The Kennedys: American Experience

From Joseph Kennedy's rise on Wall Street and then in government, through John Kennedy's presidency to Edward Kennedy's fall at Chappaquiddick and eventual withdrawal from the 1980 presidential race, The Kennedys explores the building of the Kennedy legend, a story in part created and then brilliantly promoted by the family itself, a story whose afterglow still captures the American imagination. Featuring extensive interviews with family members, friends and first-hand witnesses to the many chapters of the Kennedy saga, and using a wealth of still photographs and archival footage, the production is the first comprehensive documentary look at the shaping of the Kennedy fortune and dynasty by the family's patriarch and master builder, Joseph P. Kennedy. His expectations for his sons - Joseph Jr., John, Robert and Edward - would drive each of them to heights he could never reach himself.