American Experience Opening

[DearPrudence5678]

Chills

[PhantomStella]

I love this music...especially the violin bit.

[Grimman007]

This video has zero dislikes. Let's keep it that way

[janakag]

There is something truly magnificent and enduring about America. May her flaming light burn always upon the hill.

[BusterBunker]

This opening warms my heart.

[XTruth]

I am not an American, Chinese, Egyptian, Mexican, nor Israeli. I am human that lives on a land once reigned by the great beasts. This land that is your land and my land will stand still for many eons to come. This land belongs to not us but mother Earth itself.

[patsquilts]

I agree with Tom. I think this music is moving to those of us who had a dream, no matter how great or small, made its conquest our mission, walked the walk and talked the talk, struggled, and in the end our hard work and successes allowed us to experience a high that no drug could ever deliver to today's younger generation. Oh yes, our drug was success and it was habituating and addictive !This music embodies the tears of America's yesterday and all the hopes for the American tomorrow.

[pookoos]

This is just an awesome series...one of the best things on PBS.

[irish89055]

the original, on here, is the best...

[MisterTom1001]

44 seconds of mesmerizing music. Can't explain why it moves me so, but it does and I just love listening to it!

[gemini6179]

Man, I love this theme. They should bring this back.

[furrmie6]

If you have the closing of this, and can share it with us, you'd be a god!

[XTruth]

i can care less about america i care about this beautiful song

[bhabooshka]

now they've a opera song which I couldn't find. Any idea? anyone?

[alp705]

Who's the author of this divine music? Is this called other than the American Experience theme? Thnx.

[DarthSnoopy96]

@alp705

the theme is by Mark Adler, who also did the current CBS News theme and also has done alot of scoring for National Geographic specials.

I do not know the specific name/title of this theme though. I just call it "The American Experience theme", and yes, it is DIVINE!

[alp705]

@DarthSnoopy96 Thanks a lot!

[DarthSnoopy96]

@alp705

sure! If you find any info. on the theme, let me know. I searched Amazon and Google for it and can't find anything. I would love a copy of it.

[kyletop1]

This is by far one of my favorite themes of all time. I seriously get chills every time I watch the masterful mix of powerful images and this stirring music. The new theme is just too simple for me; beautiful, but not invoking the emotion that this one does.

[oraclecrank]

I like this intro a lot more than the new one. The new opening song, "Time Has Come Today," is just such a generic-sounding song that really feels isolated to the '60s.

[namure74]

@oraclecrank - Can you find me the new opening song? I like that classical. Anyone knows the song title?

[oraclecrank]

@namure74

If you check out some of the full-length videos on the PBS site, the recent ones have the new opening music.

pbs(dot)org/wgbh/americanexper­ience/films/

[hancho17]

i miss this intro. i wish they'd bring it back. :(

[maxgoesler]

I'm not attached to either opening, but, come on, the Chambers Brothers' song is great. Perhaps it gets misused here (although I don't see what the big abomination is supposed to be), but the song itself is an American classic.

[greeniem]

"When's the last time you had a threesome?" Ghandi

[ElDoombot]

@maxgoesler Dude this song sucks and has none of the emotional appeal the last opening did. The producers should realize that there's a new generation watching PBS and we have no interest in the worst songs of our parent's generation. It especially detracts from the uplifting nature that the old opening possessed. You could always watch and say "yea we've made some bad choices in America, but we always try and do better". Now it just feels like the show is stuck in the 1960s.

[temps45]

false

[lcs1956]

By all means send an email and protest the removal of the original theme music. But it will obviously reach deaf ears, attached to the head of a new generation who lack the patience for thoughtful reflection and cannot hear those measured cadences.

[fuok69]

I love this program,love this theme music

[ToddlerTN]

Bring back the original theme. The new theme (the Chambers Brothers song from the 1960s) sucks. In ten years, I guess they'll update it to a Madonna track? Stupid douches.

