The American Collection was a spinoff series of Masterpiece Theater, which ran from 2000 to 2003, for the former series' 30th anniversary. It was funded originally by Exxon Mobil (later Mobil); however, funding for both series was withdrawn in 2005. It aired on PBS. This was a widely acclaimed limited run program.

History

This program featured film adaptations by renowned works by American literary giants, and debuted in October 2000. The films are produced by WGBH and ALT films.

Theme music

The theme for this series was created by John Williams, and featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It can be listened to here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/music.html

Title design

Karin Fong, Dana Yee and Grant Lau won a 2001 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design for their work on this series.^[1]

Programs

• Thornton Wilder's Our Town^[2]
• Esmeralda Santiago's Almost a Woman^[3]
• James Agee's A Death in the Family^[4]
• Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart^[5]
• Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark^[6]
• Henry James's The American^[7]
• Langston Hughes's Cora Unashamed^[8] (a short story from his 1934 collection The Ways of White Folks)