billy the Kid to Wyatt Earp, from Annie Oakley to Jesse James.
Hosted by Michael Murphy, known for his many narrations of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Wild West films, the program includes interviews with the filmmakers behind the documentaries as well as insight from Mark Samels, executive producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
“There is nothing more alluring or more romantic than the West in the 19th century,” says "America’s Wild West" executive producer Laurie Donnelly. “This special presents the best of the best of the Wild West films.”
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