[cttrainguy]

This opening is so very stirring and so greatly sums up our history in those 40 seconds, the photos, videos, and music are perfectly blended together into such a moving piece. The entire planet sees our successes, failures, and experiences as a nation and we hide nothing from anyone. Yet we always do the right thing in the end, even if it takes a while to get there. That's the beauty of an open democracy like ours. We cannot become cynical and complacent and thus lose it.

[michaeld5]

I mean I agree somewhat. I think there should be a couple more frames of more recent history, say 9-11 or something to that affect.

[Ashiman12]

America is far from perfect. It's made mistakes in the past, and it makes mistakes now. And too many of us live lives bogged down by superficiality and commercialism. But America remains a great nation, a beautiful land filled with good, strong people. Ours is a collective wisdom earned through hardship and the constant struggle for liberty and equality. Ours are the calloused hands of the builders, the artists, the liberators...the common man, living free and living full and living hard.

[ElDoombot]

@Ashiman12 Thats why this show is so amazing. It totally captures the feeling of "America is great, but we can always do better."

[Rayden184]

@Ashiman12 Would not have said it any other way! God Bless this great nation!

[ElDoombot]

I was just watching the FDR doc on my Netflix and realized it had the new theme attached.

Why did they get rid of this? Like everyone said, it really gives you a feeling a of pride as an American before the show starts.

[InsideLosAngeles]

Don't let anyone tell you Americans don't have culture. We have culture! We have history, traditions, and we are PROUD TO BE AMERICAN!

[castoresnegros]

Does anybody khow the theme song?

[PGY2J]

This show makes you feel you feel proud to be an American.

[saletious]

Go to your local library, and there are 3 episodes you MUST SEE. (race for the superbomb) (the donner party) and (influenza 1914), My town has one of the lousiest libraries in existance, but they have them. Enjoy

[lildwayne21]

Someone needs to upload some episodes. Fa real. Unfortunately for many of us, there are not a lot of history documentaries available on Youtube.

[bravos12]

PBS has many of their American Experience episodes for free online.

[swingstate]

@bravos12  Yes. They sure do!

[orion7763]

I haven't seen this show, but it looks great! I'll have to see it.

[marcostar57]

Love this theme...and American Experience -- great history!

[Matto2t]

@marcostar57

Yeah, I do, too. This opening theme has a great tune to it, full of pride, happiness, joy, and is also inspiring. American Experience documentaries are fun to watch and you learn a lot from them. They also provide an opportunity to go back in time, in a sense, so that people can learn about what certain eras, and people's life stories were like. My mom and I have a few of these documentaries and they are fun to watch.

Peace,

-Matt

[lettersfromaboy]

@marcostar57 - I also love the opener, where you see Marylin Monroe first, then MLK, and then Ronald Reagan. When you first see the great Marylin Monroe, you damn sure will know, that you are in America. Because only in America, that she could have been produced. What a great country this is.

[wgaines94115]

I love the theme,but it makes me sad to know many of the people profiled have gone away!

[grapesofwraith1066]

beautiful, just beautiful

[mykzhao]

PBS changed the American Experience theme a couple of months ago. This one is great, but the new intro is even better.

[epaddon]

Actually they restored the original Charles Kuskin theme which never should have been changed in the first place, IMO.

[tylermrnak]

@epaddon I agree, the original piece is much better and should have never been replaced. This original Charles Kuskin theme is what helps to give the program some of its splendor. I don't know what the producers where thinking when they took it away and replaced it with the other one.

[sensei48]

A huge mistake to replace the theme (and the closing credits version) with an inane rock piece ("Time") that wasn't good even when it was new - 40 years ago. Thus does PBS accelerate its charge into mediocrity. The part of its soul that it has not lost to corporate sponsorship it has prostituted in attempt to compete with the third-rate pablum of cable channels that purport to be history. Sic transit gloria mundi.

[sensei48]

BTW, if you go to the PBS website, you can get to the AE page and send an email directly to the producers of the show in protest.

[michaeld5]

So, inform me, did PBS get rid of this video as the beginning of AE?? Cuz it's on all of the vids I've rented so far....

[bananniepie]

This occurred in the premiere of the most recent season of AE, this year. They wouldn't change it for the older seasons of AE dvds/vids.

[bananniepie]

I'm 20-years-old and I absolutely adore the old intro. It was timeless! When I first heard and watched the new intro, I thought I had stumbled upon the wrong episode of the AE series (maybe the one about Berkeley in the '60s? Or Woodstock?). But nope, it was the newest intro for this season of AE. How disappointed I was. ;(

[DarthSnoopy96]

@tylermrnak

Hi,

I had been sure this opening theme for the AE series was by Mark Adler? I mis-read or mis-understood....?

I didn't recall seeing the Charles Kuskin name before, and I made a specific point to read who the the theme was composed by, because I am a big fan of instrumental themes for tv and film....

There's a longer (like 1 min, 28 seconds) version of this AM opening, with many of the same images as this one, plus some more and has a completely different (but lovely!) theme.

[EmmaFaye29]

yes the new one is the one im looking for<, do you know where i could find it?

[wolf8503]

yes, the music is key to :28 -:37 is the best part

[radguurl]

I swear, that part at 0:35, with the soldier being greeted by his family, makes me cry a little every time. Beautiful opening for a great, informative show.

[CompVid101]

Yes - but it's gone now. The new opening is an abomination.

[Matto2t]

@radguurl

I agree, but that image doesn't make me cry; it makes me happy. If I'm not mistaken, it's from when the last of our troops came back from Vietnam in early 1973.

[scientistwriter]

This makes me want to destroy the government and bring back the constitution.

[Orenbala]

I love the music of this intro. Thanks for posting.

[maxwellsdaemon7]

Evocative and tragic, yet great and very hopeful at the same time. Makes you feel good to be in America. Also makes me want to go back and visit Washington D.C.

[yankeeangel26]

Great intro for a great series

[jaimedemexico]

Love this intro--so well done and expressive to the subject matter.

[DjHamHam411]

It warms my little heart.

So epic.

We watch this series in APUSH all the time.

[tarlcabot18]

Goddamnit. It gets me EVERY time and I have no idea why. Its like it was designed to make people's eyes well-up.

[bsumm22]

I love this intro. So inspiring.

[rainbowsandwar]

Kinda makes you feel great to be an American, just a little bit. (:

The music is so pretty.

[benvolio15]

When I see and hear this, I know that I'm about to take a great trip into the past, usually to find out about people or time periods in history I have questions about.

[Malocosa]

Thanks for posting, but do you have the original theme that was used in the 80s and 90s? That one was my favorite.

[kentforbes]

I have the music for the 1980's "American Experience" (I worked on a few shows). Post an e-mail and I'll attach the MP3.

[boston411]

Please tell me where i can find the music for this.. does anyone know?

[Malocosa]

The theme was composed by Charles Kuskin, but he hasn't released it for the consumer.

[JOSEPH1FOUCHE]

this video makes me cry because what you see is what AMERICA represents liberty, ingenuity, freedoms,entrepeneurial spirit courage and determination for a better life...THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

[jzapert]

And hopefully because it's willing a show the truth of the american experience as well, with its beauty AND its faults. I was encouraged to see some of that honesty at 0:21 through 0:26. Here's to PBS. Hopefully its future is more certain and it can do its work less hindered starting this year.

[xman4un]

I wonder if any other country has been able to encapsulate or represent it's history and present it to it's citizens in such a truly beautiful way as PBS has done!

[jakehansondaisa]

Been looking everywhere for this... thanks a lot!

[MKEGFY]

This is a great version....but wondering where the newer version is? THAT one is also beautiful.....

[mademoiselle3000]

I love this intro.

[Matto2t]

@mademoiselle3000

I do, too. Very heartfelt and inspiring.

[COLDCHEMICALpresents]

So beautiful, gives you goosebumps..

[sfmmtnmaniac]

I was wondering when someone would post this song. Love it!

[Latinfox95]

Stirring....Beautiful movements..